Areas of Study

The director is the only person on the set who is authorized to direct the actors and call the shots. In addition, the director of a film creatively leads or "directs" all the other departments. (Camera, Production Design, Costume, Hair and Makeup,Editorial, Music, SFX, VFX, etc.) The curriculum in Acting and Directing Area focuses on the broad based charismatic skills both intuitive and technical that you need to succeed as a director of film and television. We also emphasize an in-depth understanding of what it means to be an actor and how to engage in the director/actor relationship.

The Animation Area serves the needs of all Film and TV students for both animation and live-action projects. The curriculum is varied and integrated with both traditional animation and 2D and 3D animation courses at fundamentals, intermediate and advanced levels, as well as storyboarding, titles, optical and digital effects, life drawing and history and criticism classes.

The Camera Program at NYU is one of the only Undergraduate Cinematography programs in the country. NYU Cinematography is technically rigorous and uses current digital science and legacy film science to bring a broad understanding to the visual cinema arts. NYU offers 7 classes that comprise 4 levels of study in cinematography. The emphasis is on current cinematography and lighting practices in the motion picture industry.

Cinematography Program of Classes:
Technical Theory
Camera 1, 2 & 3
Science of Cinematography
History of Cinematography
Camera Lighting Exercises

NYU’s documentary area develops your storytelling skills in camera, sound, writing, research, interviewing and editing. These are the tools you use to look at real life and find compelling, quirky, meaningful narratives. From Sight and Sound Doc you can go directly to Documentary Workshop. We also offer Research and Writing the Doc and an Intermediate Doc class in Cuba. Our documentary faculty are working, award winning professionals.

Courses in History and Criticism examine contemporary cinematic artists, along with the work of those who made discoveries and expanded our art form. We celebrate knowledge attained through different modes of research: viewing, analysing, writing, and discussing. As we learn how we do what we do, it's important to know why.

The Post Production Area offers courses in both narrative and documentary editing, as well as technical training in the latest editing software. Post Area courses begin in sophomore year with Introduction to Editing and Documentary Editing Workshop. At the intermediate and advanced levels, students will have opportunities to edit films for others, as well as develop a working knowledge of visual effects, color correction, Internet design, and editing for television. The goal of all our classes is to expose students to the power of the editing process and help them to become both creative and technically adept collaborative artists, capable of bringing a film from first assembly to final output.

The Producing Area provides instruction in both line-producing short films in our program, and current industry practices within ultra-low budget, Independent and Hollywood realms. Our courses cover legal, business, creative and managerial aspects of making and marketing visual storytelling content.

The Sound Area courses offer theoretical and practical approaches to storytelling through sound, as a means unto itself and as key component of film/TV making at the fundamental, intermediate, and advanced levels. The faculty and staff work together to successfully achieve this goal by focusing on skills, in recording, editing, and mixing, foley, and ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) techniques and by using a variety of software. The progression begins with Sound Image, required for freshmen, or Introduction to Sound Techniques for Transfers, then proceeds to Sound Design I and II, Studio Recording, Sound Mixing Workshop, and Film Music Workshop and is complemented by theoretical courses, Art of Sound and Music for Film & TV. Our students are then prepared to contribute to the world of art in not only an idealized sense, but in a very real and practical sense as well.

The television area presents a comprehensive progression of courses for students interested in writing, directing and producing for television. From fundamentals through intermediate and advanced levels, students experience multi-camera as well as single camera production in the studio and on location; writing for web series, sketch, half-hour sit-com and the hour drama. The curriculum also offers courses in reality and children’s television as well as television programming.

Storytelling is what connects us to our humanity. It is what links us to our past, and provides a glimpse into our future. The essentials of what makes a good story well told is the focus of the UGFTV Writing Area. Whether it be narrative screenwriting, documentary, animation, or television, our curriculum emphasizes the fundamentals of character, conflict, and structure. These are the building blocks for such specialized advanced writing classes as adaptation, situation and sketch comedy, one-hour drama, and advanced feature writing. The classes aim to train not only writers nurturing their individual voices but anyone whose future path rests on understanding good storytelling, from directors and cinematographers to producers and studio executives.