Non-Credit Filmmaking Certificate Program

Participants will examine the principles and processes of writing for the screen. Topics include finding and developing story ideas, film language and script structure. By the end of the course, students will have participated in in-depth film analysis and intensive screenwriting exercises and discussions. At the end of the course, students are expected to complete a film treatment (prose description of your film) with a step outline for a feature film or TV episode you plan to write. In addition, you must hand in the first scene (3-5 pages) of your script with dialogue.

This is a 2-unit equivalent course.

Note: Registration for the online course Writing for the Screen is not through NYU. While there is a record of enrollment through Smashcut (the online learning platform), the online course Writing for the Screen will not appear on an NYU transcript. If you are pursuing a non-credit certificate, in-person courses for the certificate have a separate registration process through NYU. The NYU transcript will only include the in-person classes and not the online course Writing for the Screen.

Please visit the Tisch Professional/Online Course Registration Process to enroll.

Every student will conceive, produce, direct and edit five short projects (3 silent and 2 with sound) with digital filmmaking technology. Working in crews of four, students will be exposed to a variety of specific assignments in visual storytelling that feature a broad spectrum of technical, aesthetic, craft and logistical problems to be solved. Collaborating with other students through rotating crew positions will be a central focus of all production work. Lectures, labs, critiques, technical seminars, screenings and written production books will be an important component of this class. All student work is screened and discussed in class. Students should not schedule any other course on the same days as Sight & Sound: Filmmaking.

This is a 6-unit equivalent course.

View course schedule in Albert.
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The course teaches students to look at their world and to develop the ability to create compelling and dramatic stories in which real people are the characters and real life is the plot. Through close study and analysis of feature length and short documentaries, as well as hands on directing, shooting, sound-recording and editing, students rigorously explore the possibilities and the power of non-fiction storytelling for video. The course is a dynamic combination of individual and group production work in which each student will be expected to complete five projects.

This is a 6-unit equivalent course.

View course schedule in Albert.
View summer tuition and fees.
Apply as a visiting summer student.

Prerequisite: NCRD-UT 43 | Sight and Sound Film Production

A production course in which students experiment with non-narrative approaches to content, structure, technique, and style. Themes and orientations include many possibilities, such as music, choreography, visual or audio art, investigations of rhythm, color, shape, and line; poetry, fragmentation and collage, abstraction, performance; and subversion of linear narrative and documentary conventions.

This is a 4-unit equivalent course.

View course schedule in Albert.
View summer tuition and fees.
Apply as a visiting summer student. 

Prerequisite: NCRD-UT 43 | Sight and Sound Film Production

From the Silver Screen and the television screen to computer portals, the iPod and cell phones, the proscenium for motion pictures, videos, commercials and new forms of web based media has evolved/de-evolved into ever decreasing screen sizes for moving image based media content and distribution.  As screen sizes have decreased, opportunities have increased for emerging technologies to facilitate the production and distribution of both long and short form film, video and animation based work. This class is intended for students with an interest in exploring the creative and commercial aspects of the short form (30 seconds to 7 minutes).  The goal of this class is for students to produce work that results in a series of final projects that can serve as the basis of a demo reel that will also be "uploaded" to a class created web site.  10 Advanced Short Form projects will be selected on the basis of a variety of classroom research projects and concept pitches.  Students will be able to produce up to 15 minutes of completed "short form" work throughout the semester working in a variety of short form genres.

This is a 4-unit equivalent course.

View course schedule in Albert.
View summer tuition and fees.
Apply as a visiting summer student.