Learning Goals
• Introduction of the roles, tasks, and obstacles faced by film and television producers: optioning, developing material, film festivals, networks and ratings, pilot season, studio distribution and marketing, independent film financing, and pitching.
• Gain understanding of the entire physical process of pre-production: scouting, securing locations, permits, casting, budgets, scheduling.
• Master the concepts of storytelling: elements, conventions, structure, style, forms.
• Understand basic principles of Entertainment Law.
• Understand filmmaking from the perspective of the director and screenwriter.

Production Goals
• Begin to develop a feature film project for the Year-One Final Project
• Perform a pitch to an audience of peers.
• Direct a scene with actors on digital video and edit that same scene for presentation with class.
• Break down a short script into a shooting plan.
• Prepare a budget and schedule from scratch.

SEMESTER TWO OVERVIEW

The second semester challenges students to develop their production craft artistically and technically. The focus is on hands-on production, and learning through immersion in the process. It is designed to enable students to create a fully conceived short film in collaboration with their peers. Working in groups, students oversee and manage all aspects of preproduction, production, and post-production.

Learning Goals
• Continue examining, analyzing, and mastering key elements of the producer’s craft.
• Study production strategies through execution of production goals.

Production Goals
• Produce a reality show pilot.
• Produce a news segment or short documentary.
• Line-produce a short film
• Develop a feature film project

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Entertainment Law : Contracts, Intelectual
Property , Negotiations Drafting, and Ethics
This course is an overview of contract law and how it impacts the entertainment industry. Students study legal issues regarding television, films, recordings, live performances and other aspects of the entertainment industry. Topics include contracts, copyright law, compensation, celebrity status (including privacy and publicity rights), First Amendment, intellectual property, and talent representation. This course addresses legal issues to preserve, protect and actualize the intellectual, entertainment, and technological property of people working in the entertainment industry.

Screenwriting Fundamentals
This course helps students develop their analytic skills in the areas of structure, plot, story, momentum, tone and characterization, and master the tools of story genesis and development for film and television. The course also develops an understanding of genre, theme, imagery, working with writers, and other professional issues as they relate to creative producing. The focus is on the definitions and implementation of story, drama, conflict, and the difference between story and script. There are discussions about the hiring of a screenwriter to work with producers on the development of an idea or concept for a reality television pilot, feature film, or other creative forms they wish to pursue as well the WGA and how it functions in relation to the producer and writer.

Hands on Producing - Reality Television
All genres of Reality Television are studied including elimination or game shows, talent competitions, dating based competitions, job search competitions, selfimprovement makeovers, hidden camera, hoaxes, and episodic documentaries.

Working in small groups, students create their own reality show trailer or teaser. They cast, scout, shoot, and edit their shows for presentation and critique. Students learn brainstorming techniques, casting, how to research topics and characters, pre-interviews, formal interviews and on the fly interviews. They learn how to create a reality “script”, schedules, budgets, special insurance, legal issues, and the deliverable process.

Documentary and News Magazine Workshops
These workshops focus on schools of documentary thought including cinema verite, direct cinema, biographical documentary, docu-drama, political documentary, and investigative journalism, among others. The workshops further examine artistic, technical, and ethical approaches in the genre. Documentary styles, shooting approach, methods of interviewing, documentary structure, theme, point of view, and reenactment are some of the topics that are discussed and critiqued. The workshops inform students about basic business plans, models and distribution methods used for independent documentary production, as well as the nuts and bolts of television’s successful investigative journalistic models.

Pre-production of a Short Film
Working closely with their respective mentors, in this course, producers learn the basics of all producer related roles on set and in the production office. They will plan the production strategy, budgets, schedules, script breakdowns, etc. for the short films they will produce in conjunction with students from the NYFA Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking Program.

Short Film Production
Collaborating with students in the Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking and Producing students function as Creative Producers as well as Line Producers for a “Thesis” short film.

Master of Fine Arts YEAR ONE Final Project
Each student is required to develop a narrative feature film of any genre, feature documentary, television project, or concept and breakdown for a series of webisodes including filmed examples. Requirements for the project include a development package, and final pitch. The package is comprised of a logline, synopsis of the project, a ten page treatment, an executive summary, a studio, independent, or documentary film overview, a partial spec script (consisting of the first 10 pages), a business plan, including risk statements, and paperwork associated with the formation of an LLC, a financing plan, basic marketing plan, basic distribution plan, festival strategy, shoot schedule, two budgets, top sheet, and potential attachment of a director and principle actors, as well as all related business documentation for investors.

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SEMESTER FOUR OVERVIEW

In Semester Four, students devote a majority of their time to their thesis requirements. Faculty meets one-on-one with students in an extensive series of advisements to assist them and coach them through the successful completion of thesis requirements.

Learning Goals
• Learn postproduction workflow.
• Further study of the strategies of financing, marketing and distribution
• Historical analysis of entertainment law
• In depth study of documentary production
• Production Goals
• Produce Thesis Project

Production Goals
• Produce Thesis Project

SEMESTER FIVE

Students who choose to complete NYFA Thesis Option C, stay for a paid fifth semester. During the fifth semester, in continuation of Semester Four, students produce a feature length film in collaboration with a NYFA Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking Student.

Students form an LLC or a Production Company in conjunction with the Production process of making the film, and are expected to guide a production from original concept and development, to pre-production and production, followed by a post-production schedule set to a final delivery date. All Marketing and distribution commences upon completion of the Feature.

Students are involved in all aspects of each phase on the film, including, development of script and story, casting, budgeting, scheduling, locations, hiring of crew, payroll, contracts, deal memos, equipment, vendors, talent negotiations, union Regulations, post-production, delivery requirements, marketing & distribution agreements, and Final MPAA ratings.

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ELECTIVE: New Media
In the ever-changing world of the entertainment industry, it is essential for a producer to keep abreast of evolutions in new media technology and the many new outlets for distribution that continue to emerge on an increasingly rapid basis. In the digital age, ipods, webcasts, even cell phones have become viable modes for distribution. The war between HD formats, the dynamic possibilities of multimedia tie-ins and Alternate Reality Games, and the anti-piracy aspirations of digital 3-D projection are only a few of the topics that will be covered in detail.

The Post-production Process
This workshop explores the entire post-production and “deliverable” workflow for both film and digital formats. In addition to the technical aspects of physical post-production, the artistic and managerial aspects are also addressed. Postproduction for all current exhibition venues, including DVD, theatrical, cable and satellite is reviewed.

FINANCING, MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION II
Focusing on domestic, international, and independent marketing and distribution, and using case studies of actual studios and independent production companies (and the films and television shows they produce), this workshop focuses on successful strategies for each of these vital aspects of producing.

Thesis Project

Thesis Projects consist of
Thesis Option: A or Thesis Option: B or Thesis Option: C.
The Primary Thesis Options and Secondary Thesis Components are as follows:

Thesis Option: A
The student produces and delivers a Short-Form version of the Long-Form Project they developed and pre-produced in Long-Form Project Development. Students work under the guidance and advisement of the New York Film Academy Thesis Committee. Mandatory consultations with these appointed faculty members are necessary for students to gain guidance and an understanding of the many tasks inherent to long-form production. These consultations also include a clear template of delivery dates for script deadlines, casting calls, production meetings, budget breakdowns, location lockdowns and a demonstration of financial responsibility to obtain approval to shoot. Due to the significant amount of time required to produce and fully complete Long-Form Projects, students produce shortform versions which are considered useful marketing tools for financing long-form or feature length projects.

Thesis option: B
The student self-incorporates a Limited Liability Corporation production company. The student must find, acquire, and develop a stable of at least three properties, develop and preproduce them, and deliver a completed production package (including a polished script, storyboards, budget, production schedule, list of potential actors for consideration in each role, plans for set construction, etc.). The student must also produce and deliver a finished trailer for at least one of the developed and pre-produced properties. These corporations are formed with the guidance and advisement of the New York Film Academy Thesis Committee. Mandatory consultations with these appointed faculty members are necessary for students to gain guidance and an understanding of the tasks inherent to entrepreneurial endeavor in the entertainment industry.

Thesis Option: C
Students may choose to produce a feature length film in collaboration with a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking Student. By choosing Option C the student agrees to remain for a paid fifth semester before completion of his/her certificate. Students enter Pre-production of a feature film in Semester Four with the guidance of an appointed faculty member. Mandatory consultations with these appointed faculty members are necessary for students to gain guidance and an understanding of the grueling tasks inherent to feature length film production. These consultations also include a clear template of delivery dates for script deadlines, casting calls, production meetings, budget breakdowns, location lockdowns and a demonstration of financial responsibility to obtain approval to shoot. Students must receive a “green light” before beginning production on their thesis films.

SEMESTER FIVE (Optional):

Production of Feature Length Film (Thesis Option C)
A continuation of the work started in Semester Four. Students complete and deliver a feature length film in collaboration with a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking student.
Prerequisite: Thesis Project C