Dec 14, 2024  
2023-2024 University Catalog 
    
2023-2024 University Catalog

Film, BFA


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Mike Attie, Program Director
mattie@uarts.edu
(215) 717-6558

C O N T E N T S

Application

Learn more and apply to the Film program.

Description

The Film program at the University of the Arts encourages you to discover and nurture your unique voice, to be inventive and take risks, and to work collaboratively with performing and visual artists across the University. Whatever your passion or the ideas you want to bring to life, our dedicated, award-winning faculty will help you transform your vision into reality.

This program challenges traditional ideas about how moving images are created, inspired by the work of cutting-edge practitioners in the field, including our own faculty - among them a Guggenheim Fellow whose work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art and as part of the Whitney Biennial Exhibition; an Academy Award-nominated independent filmmaker and award-winning television producer; a narrative filmmaker whose last feature was a New York Times “Critic’s Pick”; and a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow. With a student to faculty ratio of just 8:1, you’ll have close mentoring and individual attention as you develop your creative voice.

The University of the Arts is one of the few arts schools to have fine arts, performing arts and cinema production under one roof. Interdisciplinary classes bring together filmmakers with actors, dancers and composers to create rich, meaningful work and lay the groundwork for future collaborations.

Our graduates have achieved great success in the field in a variety of roles, from installation artists showing work in museums around the world, to directors and editors of award-winning documentaries, to producers, directors, and cinematographers of major Hollywood films.

We require each student to do an internship, which many times students leverage into meaningful careers post-graduation. In fact one of our recent grads landed a full-time job as a researcher for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, while another is part of the art department on the NBC show “Manifest”.

Our classes are small, fostering collaboration between a close-knit group of peers. You will also have ample access to exceptional equipment and resources, including state of the art editing facilities (each student receives a subscription to the Adobe Creative Suite), sound mixing facilities and a dedicated film studio.

Whatever path you take, you can be confident that you will have solid technical and creative preparation, knowledge of professional practices, and a significant portfolio of work to successfully enter the exciting, yet demanding field of film making.

Program Objectives

Students graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film will:

  • Express a developed personal, artistic vision
  • Demonstrate technical and aesthetic proficiency in creating films
  • Acquire professional film skills in a collaborative environment
  • Develop an understanding of professional practices in the field of film
  • Demonstrate critical thinking skills and the ability to analyze various historical and cultural contexts in film

This major provides students with a background in all phases of media production, including digital cinematography, sound and image editing, lighting, and sound/image manipulation. Film students acquire a strong background in criticism, theory, and the history of media and take advantage of a wide range of internship and study abroad opportunities.

Program Requirements (120 credits)

Critical Studies (30 credits)


Writing (6-12 credits)


Students are placed into one of the following writing sequences after the completion of a writing placement exam. Students who do not complete the exam may be placed based on standardized tests scores (if available) or high school GPA.

Standard


Increased Support


CRIT Choice (9 credits)


  • Select 3 courses from subject CRIT

Critical Studies Electives (12-15 credits)


Students who complete the increased support or ESL writing sequence complete 9-12 credits of CS electives; all other students complete 15 credits.

  • Though not representative of all options, students can select from the following subjects:
    • ​AHST (Art History), HIST (History)
    • AMSL (American Sign Language), FRCH (French), LITT (Literature)
    • PHIL (Philosophy), RELI (Religion)
    • SCIE (Science)
    • ANTH (Anthropology), PSYC (Psychology), SOCI (Sociology)
    •  : Critical Studies Elective.

General Electives (15 credits)


  • Complete 15 credits. This requirement is satisfied by any undergraduate course that isn’t required by the program.

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