Cinematography Fundamentals Course
Online
Course
DURATION
3 months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
STUDY FORMAT
Distance Learning
Key Summary
This self-guided course lets you pursue your passion for filmmaking at your own pace.
Steer your own learning journey
Whether you’re brand new to filmmaking or looking to refresh your core skills, Cinematography Fundamentals lets you chart your own course. You can work your way through our dynamic video lessons according to your own schedule; submit a final reel, and get written feedback on your project from a distinguished NYU instructor.
- Cover all the bases. This course covers everything you need to know, including composition; storyboarding; pre-production; lighting; camera movement; and audio/video editing.
- Enjoy great content on aflexible timeline. Our video tutorials are best-in-class: crisp, engaging, and concise. And, since this is an entirely asynchronous course, you can take them whenever and wherever it suits you.
- Get expert feedback from an eminent NYU instructor. Your final project will be reviewed by award-winning cinematographer and Tisch School of the Arts Head of Cinematography Professor Anthony Jannelli. Professor Jannelli’s credits include films by Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Sam Raimi, and more.
- Consider this a down payment. We want to help you continue your filmmaking journey, which is why you'll also receive a $200 credit to select other NYU Tisch Pro/Online courses.
- Receive a digital badge to mark your achievement. Upon successful completion of any Tisch Pro/Online course, you will receive a digital badge that can be linked to your resume, portfolio, or social media accounts.
A self-paced course on a platform built for multimedia education
Our online courses are powered by Smashcut, a revolutionary new platform specifically designed for online filmmaking programs. Smashcut is an easy-to-use, powerful platform built to educate digital creators.
Please note that Cinematography Fundamentals is a self-paced course and does not include all features available in other Tisch Pro/Online courses.
What You’ll Learn
Over the course of 3 months, and at your pace, you'll gain the knowledge to kickstart your next project....or even your filmmaking career.
1. Composition
To tell a visual story, you’ll need to construct images in three dimensions so they deliver the information and the impact you want them to. You've got a rectangle, and a near-infinite corridor of space within it -- these are not limitations, but opportunities.
2. Storyboarding & Pre-Production
Minute by minute, filmmaking can be expensive. This makes pre-production tools like storyboards -- planning out your shots visually on paper -- efficient and indispensable.
3. Lighting
Movies are fundamentally recordings of light and shadow, and from the art form's very beginning it's been this basic allure that's drawn us to the screen. You’ll learn how light and shadow have been used by artists over the long history of movies.
4. Camera Movement
The capacity for movement is where movies completely have it over every other art form, whether by way of pans, tilts, zooms, tracking shots, handheld explorations, or combinations thereof. The visceral excitement of a movie when it truly moves is a unique and special cultural experience. You’ll take a look at over a century's worth of how, and why, filmmakers have made it happen.
5. Audio & Video Editing
Editing the sight and sound of a film project requires planning and attention to fine details. You’ll learn the fundamentals of configuring a project, creating a sequence, adjusting audio levels, finessing edit points, applying basic post effects and color correction, and exporting video in a web-ready format.