Full Day Programs: Course Descriptions
Sarah Lawrence College & The International Film Institute of New York’s
Five-Week Summer Filmmaking Intensive
Sunday, June 28–Saturday, August 1Tuition: $4,050
Housing: $1,425
Meal Plan: $650
Register Online >>
Gain hands-on experience and instruction in all aspects of filmmaking, focusing on four core elements: writing for the screen, directing, production, and post-production. Lectures feature hands-on camera work, augmented by special guest speakers and behind-the-scenes visits to Manhattan production studios and editing facilities. After you shoot three film exercises focused on different filmmaking techniques, you’re ready to write, direct, produce, shoot, and edit your own short video. You choose the format: narrative, documentary, or experimental. You may choose to stick to a script with actors, costumes, and a controlled set, or you may approach your shoot with the spirit of improvisation. The final product is your completed short—to which you own the exclusive rights—ready for your professional portfolio, graduate school application, or Web distribution.
A preliminary schedule is available online at www.nyfilmschool.com.
Creation and Invention: Summer Theatre Intensive
Instructors: Ernest Abuba, Allen Lang, Lauren WilsonSunday, July 12—Saturday, August 1, 2009
Tuition: $2,450
Housing & Meal Plan: $1,450
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Participate in an exciting and rigorous program including acting, movement, playwriting, and creating original work. In acting, discover the creative state where the individual actor feels free to explore, take risks, and make mistakes in an environment free of judgment. Delve into the craft of the playwright through a series of exercises that experiment with form, character, and conflict. Take part in the dynamics of a creative ensemble which will work toward the development of a “work in progress” performance piece. If you love the theatre, this course will give you the concentration and freedom you need. There will be a class trip to a local museum the first week of the course.
Physical Theatre
Learn about the power of movement and physical action as starting points for creating theater. Through exercises and improvisations accessible to all body types and levels of ability, students will discover and expand their range of physical expression and sensitivity, learning the fundamentals of integrated, whole-body acting.
Acting Truthfully
Acting truthfully is discovering the creative state where the individual actor can explore, take risks, and make mistakes in an environment free of judgment. Actors will explore acting techniques through a series of group improvisation exercises, theatre games, and scene work strengthening individual spontaneity while obtaining a level of personal authenticity.
Monologue Workshops
This workshop will examine successful auditioning; from exploring audition material that best fits the actor as well as offering advice on resume preparation and the selection of headshots. Actors will practice cold readings as well as prepare monologues to performance level. Emphasis will be placed on how to best present oneself in an audition.
The Voice of the Playwright
Whether you have written a play or not, this workshop will explore the craft of the playwright. Writers will explore playwriting through a series of exercises that experiment with form, character, and conflict.
Creation and Invention
This workshop will explore the dynamics of a creative ensemble; a group of actors activating spatial and visual ideas towards the making of original theatrical works. Through the investigation of personal writing, theatre, painting, sculpture, photography, and music, workshop participants will explore and experience non-text driven theatre. Over the course of the three-week workshop, the ensemble will work towards the development of an informal “work in progress” performance piece.
| 8–9 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 9–10 a.m. | Breathing Coordination (A & B) & Playwriting/Monologue (C & D) |
| 10–11 a.m. | Breathing Coordination (C & D) & Playwriting/Monologue (A & B) |
| 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. | Acting Technique 1–Allen (A & B); Ernest (C & D) |
| 12:15–1:30 p.m. | Lunch |
| 1:30–2:45 p.m. | Acting Technique 2–Allen (C & D); Ernest (A & B) |
| 3–5 p.m. | Creative Ensemble (Groups to be determined) |
| 5–6:30 p.m. | Dinner |
All classes meet in the Performing Arts Center (Cannon Workshop Theatre, Wright Theatre, and the Sound & Movement Space). Students will be organized into four groups: A, B, C, and D.
Concentrating on the Visual: Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking
Instructors: Drawing, José Ruiz; Painting, Chris Randolph, Hillary Altman; Sculpture, Chad Stayrook; Printmaking, Amy GartrellSunday, July 12—Saturday, August 1, 2009
Tuition: $2,500 (includes most supplies)
Housing & Meal Plan: $1,450
Register Online >>
Study drawing and painting along with workshops in sculpture and printmaking. Beginning each day with a drawing class, there will also be daily studio time for painting. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, you will also explore sculpture and printmaking. Whether working to build a portfolio for college admissions or examining your artistic spirit, this course will challenge you to learn, discover, and create. In addition to the class, there will be a trip to a local museum the first week of the program as well as evening artist lectures.
Drawing
The goal of this intensive course is to expand on the student’s current technical and conceptual understanding of drawing, in order to make the transition from drafting sketches to creating experimental projects and individual works of art. While works in this course will be critiqued from a formal as well as conceptual perspective, issues related to content will take precedence over technical instruction or ability. Students will have the chance to explore the figure and still life in terms of line, value, shape, and texture while also de-constructing these approaches through the principles of light, space, composition, and perspective. Experimentation is encouraged and not limited to the incorporation and use of video, appropriation, and collaboration to create drawings. This course will also include class discussions and lectures centered on current art-making issues as a way to stimulate each studio session. It is important that each student arrive with a surplus of personal interests, emotions, and ideas that they can reflect and express on paper.
Painting
Where does a painting come from and how does it materialize? We will immerse ourselves in the process of painting and experiment with various techniques to produce visual variants and different styles such as realism, abstraction, mixed media/collage, and images from the imagination. There will be opportunity to work outside directly from the world around us as well as to work with images from your daily experiences. Critiques will sharpen our eyes and short art films will expand our minds.
Sculpture: Techniques, Methods, and Concepts
Explore the concepts of time and space in regards to sculpture. Sculpture will be thought of as a loose umbrella covering almost all mediums of art that result in work that can be experienced physically (space), but has an element of temporality (time), or “defined existence,” if you will. The course will start with specific exercises assigned by the instructor that will begin and end in one class period and will finish with individual projects conceived by the students. Students will document their work during all stages of its completion and will be sent home with a slide/CD/DVD portfolio of their accomplishments. Throughout the course there will be visual presentations on artists incorporating these ideas in their work (artists like Joseph Beuys, Matthew Barney, Pipilotti Rist, Jessica Stockholder, Jon Bock, Andy Warhol, Jean Tinguely, and Fischli and Weiss, to name just a few). Students can work with any medium they choose to achieve their final projects, from clay and paint to video and sound. You can choose to work independently or as groups. Artists of all ability levels are encouraged to enroll; there will be plenty of individual consultation and guidance through art making processes (mold making, wood working, video editing, etc) and the formation of concepts. Our guiding mantra comes from Back to the Future Part III when Doc says, “Marty, you’re not thinking fourth dimensionally!” (Please try to watch this movie before class begins.).
Printmaking: Making the Old New
The mystery of printmaking is waiting for you! Students will learn silkscreen printmaking in our state-of-the-art, non-toxic (green) printmaking studios. Silkscreen is a stencil method in which a design is imposed on a screen of fine mesh and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Using our own digital lab, you will learn how to make color separations and digital positive and negative transparencies, which will then be transposed to a silkscreen using photosensitive emulsion and our exposure unit. We will also explore more traditional methods of making stencils: cut paper, rubylith, and drawing. Emphasis will be placed on finding the techniques that are best suited for the development of each participant's imagery. Whether you like to draw or prefer to paint, take photographs or make mixed media collage, each, or all of these ways of making images can be utilized in the creation of a personal and meaningful body of work.
| 8–9 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 9–10:15 a.m. | Drawing |
| 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m. | Painting Class |
| 1–2:30 p.m. | Lunch |
| 2:30–5 p.m. | Sculpture/Printmaking Workshops (M/W/F) Painting Class (T/Th) |
| 5–7 p.m. | Dinner |
| After dinner | Artist Lectures |
All classes meet in the Heimbold Visual Arts Center
Sarah Lawrence College’s Summer in the City
Instructors: Roland Dollinger, Leah Olson, and Rodney StringfellowSunday, July 12–Saturday, August 1
Tuition: $2,750
Housing & Meal Plan: $1,450
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Using New York City as the backdrop, students will take three one-week classes about the history and literature, science, and film of New York. This exciting program gives you an opportunity to discover the city that eight million people call home while staying just 30 minutes away on the beautiful Sarah Lawrence College campus. Throughout the three weeks, travel into the City visiting museums, neighborhoods, and landmarks that will give you a deeper understanding of the subjects you will study in literature, history, film, and science. Included in the tuition fee is the cost of admission into museums, tours, and National Parks.
History of New York
During the first week, students will study some of the major periods, developments, and influential personalities who have shaped the rich history of New York City. We will explore Dutch New Amsterdam, English New York, and the Americanization of the Big Apple; we will analyze the various waves of immigration to New York; and we will discuss major historical and cultural events such as the construction of Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Students will also learn about the city’s history by visiting Ellis Island, the Museum of the History of New York, the Tenement Museum, the Empire State Building, and Philipse Manor (a reconstructed Dutch farm).
Students will read articles on the history of New York throughout the week.
Science
In the second week, we will explore the world of science and nature as found in New York City. From the Hudson River to the Bronx River, New York City has tried to preserve and conserve its rich and beautiful natural heritage while at the same time providing technological and scientific leadership. We will explore our outstanding museums, such as the American Museum of Natural History and The Hudson River Museum, and take trips on the river that document, conserve, and help develop ways to build a respectful, sustainable relationship between humans and our world. We will also spend time thinking about how to better understand human behavior, and will learn about the brain and brain processes through a lab spent dissecting a brain.
Filmmaking
One hundred and ten years after the birth of cinema, there is still rigorous debate as to who actually invented the motion picture camera and projector. However, in terms of where the movie industry first took hold and flourished, there is no debate: Along the Hudson River, atop the Palisades of New Jersey, and in and around the boroughs of New York City. New York continues to play an important role in movie making, both as a source of theme and content, as well as a practical production location. This week will be devoted to exploring the role locations and “setting” play in any narrative fiction film, and the position of the New York metropolitan area in the motion picture landscape specifically. Investigate “the grammar of cinema” as well as the relationship between a screenplay and the finished film. Historical aspects will be discussed, regarding the shift at the start of the Twentieth Century to Hollywood from New York as a film center and the resurgence of New York as the heart of the U.S. Independent film movement of the past 25 years. Several screenings of films, viewing of film clips, screenplay readings and articles will be combined with three location tours, by foot, bus, boat, and van of the “largest back lot in the world”—New York City. While the week will have a focus on New York’s cinematic heritage, students will also be immersed in discussions about film and filmmaking in general.
| 8–9:30 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 10 a.m.–12 p.m. | Class on Campus |
| 12–1 p.m. | Lunch |
| Afternoon, three days each week | Trips into New York City |
| 1:30–4:30 p.m., two days each week | Class on campus |
| 5:30–7 p.m | Dinner |