Two Year Degree in Acting – New York Film Academy

TWO-YEAR FINE ARTS DEGREE IN ACTING FOR FILM

Start Dates: January, September

New York Film Academy degree programs are offered at our Los Angeles Campus at Universal Studios. Qualified students have the option of attending the New York Film Academy in New York City in a one-year non-degree program and requesting that their course work be accepted for advanced standing in a degree program at the Los Angeles campus. In order to do so, students must apply and be accepted to the degree program in Los Angeles. Please click here for conditions for the acceptance of credit and number of credits awarded.

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OVERVIEW COURSE DESCRIPTION

This two-year degree program is designed for individuals with a high school diploma or equivalent who desire to achieve a higher degree, but want to focus exclusively on acting, with a concentration on acting for film. Classes include Scene Study, Acting for Film, Meisner Technique, Voice and Movement, Monologues, Improvisation, Audition Technique and Stage Combat. A complete list of classes can be found below. In addition to the course work, students perform numerous projects, both on-camera and on stage.

AFA IN ACTING DEGRE PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Based on an academic school year, the curriculum in the Associate of Fine Art in Acting for Film program is divided into four semesters. The first semester concentrates on building a foundation in the acting craft, and the second semester works on applying it to screen acting. During the first semester, students participate in a broad array of class work that introduces them to, and trains them in, the leading acting techniques. First semester courses include: Acting for Film, Movement, Scene Study, Voice, and Shakespeare. These courses build towards a fully realized performance in a staged production. The first semester arms students with the techniques and confidence they need to create believable performances for the camera in the second semester and beyond. In the second semester, in addition to attending classes, students apply what they have learned to a series of on camera exercises. The camera exercises are designed to develop their screen acting ability.

Second Semester courses build on the work done in the first semester. At the end of the semester each student performs in a digitally taped production, which is edited and becomes a part of his or her acting reel. In addition, the students participate in a showcase performed in front of an invited audience, their instructors, and their classmates.

The Third and Fourth Semester of the program are designed to help the student create a Final Portfolio that will serve as the student’s "passport" into the professional world of acting. All work during these last two semesters is held to a higher standard and evaluated at a professional level.

While the first year concentrates on exposing the student to acting "basics," second year coursework is geared toward a higher echelon of understanding in terms of craft and discipline. The second year is more specialized and the individual students, now aware of their strengths as performers, have more freedom to exploit those strengths through the projects they chose. As a result, work becomes refined and sharpened.

Students spend additional hours each week beyond class time on film shoots and rehearsal. Students should be aware that, given the different nature of various projects, these hours vary from student to student.

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DEGRE PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

The educational objectives in the Associate of Fine Art in Acting for Film Degree Program are to teach students the art and craft of acting for film and television and to instruct students through a strict regimen consisting of lectures, seminars, and total immersion workshops to excel in the creative art of film acting.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

Skills learned as a result of successful completion of this program include:

• The ability to work independently and collaboratively in a high-pressure creative environment
• In-depth knowledge of and experience with the art and craft of acting for film and television
• Experience with multiple modern and classical approaches to performance, script interpretation, and character formation
• Understanding of avenues for exposure using new media
• Ability to act confidently in front of the camera as demonstrated in several film projects in collaboration with NYFA filmmaking students.

• The Eng lish Ren aiss ance The atre
(Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline Theatre)
Scene work and text analysis provide students with the keys to unlocking specific acting choices through the heightened language in the plays of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, or Ben Jonson. These plays and authors are at the core of English language plays and pose specific challenges in performance.

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QUICK FACTS:

Start Dates: January, September
Locations: New York City, Universal Studios
Cost: $12,500 (USD)/Semester
€8,429 (EURO)/Semester

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Scene Study 1
In this course, students learn to analyze scripts and break them down into units or "beats". They develop a solid grounding in establishing a character based on their own experiences and imagination. They also learn to bring together all of the disparate disciplines learned in all of their other courses.

Meisner 1
In this course, students learn the approach to acting taught by the late Sanford Meisner. Meisner is largely based on listening and observation that helps actors to be grounded in the reality of the moment.

Voice 1
This course teaches students to access their natural voice through relaxation exercises designed to improve alignment and alleviate habitual tension. They also study Standard American Speech and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) to diminish regional dialects and attain more resonant speech.

Acting for the Camera 1
In this course, students become comfortable on a film set in front of the camera. Terminology is addressed, with an emphasis on getting performances out of the actors that are geared for the specific shot size.

Theatre to Film
Actors learn the history and development of the craft of acting for the screen. Students explore the evolution of film and television media and how actors fit into that historical landscape.

Art History 1
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from antiquity through the medieval period. The course provides foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It focuses on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example: sacred spaces, images of the gods, imperial portraiture, and domestic decoration.

Monologues
In Monologues, students learn the skills necessary to hone and focus their acting skills when they cannot rely on a scene partner to carry them through. Students work on monologues from theatre and film sources that help them learn how to command attention with their acting.

Improvisation 1
In order to truly be effective actors, students must learn how to abandon fear of disapproval and freely release their impulses in the moment they occur. Through a variety of exercises designed to help cast off inhibitions, actors experiment with group dynamics and individual expression vital to vibrant and truthful performances.

Audition Technique
In this class, students learn the etiquette and unique skills needed to audition well. Students work in a mock audition format that is videotaped for critique.

Special Lecture: The Profesion
This class focuses on the marketing skills and the tools needed to get interviews with casting directors and agents. It also addresses etiquette used when dealing with industry professionals under a variety of circumstances.

Movement 1
In this course, students begin to experiment with different ways of becoming physically "present" in their work. Elements of various approaches are taught, including some or all of the following: modern dance, yoga, Alexander Technique and Laban movement.

Production Workshop
Production Workshops are opportunities for the actors to practice what they have learned in class in a "hands-on" way. Actors collaborate with the filmmakers on film projects that are shot either on the studio sets at Universal or on location in and around Los Angeles.

Scene Study 2
In this course, students go further with the work done in Scene Study I, with an emphasis on classical or stylistically different material. Students learn how to be emotionally honest in a universe that is markedly different from their own.

Meisner 2
A continuation of Meisner 1, students learn how to apply the "moment to moment" work to characters outside of their own experience.

Voice 2: Spech
An extension of Voice 1, Voice 2: Speech focuses on using the techniques learned in Voice 1 for performance. In addition, students use IPA in order to successfully master dialects including (but not limited to) Standard British, Cockney and Brooklyn.

Acting for the Camera 2
Actors take what they learn in Acting for the Camera I and apply it to in-class exercises. On a weekly basis, actors prepare a script and digitally tape the scene.

Film Craft 1
In this series of classes, students learn directing, producing, screenwriting, etc. from the actor’s perspective. Learning the roles of all the players on a film set dramatically increases the actor’s ability to collaborate with the filmmakers in developing dynamic performances.

Art History 2
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from the fifteenth century through the present. The course provides foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It focuses on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, Humanist and Reformation redefinitions of art in the Italian and Northern Renaissance, Realism, modernity and tradition, the tension between self-expression and the art market, and the use of art for political purposes.

Movement 2
Actors continue with more demanding physical work designed to heighten performances. Elements of period movement and dance are addressed for specific works that require historical accuracy.

Shakespeare
Students learn historical perspective on the works of Shakespeare to better understand these classic works of theatre. Text analysis is done using a variety of approaches including scansion, the Freeman method (using the First Folio text), soundings, and poetic and rhetorical devices to gain a better appreciation of this master playwright.

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Stage Combat
Students learn how to safely portray choreographed violence for the screen. Elements of various martial arts are employed to create interesting fight sequences that keep the actor safe from injury.

Performances
These performance opportunities (spaced evenly throughout the program) allow our students to incorporate all of their learning and experience into performing for a live industry audience. While the focus of the Associate of Fine Arts in Acting for Film is entirely on acting in filmed work rather than in live theater performances, film actors often perform in live showcases for casting directors and industry professionals. This course prepares AFA candidates for such showcases and furthers their dramatic skills for use in later filmed projects.

Playwrig hts 1
In this course, students examine contemporary playwrights like Chekov, Miller and Beckett. Text analysis and plot structure are treated as fundamental tools for rehearsal and performance. Students learn how to use certain elements of the writing, like mood and sub-text, to enhance performance.

Movement 3
Students learn advanced techniques in yoga, modern dance, and Tai Chi to continue to develop the skills acquired during Movement 1 and Movement 2. Students must challenge themselves to move into a new realm by discovering and pushing boundaries.

Scene Study 3
Using scripts written by NYFA filmmaking students, acting students use class time to break down the scripts for the projects on which they are collaborating. This class serves as an intense rehearsal for those projects.

New Media for Actors
Students explore new media outlets from the perspective of an actor. Websites that specialize in "user created content" such as YouTube are useful marketing tools in the evolving new media world. To successfully complete this class, students must complete a new media project of their own design. One such project may include creating a website featuring their resume and samples of their work. This class teaches students to find creative ways to use new technology to market themselves as actors. This project will be included in the Final Portfolio.

Critical Film Studies
In this seminar, students are taught to identify techniques that they may use in their own films through screenings and discussions. They learn how filmmakers have approached the great challenge of telling stories with moving images from silent films to the digital age. The course explores ways that the crafts of directing (particularly shot construction), cinematography, acting, and editing have developed. Instructors select films for screening and discussion from among the great cinematic innovators. The course gives students an understanding of how cinema has evolved from its origins to the present moment and where they find themselves in that development.

Production Workshop 2: Acting for TV
Film actors learn the techniques necessary for a multicamera shoot for television by rehearsing a pilot sitcom. Students learn the technical aspects of working on a set with multi-camera set-ups.

Dialect Workshop
Students are introduced to the fundamentals of speech and diction for actors, and to basic dialects that are used most commonly in contemporary dramatic texts.

Advanced Acting Projects 1 Acting students collaborate with NYFA Filmmaking students and complete several projects. The filmmakers direct short projects in which the acting students perform. Students compile all completed work onto a DVD, and this accounts for a portion of their final portfolio. Comedy Workshop This course covers comic character development, sit-com material, sketch comedy, scripted and improvised material taught through monologues, exercises, improvisations, and theatre games. Students learn to distinguish different styles of comedy to create characters for sitcoms as well as sketch comedy and develop audition techniques for comedic film roles. Students screen comedic material for the purposes of analysis.

Scene Study 4
Film Actors continue to create and design their own unique film acting craft and further develop acting techniques. In continuation of Scene Study 3, students bring to class scripts from projects they are currently collaborating on with NYFA Filmmaking students. Playwrig hts 2 In this course, students study the works of contemporary playwrights such as Stoppard, Mamet, and Kushner. Students look closely at style as it relates to current forms and genres.

Advanced Audition Technique
In this class, students are challenged to develop their audition and cold reading skills needed to land highly competitive roles in the industry. Students work in a mock audition format that is videotaped for critique.

Advanced Acting Projects 2
Actors learn to fully integrate the mind-body connection through performance for the camera. Emphasis is placed on fully incorporating into performance the techniques learned during the first three semesters. Film actors work on advanced and/or experimental projects in collaboration with NYFA Filmmaking students.

The "Clasical Core"
At the center of the New York Film Academy’s Classical Acting Training is an immersion in performance-based scene work. Students blend research and technique through live performance.

• The Gre ks/Rom ans
Students perform using neutral masks to convey epic emotions and timeless mythology. Rooted in the ritual tradition of Greek and Roman drama (the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Aristophanes, Plautus) contemporary stories such as the Broadway musical The Lion King and Woody Allen’s film Mighty Aphrodite use masks and choral performance to tell the story.

• The "Neo -Class ics "
When English theatre stagnated during the mid-17th century, European playwrights flourished. The influence of the Ballet- Russe on the French court had a major impact on the drama of this period, and resulted in the celebrated texts of Corneille, Racine, and Moliere.

Students perform scenes and confront the unique challenges of working with translated texts in performance.

• Res tor ation Comedy
The re-emergence of theatre in England gave us the highly stylized plays of Sheridan, Congreve, and Wycherley. Also known as "Comedy of Manners", the influence of these plays can be seen in today’s contemporary "sit-coms" as well as films such as Amadeus, The Duchess, Sense and Sensibility, Age of Innocence, and Dangerous Liaisons. Students perform in period costume and incorporate appropriate speech, manners and postures.

• Early 20th Century Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Anton Chekhov have emerged as several of the leading writers of the early 20th Century. Students perform scene work from authors who are perhaps the most familiar names to modern audiences. Students will also have the opportunity to interact with visiting acting professionals currently working on classic texts.

Entertainment Industry Seminar
Industry professionals give special lectures to help the students understand the current trends in headshots, resumes, representation and reels.

Final Portfolio
In the beginning of Semester Three, students are assigned advisor to oversee the completion of their Final Portfolio. The materials contained in the Final Portfolio are designed to be the student’s "passport" into the professional world of acting. Projects, assigned by instructors, must be completed to graduate. Students design a Career Blueprint, a personal statement that fully outlines a plan for life after NYFA, in consultation with their advisor. The Final Portfolio represents the student’s best work as a qualified industry professional. Contents of Final Portfolio:
• Headshots
• Film Acting Reel
• New Media Project
• Resume
• Career Blueprint

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GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Students must study and perform scenes that demonstrate that they have gained a working knowledge of the following skills:
• Scene Study
• Meisner
• Voice
• Movement
• Audition Techniques
• Improvisation
• Complete Final Portfolio

Students must successfully complete every course of study with a "Satisfactory" grade or better. To graduate and receive an AFA degree, students must also adhere to the Academy’s Attendance Policy and Code of Conduct. Additionally, students must fulfill all financial obligations to The New York Film Academy.

Satisfactory completion of 65 Semester Credit Units is required for graduation from the New York Film Academy’s Associate of Fine Art in Acting for Film Program. The Associate of Fine Art in Acting for Film Program is an accelerated full-time study program and does not provide for multiple tracks of study. All courses are mandatory. This is a highly specialized program, and there are no majors or minors. The program may not be completed in less than four semesters. Classes are taught in either a lecture, seminar or laboratory format. Students are also scheduled for hours of practicum. For the designation of instruction hours, lab and practicum are treated as "studio hours" as is customary in visual arts studies.

NEW YORK CITY
ACTING & FILM SCHOOL

The New York Film Academy located in New York City is licensed by the New York State Education Department as a non-degree granting proprietary school. Qualified students may request that their course work be accepted for an award of credit or advanced standing in a degree program at the New York Film Academy Los Angeles campus.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, CALIFORNIA
ACTING & FILM SCHOOL

The New York Film Academy located at Universal Studios offers MFA and AFA degree programs as well as certificate programs for college credit.

Any college credit or degree earned is awarded solely by the New York Film Academy's academic headquarters in California. All camps are solely owned and operated by the New York Film Academy and are not affiliated with Universal Studios, Harvard University, or Disney Studios.

100 East 17th Street New York, New York 10003 United States
Tel. +1 (212) 674-4300 Fax. +1 (212) 477-1414

ACTING & FILM SCHOOL