Colorado Film School
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[edit] About
The Colorado Film School is a hands on, production based school. CFS offers degree programs designed to award Associate of General Studies, Associate of Applied Science, and Bachelor Of Fine Arts degrees with an emphasis in either Film/Video Writing And Directing, Film/Video Producing, Film/Video Post Production, or Cinematography/Videography. The Certificate Programs in these same areas along with Acting for the Screen, supply advanced training to professionals already working in the film and video industries.
Students focus on mastering narrative technique while finding their own balance of technical, aesthetic and creative concerns. Employment opportunities lie in writing, producing, directing, production management, production design, camera, lighting, audio for film and video, audio post for film and video, post production graphics and animation, editing, multimedia production and integration, as well as a host of business management opportunities in the cable, network, and film industries. Graduates may work locally or seek employment in the national or world markets.
[edit] Degrees
Advances Immersion Certificate
The Advanced Immersion program includes five 7.5 week modules. Students take four courses at a time, with classes meeting 9 AM - 6 PM Monday through Thursday. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are reserved for shooting and editing projects. Student should not anticipate having any time for additional classes or jobs.
Students must register for all eight courses (four courses in two 7.5 week pentamesters) offered each semester.
Colorado Film School now offers an Advanced Certificate in an Eleven Month Immersion program. Students take a full 60 credits of Film and Video courses in an intensive eleven month program. In each of five, seven and a half week "pentamesters" students complete four three-credit courses, attending class from 9 AM to 5 PM Monday through Thursday with evenings and three day weekends to work on their projects.
The curriculum, currently limited to Writing/Directing majors, includes course work in Video Production, Film Production, Post Production, Actor's Process, Film Language, Screenwriting, Sound, Production Management, Camera, Lighting and DVD Authoring. Students emerge from the program with a DVD of their finest work from five production classes, ready to enter the professional world of Film and Video.
Prospective students are cautioned that the pace of the program and expectations of student commitment are very high. CFS Director Frederic Lahey asks prospective students to be able to find financial support for "a full year commitment to nothing but mastery of the storytelling crafts of film and video."
"There will be no time for holding down an outside job," he states.
Acting for the Screen Certificate
The Colorado Film School now offers an "Acting for the Screen" Certificate. The seven course program is integrated into the film and video production program for the school. "We have about 400 production students who need trained actors each semester" says Frederic Lahey, the Director of CFS, "so it only makes sense that learning directors and actors can benefit from each other".
Galina Bulgakova Volk, who holds her Master of Fine Arts degree from the famous Stanislavski conservatory program of Moscow Theatre Arts in Russia is heading up the program. She took a group of her University of Colorado - Denver students to Moscow this summer to visit the world renowned theater. When she took them up on the stage she asked them, "Do you know how much blood and sweat it takes to get to this stage?"
The students surprised her when they answered: "Not much at all. We just have to follow you around, Galina".
The Acting for the Screen program includes courses in Understanding the Actor's Process, Development of Film Expression, Acting Improvisation, Action and Movement for the Screen, Acting for the Screen, Performance Workshop, and DVD Authoring. "Students who complete the program will understand all of the underpinnings of American Method acting, which was derived directly from Stanislavski, they'll understand how film works, and they'll have a professional quality DVD of their performances to get them into the industry," Lahey says. "They'll be equipped to work on any film or television set in the world."
Associate of General Studies
Designed for transfer to a four year program such as the BFA offered at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center or to programs at Metro State College. Students intending to transfer should consult requirements at their intended four-year institution.
General Education Requirements: 30 semester credits in transferable core courses.
Film Video Technology Requirements: 30 semester credits in one of the following emphases: Writing/Directing, Cinematography/Videography, Post-Production. Transferable majors in Writing/Producing are under development.
All of the required 36 FVT credits must have a grade point average of 2.5 or better to count towards the CCA AGS degree. The following AGS degree programs are directly transferable to Junior standing in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Film Video Production in the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado at Denver for students who meet UCDHSC and College of Arts & Media requirements. Students intending to transfer should consult requirements at their intended four-year institution.
Associate of Applied Science
This degree is designed for students who wish to move directly into the professional marketplace.
General Education Requirements: 15 semester credits in general education courses.
Film Video Technology Requirements: 45 semester credits in one of the following emphases: Writing/Directing, Cinematography/Videography, Post-Production, Writing/Producing.
Bachelor Of Fine Arts
The Film/Video program at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC) is intended for students seeking professional preparation for careers in Film, Video, and related industries. Program delivery is realized in a unique fully articulated offering with the Community College of Aurora (CCA), through the Colorado Film School. The program is designed to award BFA degrees with emphasis in Film/Video Writing and Directing, Film/Video Post Production, or Cinematography/ Videography, and to supply advanced training to professionals already working in the Film and Video industries.
Upon completion of the BFA course of study, students will be prepared for employment in television, industrial, educational and broadband video, and feature film production industries, or for entry into graduate study programs.
The initial two years of courses (at CCA) give students the fundamental understanding of technical, creative, and storytelling issues and exposure to disparate paths of study and future employment. The second two years of film and video (at UCDHSC) courses supply the student with the opportunity to focus and hone his or her craft, find her or his own expressive "voice", and to graduate with a professional quality show reel of work, production credits, and/or completed screenplays, teleplays, and project proposals.
[edit] Mission
The mission of the Colorado Film School is threefold:
1. Colorado Film School is dedicated to pre-professional training of students planning careers in the film and video industries. It focuses on the intersection of art, technology and commerce as it relates to narrative audio/video techniques. An educational philosophy that encourages industry-engaged projects and hands-on instructional methods underlies the program. Students who complete the program have a professional level portfolio and are qualified to either work anywhere in the field of their chosen emphasis or continue their education in a graduate program.
2. Colorado Film School acts as a catalyst for local film and video production, challenging, enabling, and stimulating growth through original production, state-of-the-art training and through development of a strong, diverse pool of Colorado residents who are skilled in all aspects of the film and video industries.
3. Colorado Film School aims to serve as an industry-wide resource for research and development in production by expanding its boundaries of technology and creative expression, and by exploring new models for funding and distributing film and video production.
[edit] Facilities
The facility is a 25,000 square foot building. The main studio, a 4000 square foot sound stage, includes three Thompson BTS digital cameras with Canon studio lenses, teleprompters, and Vinten MK V heads with tern type pedestals.
At one end of the studio a cyclorama is available for green screen photography.
A $300,000 Desisti lighting grid controlled by an INSight Lighting Board hangs over the entire stage.
There is a high-end digital router room going into Profiles Digital Disk Recorders, five Digital Beta decks, an online and studio control room, a digital sound room, two nonlinear edit rooms and a graphics room all with deck controls, and connected with 601 uncompressed digital signal. (The facility has 115,000 cable connections and 190 miles of cable!) A portable Sony DVW 700 WS D-Beta camera with mic and lighting kit completes the package.
Post Production Labs Editing and other computer related classes are taught in one of three computer labs. These labs are also available for students to work on projects outside of class time.
All workstations have gigabit cards and all labs have gigabit switches.
The school recommends students purchase firewire disk drives. Saving work on these external drives rather than on a specific computer in the lab allows the student to work on any open machine even if the server is down.
POST I LAB
The Post I Lab is used for teaching Post-Production I. Post I emphasizes storytelling, so stripped down software is utilized here: the latest version of Final Cut Express.
- 21 17" iMacs
- 2.0 GHz Intel Duo-Core processors
- 1 GB RAM
- 500 GB local storage
- 8x DVD burners
- 1GHz ethernet to 40 Tb network that includes Sound FX collection
- Software: Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting, Final Cut Pro HD, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Photoshop CS, and Avid DV Xpress
INTERMEDIATE LAB
The Intermediate Lab is used to teach Production Management, Advanced Production Management, Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop for Editors, Avid, and Post Production II.
- 20 - Mac G5 dual 2 GHz processor workstations (2 GB RAM, 256 MB Vid Cards, 8X DVD Burners, 17" flat panel monitors, 500 GB local storage)
- 1 - Mac G5 dual processor instructor station
- Access to Huge Systems 700 GB Sanstream server
- DV codec converters
- NTSC monitors
- DSR-11 DV/DVCAM firewire controllable decks
- Software: Final Cut Pro HD, Avid Xpress Pro 4.5.1, After Effects Pro 6.0, Maya Complete 6.0, Shake!, DVD Studio Pro 3.0, Photoshop 7.0, Roxio Toast 5.2.3
ADVANCED LAB
Post Production III, Post Production IV, DVD Studio Pro, and Maya classes are held in the Advanced Production Lab.
- 21 - Mac G5 dual processor workstations ranging from 2.0 GHz to 2.7 GHz, 20" Apple flat screen monitors, 2 GB RAM, local storage ranging from 500 GB to 800 GB per station
- 1 - Mac G5 dual processor instructor station
- Access to Huge Systems 700 GB Sanstream server
- 8X - 16X DVD burners (16X burners are dual-layer)
- DV codec converters
- NTSC monitors
- DSR-11 DV/DVCAM firewire controllable decks
- Software: Final Cut Pro HD, Avid Xpress Pro 4.5.1, After Effects Pro 6.0, Maya Complete 6.0, Shake!, DVD Studio Pro 3.0, Photoshop 7.0, Roxio Toast 5.2.3
Animators use Que in Shake! to distribute renders among all available networked processors in the school (107 processors among our 64 edit stations).
[edit] Tuition
The following should be used as a guide only. Other fees and charges are assessed by both schools. Tuition rates and fees may be changed at any time. Check with the individual schools for current rates.
CCA (FRESHMAN/SOPHOMORE LEVEL COURSES) TUITION
| Credit Hours | Resident | Non-Resident |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $101.25 | $381.35 |
| 3 | $261.55 | $1101.85 |
| 12 | $982.90 | $4344.10 |
There is a $120.00 per semester equipment access charge. Please visit www.ccaurora.edu for the latest fee listings.
UCDHSC (FRESHMAN/SOPHOMORE LEVEL COURSES) TUITION
| Credit Hours | Resident | Non-Resident |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $216.00 | $709.00 |
| 3 | $648.00 | $2126.00 |
| 12 | $2527.00 | $6379.00 |
UCDHSC (JUNIOR/SENIOR LEVEL COURSES) TUITION
| Credit Hours | Resident | Non-Resident |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $232.00 | $709.00 |
| 3 | $697.00 | $2126.00 |
| 12 | $2592.00 | $6379.00 |
There are also CAM major fees of $230 each semester. For other UCDHSC Downtown Denver Campus fees please visit www.cudenver.edu.
Other fees and charges may be assessed by either school, and the schools may change their tuition and fees at any time. Please visit www.ccaurora.edu and www.cudenver.edu to be certain of your total fees and charges.
[edit] Equipment
CFS has a variety of cameras, audio equipment, lighting equipment, etc. for film and video shoots. The school tries to maintain an availability ratio of one camera to each five student projects. This theoretically provides access of one 24 hour checkout each week of a fifteen week semester.
