LFS Prospectus 2011-2012

L FS PROSPECTUS 2011-2012

For me, being at the London Film School in the ‘sixties was a very special experience, and the infectious spirit of freedom and creativity continues today.

Collaboration and individuality have always been encouraged, and LFS has maintained an extraordinary international reputation by insisting on 35mm, on location shooting and built sets, and on down-to-earth, practical filmmaking. The school continues to stay abreast of new technology, and is now entering a period of consolidation, whilst exciting new connections are being made.

Our constructive hands-on approach is there to be developed, nurtured and celebrated.

Ambitious filmmakers everywhere: come and take part!

MIKE LEIGH, Chairman LFS

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

CONTENTS PROSPECTUS 2011-2012

THE SCHOOL 1 3 5 6 7

A Tradition of Innovation The LFS in Twelve Words History Studying in London Facilities

PROGRAMMES 9 11 13 14

MA Filmmaking MA Screenwriting Exeter-LFS Doctoral Programme Professional Development/International

CURRICULUM 33 38

MA Filmmaking Curriculum MA Screenwriting Curriculum

40 42

LFS Graduates Enrolment

DEPARTMENTS & STUDIES 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31

Cinematography Sound Editing Production Design Directing Screenwriting Production Screen Studies Prospectus design by Mike Leedham, 2D Design LFS ‘Somersault’ logo design by Chris Allies (after Marey) The London Film School reserves the right to make changes in whole or in part to the curriculum at any time without formal notice.

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

A TRADITION OF INNOVATION Since 1956 LFS has been a working studio, in which every student on the two year Filmmaking programme works on a minimum of six films.

We’re accustomed to delivering in excess of 170 films a year. Around this work and its associated teaching we maintain an insistence on creative freedom, a drive toward innovation and a commitment to craft excellence. Since 2003 we have added two new MA Programmes: MA Screenwriting and MA Film Curating.

industrial filmmaking will allow graduates the freedom to innovate, find employment and help invent the cinema and television of the future. Many graduates are directors, and the majority of students come to the school expecting that they will direct. What is important is that they will have other skills. We frequently use the term “filmmaker”, meaning a person for whom a proper command of this collaborative craft is of vital importance. In the MA Screenwriting at LFS, we want students to see writing in the context of real filmmaking, rather than as an abstract end in itself.

LFS has been selected by Skillset, the UK government agency for audio-visual Knowing how a process works liberates training, as one of three ‘Film Academies’. the imagination. Progress in This recognises the school as an industryfilmmaking is inconceivable to me level graduate school in Britain offering without a formal education in cinema professional film training, and the only one in that scheme with an all-department for me it was two years at LFS. Filmmaking programme. The support has Michael Mann made it possible for LFS to offer two-year LFS graduate 1967 bursaries for some UK qualifying students, Dir: Miami Vice, Heat, The Insider and to develop our teaching and our links to the film industry, supporting graduates contribute in every area. as they make their first steps in building a network.

A PORTRAIT OF YOU, Term 2 exercise, directed by Pierre-Alain Giraud

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LFS offers courses for students with certain aims: reaching genuinely professional standards; learning to collaborate creatively – from fellow students as much as from lecturers – and to think about cinema practically; getting the habit of interrogating their assumptions rigorously and then taking their instincts seriously. The students we want are resilient, collaborative, imaginative people who learn through doing (and sometimes failing), people who will have the courage and energy to develop their ideas to the limit. The MA Filmmaking is staffed by people who believe that pre-specialization (deciding before you study film to be a director, or a cinematographer, or a sound recordist – now very common in film schools) can deprive talented students of a full education in the craft of filmmaking. We encourage them to explore and develop their special strengths while they’re here. We also believe that understanding the structures of THE SCHOOL

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We’re not called a ‘film and television’ school because we believe that the craft skills and modes of expression encompassed by ‘film’ provide the base from which to take on the special creative demands of other media from television and advertising to streaming web video. Rather than second-guess the audio-visual business and its markets, we want to instil the creative flexibility to

There’s a fine balance between technical training, the ‘boot camp’ in which students gain key skills through making films, or writing exercises, and the area of creative development, the ‘hothouse’ in which they try and make them extraordinary. The starting-points at LFS are to learn through the work, and to remain sceptical about whether filmmaking’s creative challenges can be taught in conventional ways.

We aim to provide a fertile environment for hard work, exploration and creative dialogue. In this prospectus you’ll find course work referred to as ‘the exercises’. Turning them into ‘films’, ‘scripts’ and ‘events’ is our challenge to you.

BEN GIBSON, Director

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LFS IN TWELVE WORDS GLOBAL The world’s international graduate film conservatoire. Seventy percent of students are from outside the UK, from more than sixty countries. A diverse range of cultures and film traditions makes for a creative hothouse. This global network, once built, lasts a professional lifetime.

INCLUSIVE On the MA Filmmaking, five film exercises paid for including stock and equipment, plus £3500 cash returned for the graduation film – incorporated into your fees. Most schools quote only tuition costs, with filmmaking budgets a vague extra. Plus no high and low budget film exercises – at LFS you work within the budget you’re given.

VALUE LFS is a not-for-profit educational trust committed to spending its money only on your education. UK qualifying students can apply for Skillset bursaries. A unique constitution – you become a voting member of the Association.

PRACTICAL There are five exercise films and a graduation work in the MA Filmmaking programme, with at least three on 16mm and two on 35mm, plus 24P digital workshops. One film is prepared, shot, delivered and screened in every 12 weeks of your work. There’s the opportunity to offer scripts for production and to work on scripts in pre-production for MA Screenwriters.

NO STAR, Graduation film, directed by Christian Neuman

COMPREHENSIVE The MA Filmmaking includes two years of training in Directing, Lighting, Operating, Editing, Sound, Production Design, Screenwriting and Production. Choose your specialisation at the end of the course, and for writer-directors, earn a living by crewing while developing projects.

ATTENTIVE 140 students, 22 full time faculty, scores of visiting lecturers – more student-lecturer ‘face time’ than any other graduate film school.

VISIBLE Our library gets your work around the world. In 2009 LFS films played at 125 festivals and took 22 prizes, 5 of them ‘firsts’. Three LFS graduates have been taken on the Cannes Residence programme since 2007. In 2010, 25 known features by recent graduates in global distribution winning festival prizes including Michael Powel Award, Edinburgh and top 3 prizes at Durban.

CONNECTED LFS is two minutes walk from Soho, centre of the European entertainment industry. A rare opportunity to study in central London. Key figures of the UK and European industries pass through very often. The school provides mentors and career development support after graduation.

RECOGNISED One of three recognised UK graduate schools in the UK Skillset Film Academy Network. MA degrees recognised throughout the world, and validated by the London Metropolitan University and Birkbeck University of London. Graduates become ALFS, or Associates of the London Film School.

PROFESSIONAL Students are taught by working UK filmmakers. Exercise films are made on built sets, shot with 16mm Aaton or 35mm SuperAmerica or Panaflex Gold cameras, recorded on Nagra V, edited on Avid Composer and given a professional dub in Soho.

INNOVATIVE A school that works with the film industry, understands the market and employability – and also takes your ambitions and your originality very seriously. We want you to reinvent film form rather than copy what already exists. Programmes include 120 half day Film History/Film Style screening and analysis sessions. A Screenwriting degree in which every student has a mentor in the business. The world’s first MA qualification in Film Curating.

PROVEN Thousands of high profile alumni over 50 years of operation include Michael Mann, Mike Leigh, Tak Fujimoto, Franc Roddam, Don Boyd, Mark Goldblatt, Bill Douglas, Les Blair, Ho Yim, Anne Hui, Joao Cesar Monteiro, Arnold Wesker, Duncan Jones and Danny Huston.

THE SCHOOL

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THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

HISTORY In 1956 the Principal of the Heatherley School of Fine Art, Gilmore Roberts, set up a short course in filmmaking, but before the applicants could enrol, found that his school had been sold from under him. He decided to continue the course independently, but could hardly have imagined that fifty years later a thriving, multinational school, descended from his embryonic idea, would be working in a converted warehouse in Covent Garden, London.

After precarious early days, the School settled in Brixton as the ‘London School of Film Technique’. It was set up around the belief that the future health of filmmaking in Britain could be promoted by properly designed formal training for people entering the industry, then run on a traditional apprenticeship basis. Since there was little sign of any official action to carry out these plans, a group of enthusiasts decided to take the classic British way and constitute such a school.

school has been since the mid 1960s, maintains a similarly dramatic and individual character.

In 1974 the school was re-named as LIFS, the London International Film School. The LIFS constitution, which remains in force, is very unusual. The School is a registered charity, a non-profitmaking company, limited by guarantee. All students become members of the Association, and, together with the other members, elect a Board of Governors on which they have representation. The Board of Governors has the overall responsibility for the management of the School. The current My own personal progression as a film Chairman is the internationally renowned maker has developed at an amazing director and LFS graduate Mike Leigh. The pace- due largely to intense tutorials school has always been completely with staff- who have challenged and independent, and remains so following the provoked me and given me confidence validation of its courses by London and advice. I am proud to have been Metropolitan University.

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part of a very strong, visionary and passionately energetic institution.

Verity Healey MA Filmmaking graduate 2008

The approach to the old school, through a gaunt passage and up winding brick stairs to a handful of rooms over shops in Electric Avenue, Brixton, was likened by an intrepid visitor to a set from “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari”. In the early 1960s the school moved to premises in Charlotte Street in the West End. The 18th century warehouse in Covent Garden, in which the

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50th anniversary celebrations included a major retrospective at the National Film Theatre, debate events, international presentations, alumni masterclasses and a charity premiere of Michael Mann‘s’Miami Vice‘.

A web “time tunnel” has been created with photographs, documents and video clips at www.lfs.org.uk/50th/

THE SCHOOL

Michael Mann (r) with Gavin MacFadyan in LSFT Coffee Bar, 1962

Camera Lecture at LSFT circa 1959

B-MOVIE STATUS, 1995, dir. G. Siougas Prod. Dejan Savic

With thanks to Phil Mottram, former Administrator, lecturer and unofficial LIFS historian.

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THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

STUDYING IN LONDON In any given week through the year there are probably more films showing for London’s seven million inhabitants than in any other capital city. The school is situated in the centre, in Covent Garden, within walking distance of West End cinemas and theatres, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the British Film Institute Library, the BFI Southbank, the Tate Modern and, even closer, Wardour Street in Soho, nerve centre of the British Film Industry.

Both the MA Filmmaking and MA Screenwriting courses are validated by the London Metropolitan University. Students are issued with an LMU Student ID Card, which enables you to use some of their facilities, including Sports and Leisure, IT and Computer studio, libraries and their ‘Walk in’ counselling service.

Central London offers LFS students access to many informal film and media groups, events and opportunities, and the school often hosts events in collaboration with like-minded film organisations. All LFS students are members of International Students House (ISH) and can take advantage of the facilities and events they offer. Facilities include a Fitness Centre, Welfare and Advice Service, Internet Café, Bars and Restaurant. Social events run throughout each term and include cultural evenings, lectures and debates, parties and subsidised travel trips in the UK and overseas.

URBAN REBELS UNITE Graduation film, Dir. David De La Garza

Sixth Term students participate in a mentoring scheme with ‘honorary executive producers’ drawn from the London independent film community, and there are many other occasions earlier in the course to benefit from the richness of the local film culture. Of course London also offers the thousands of locations, people and stories that feature in screenplays and documentary treatments for the school’s film exercises.

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THE SCHOOL

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

FACILITIES The London Film School building was previously a warehouse, and has a rough workshop atmosphere which can be exciting, but is not academic and certainly not luxurious. We offer guided tours around the school on Thursday afternoons throughout the term, including a chance to look at some student films. Facilities at the LFS include:

Sound Production sound is recorded on Nagra V digital hard drive recorders.

There is a full range of modern microphones, including Micron radio mics and stereo mics. Also Protools 24 work stations for preparation of sound tracks for Dolby SR mixes. Commentary and foley recording area.

Studios Two studios equipped with lighting rigs are available for the 35mm exercises, as well as a rehearsal studio, used also for drama and script workshops.

Production Office There is a production office with computers, fax, telephone and internet access.

Cinemas Projection facilities are available in two cinemas. 35 mm projection includes magnetic sound and Dolby Stereo SR analogue sound. 2K digital video Given the prestige projection accepts most formats.

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Extranet Using the Extranet students are able to view, download and print technical manuals, syllabuses, course descriptions, forms, legal agreements, school regulations and other documents. The school is WiFi enabled.

of the film school you expect great staff, a support network of professionals and guest lecturers – and you get that - but the unexpected bonus is the range and diversity and quality of the students themselves. You just plunge in and find your creative edge. I can’t imagine there is anywhere better to discover yourself creatively.

Library Camera Department The School Library keeps and documents LFS Equipment includes 8 Aatons with prime or productions, producing DVD copies and zoom lenses for the 1st year 16mm exercises digital masters. LFS shows work at over 150 and 35mm cameras for the 2nd year, film festivals around the world each year, and including Panavision Gold and 2 MovieCam supports sales of films to broadcasters and Super America, geared heads and Fisher distributors. The library also holds an dollies. There are also Super 16 cameras extensive collection of films for loan, plus a available for graduation films. Digital small collection of core books. By formats range from DVCam for arrangement with the British Film Institute, documentary exercises and research, HD students have access to the BFI Reference cameras hired in as required for the 3rd Library, which is within ten minutes walk.

Guy Lodge term, and training on RED1 and 24P in the MA Screenwriting 2006 graduate 6th term. Lighting Equipment ranges from Coffee Bar the standard tungsten Openface, Fresnel The school has a privately-run coffee bar on and HMI lamps to Kinoflo’s, dedo kits and the ground floor. lite pads. Incident and spot light meters are available.

Long Acre Building Photography Our annexe building offers additional facilities for the MA Programmes and A stills wet photography darkroom and the Kodak Look Manager system Workshops. AV facilities include an Electric drop-down screen (203cm x are equipped for student use. Personal 35mm and digital still cameras 152.4cm), an Epson EB-W8 projector with WXGA (1280 x 800 resolution), are highly recommended.

Blu-ray DVD player, and Yamaha Amplifier and JBL Speakers (Stereo).

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Design Studio There is a fully equipped design studio with drawing boards, model making facilities, visual reference library and materials library and design computer suite.

Editing The School has 24 non-linear editing systems. There are 8 MacPro Avid Media Composer suites, 14 iMac intel systems, running Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro, and on-line Avid Symphony. There is also one fully equipped 35mm analogue editing room and one16mm Steenbeck.

THE SCHOOL

Clubs and Societies The Students Union is affiliated with the NUS and LFS students are entitled to NUS Extra cards, offering a range of benefits. Our clubs and societies include the LFS Film Society and an LFS football team, which arranges matches against other film schools. LFS Students are admitted free to many of the film programmes at the BFI Southbank. LFS is a full member of CILECT, (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision), the international confederation of film schools and NAHEMI (National Association for Higher Education in the Moving Image), the national association for British film schools.

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Romi Aboulafia - Camera Assistant on BLUE COLLARS AND BUTTERCUPS, Graduation Film Production Dir: Janis Pugh Producer: James Youngs On the set of a first term production

An Introduction to the MA Filmmaking course.

framing, criticising and developing their own take on screen storytelling.

The LFS MA Filmmaking Course is an intense two year programme in which the full range of film-making skills are taught at appropriate professional levels.

They develop their own work, and then get the opportunity to test it out freely with colleagues, teachers and professional practitioners in workshops designed to connect ideas and outcomes and in which their work is criticised without applying any further restriction than their own growing judgement and consciousness of effect and context.

Learning is based around short films. Each term these film exercises become more technically sophisticated, more considered and more complex in their ambitions. The School specifies the skill base for each exercise, provides the equipment and trains the students up to the new levels in each of the various craft skills. Students take all the aesthetic decisions, solving problems similar to those faced by professional units, on a steeply increasing slope of difficulty. Their work is constantly assessed and criticised. Students themselves are required to reflect on and assess their own learning in Work and Research Journals.

This is the centre of the LFS method. Students learn best by applying themselves to aesthetic and practical problems generated by the actual process of filmmaking. This way new skills become meaningful and integrated into an increasing repertoire. Against a background of practice, lectures and classes become vivid and full of recognisable content.

This is why we push through so many productions, and why students have more opportunities to work on films than they can realistically take up.

All students learn all the important film-making skills, and must practise them in a working unit. There is no film career which is not greatly enriched by an active practical knowledge of the other specialisations.

This makes an LFS graduate stand out from colleagues with a single specialisation, at any level. On the one hand, students with a primarily technical bent find insights into their work through an understanding of the more interpretive practices, and very often find an unexpected potential and self-confidence as writers or directors. On the other hand, producers’, writers’ and directors’ range and sense of the possibilities of their art is immeasurably increased by a serious technical competence.

In the film exercises students shoot their own scripts, directed in their own way. The content of all films is fully discussed and criticised, but ultimately the students have complete freedom of expression. This is an opportunity to exercise their creative abilities, for them to see their ideas brought to life, with professional actors, on film, and under production conditions appropriate to the developing skills of the crew, culminating in the 35mm studio film of the standard industry production.

MA FILMMAKING

MA FILMMAKING

The film exercises are programmed by the School, and are tightly scheduled, requiring the students to learn to work under time discipline.

Crews are compact, and consequently there is always need for assistants from the lower terms. Up to sixty films are made each term, which means that whenever students are not busy with their own projects, their services are in demand on many others. This creates a constant sense of excitement, a constant presence of film-making, which becomes the atmosphere and life of the School, a tremendous motivating force.

Students are continually learning from each other and from the immense range of practical and aesthetic problems the different films offer. This process continues all day, often through the evening, and flows between the sets and locations, the viewing theatres, editing suites, the coffee bar and back again, all term.

ALAN BERNSTEIN, Head of Studies For curriculum see page 33 For enrolment see page 42

Students’ creative abilities are mobilised and developed by multiple approaches: They are taught to look at film history, and a great range of contemporary and classic work, in varying critical contexts, but most importantly as the outcome of practical strategies that they can use for PROGRAMMES

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The MA Screenwriting programme provides a year of critical and creative development, a network of future contacts and a space where a writer can define their interests and particular talent. This is a course that is “The screenplay is not the last stage of a literary journey. It is the first more interested in content over structure, individual development over stage of a film and the only way to become a professional screenwriter is the imposition of a universal model or set of rules. At LFS we believe that to get in contact with a group of people who make films.” the study and practice of screenwriting requires an understanding of the Jean-Claude Carriere (Belle du Jour; Danton) technical aspects of filmmaking and of different approaches to narrative as well as the working methods and practice The LFS MA Screenwriting course is an of professional screenwriters as members of intense one-year programme with the a creative team. emphasis on developing the writer’s LFS is a vibrant, hands-on film-making original voice through small group and environment, producing 160 films a We are looking for writers who are excited one-to-one mentoring from industry year. Where better to learn about the about writing for the screen, who have a professionals. LFS aims to encourage practical craft of screenwriting? background in writing for other mediums, writing as a continuous practice, to directors who are seeking to write their own stimulate reflective and critical approaches Mike Leigh feature script and writers who wish to and to provide a specific historical LFS Chairman and 1963 graduate establish long-term mentoring relationships background to film narrative, genres, and Dir: Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake, with development professionals. dramaturgy.

Secrets and Lies An Introduction to our MA Screenwriting course

The course is aimed at developing screenwriting skills in the context of a filmmaking community where writing is an everyday practice and a collaborative process, involving actors, directors, musicians, editors and producers. At LFS we explore the boundaries between writing and directing and stimulate debate through classes in film history, crosscultural approaches to dramaturgy and script readings with professional actors. Regular screenings of classic and contemporary films in our own film theatre and visits by contemporary filmmakers complement the core practical work of developing a feature screenplay.

PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI lecturing to MA Screenwriting studentss

SHIRLEY ADAMS Graduation feature. Dir. Oliver Hermanus (MA Filmmaking), written by MA Screenwriting graduate Stavros Pamballis

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PROGRAMMES

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MA SCREENWRITING

MA SCREENWRITING

Course Philosophy

•To encourage writing as a state of mind and everyday practice •To stimulate a reflective and critical approach to practice •To provide an historical background to film narrative •To place the screenplay in the context of a collaborative filmmaking process •To explore the boundaries between writing, directing and producing •To stimulate alternative approaches to screenwriting through awareness of different dramaturgical traditions •To take on writers who wish to develop a long-term mentoring relationship with working professionals •To focus on the writers individual development above issues of structure and dramaturgy •To create a context where the writer works with others involved in the filmmaking community - directors, actors, musicians, producers.

BRIAN DUNNIGAN, Head of Screenwriting For curriculum see page 38 For enrolment see page 42

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HEADING HEADING Subheading The School offers

Subheading The School offers one course only – the two year, full-time Diploma Course in the Art and technique of Film Making. There are no short courses, summer schools or part-time studies. The curriculum is not organised on a modular basis, so it is not possible to take only part of the course. There is no credit system for previous qualifications.

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EXETER - LFS DOCTORAL PROGRAMME ABOUT THE AWARD

HOW TO APPLY

The University of Exeter College of Humanities is able to offer up to 2 doctoral studentships to fund doctoral study in Film by Practice, as a joint degree with the London Film School. These doctoral studentships are tenable for up to three years and cover full tuition fees and a maintenance allowance...

Entry criteria We invite applications from candidates with a strong academic background and a clear and engaging research proposal which can be developed through available research supervision. Successful applicants will be expected to have considerable experience in filmmaking already, including a professional postgraduate degree in filmmaking and a good first degree (at least 2.1 or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline. If English is not your native language then you will also need to satisfy the English language entry requirements.

This unique and exciting new programme provides students with the best of both worlds - belonging to an internationally recognised University and College with highest quality research, and immersion into the professional world of film creation instruction offered by the London Film School (LFS). This programme is designed for students wishing to take their filmmaking practice beyond an MA and to integrate their technical and practical skills into a more advanced cultural, aesthetic and critical context.

ALAMAR Feature of MA Filmmaking graduate Pedro Gonzรกlez-Rubio

Increasingly, independent film practitioners feel the need not only to develop their skills and thinking beyond the received concepts of mainstream or, indeed, art cinema but also to bring greater critical, aesthetic and theoretical rigour into their practice. A new aesthetic is required if film is to move beyond its present parameters, one that acknowledges the historical imperatives of its culture.

The partnership formed by LFS and the College of Humanities provides a unique combination of strengths in all the areas covered by this PhD. College staff have the critical theoretical experience required to lead the supervision of a research degree, while LFS staff are professionals from within the creative industries with significant expertise in guiding students in filmcraft. More generally, the College and the University offer training in a range of research skills, and students will benefit from being a part of both the research culture of the College and the professionally-based environment of the LFS.

MA CURATING

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

To apply To be considered for one of these Doctoral awards, you must complete an online web form where you must submit some personal details and upload a full CV, a research proposal, transcripts, details of two academic referees and, if relevant, proof of your English language proficiency. In addition, applicants are requested to submit a portfolio of work (sufficient film work to evidence technical and aesthetic capacities and critical essays on that film work). This portfolio of work should should be submitted on DVD format and sent by post to the Postgraduate Administrator..

You must also ensure that your referees email their references to the Postgraduate Administrator at humanities-pgadmissions@exeter.ac.uk For more information contact: Morwenna Hussey, Senior Administrator Email: humanities-pgadmissions@exeter.ac.uk College of Humanities Graduate School, University of Exeter Queen's Building, The Queen's Drive Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QH, UK

Contact: Morwenna Hussey: humanities-pgadmissions@exeter.ac.uk

PROGRAMMES

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THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/ INTERNATIONAL

Improvisation for Directors and Screenwriters

Previous workshop tutors have included: Adam Megiddo, Adrian Smith, Aly Yeganeh, Annabelle Pangborn, Ben Gibson, Beth Multer, Brian Dunnigan, Colin Pons, David McHenry, Ellis Freeman, Emma Dobinson, Erin Cramer, Gustavo Costantini, Harvey Frost, Hope Dickson-Leach, Ian Neil, Jan Spoczynski, Joel Cahen, Josh Appignanesi, Larry Sider, Laurence Coriat, Lesley Oakley,

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We are continuously developing workshops and announcing new dates for existing courses. A list of the courses that are currently available can be found at www.lfs.org.uk/courses/workshops.

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It was a brilliant week. I started out with trepidation, but felt supported enough to let go of my self-consciousness and really play with the ideas the workshop tutor was offering. It was a safe environment in which we were allowed to stretch ourselves into unknown territories; take risks, fail, succeed, whatever in the pursuit of gathering up these tools to push our own work into new and exciting directions.

Lou Hamilton, ‘Improvisation for Directors’ workshop participant, July 2009.

Drawing Board to Screen: Production Design and Technical Drawing

LFS WORKSHOPS LFS now delivers many evening, weekend and short CPD (“continuing professional development”) courses, both intensive handson craft workshops and detailed and inspirational seminar teaching.

LFS Workshops are inspired, painstakingly developed and delivered by current practitioners, based on professional experience and standards

Margaret Glover, Mark Solomon, Mia Bays, Nina Kellgern, Paul Cronin, Richard Kwietniowski, Roger Hyams, Ron McCullagh, Sean McCann, Simon Lambros, Steve Haynes, Stephen Deutsch, Teresa Grimsditch and Thomas Mai.

HOTHOUSE Hothouse is a new way of developing signature UK films for world-wide audiences.

The initiative, aimed at the whole creative community, is built on The London Film School ethos and organisational context.

Although one of its key methods is to build a creative community of filmmakers for peerto-peer support, Hothouse isn’t a course, a development scheme or a writing workshop, but a professional atelier. Working from idea through structuring and revising, scheduling and budgeting, to packaging options, participants emerge with workable projects tied to realistic finance plans.

For more information contact hothouse.info@lfs.org.uk.

Drawing Board to Screen: Production Design and Technical Drawing

The daily life of the LFS revolves around the intensity of the MA teaching and the making of over 150 films (and 12 to 20 feature scripts) every year. Increasingly that work is enriched by new strands aimed at students and many others: UK-based film professionals, international partners, practitioners of other forms, passionate enthusiasts for independent film.

Q&A@LFS filmmaking, focusing on low-budget feature development. The European Q&A@LFS is a termly season of screenings and conversations with leading Film Schools Network is another MEDIA-funded partnership between LFS and emerging filmmakers. These nights help feed contemporary debates and La Fémis and will go online with www.cineuropa.org, creating a kind and new work into full time teaching. Perhaps even more importantly, the of one-stop-shop for European Film Schools. An ongoing relationship with series’ over-subscribed mailing list brings the industry, short course people, the European Commission Representation in the UK has produced annual independent filmmakers, London-based film films (Voyages 2008, Fall of the Wall 2009, and other students and academics into the Exotic Europe 2010) and, in an ambitious The course was informative, school’s space and into the culture every partnership with the Georgian National Film week. Recent speakers have included BARRY Centre, LFS is creating SILK ROAD, a 3-week contemporary and exposed me to much ACKROYD, CATHERINE BREILLAT, JOHN DE long workshop series in Tbilisi through the more of the food chain than I have BORMAN, BRUNO DUMONT, MIKE FIGGIS, MEDIA MUNDUS programme. access to in my current role PAUL GREENGRASS, TONY GRISONI, ASIF ‘Sales, Marketing KAPADIA, HANIF KUREISHI, SEAMUS and Distribution’ workshop MCGARVEY, ROGER MICHELL, SAMANTHA SPEAKEASY MORTON, NICOLAS ROEG, TESSA ROSS, Speakeasy is an invitation-only screening, participant.

IMELDA STAUNTON and PETER dinner and discussion forum hosted monthly The teaching was dynamic and tailored SUSCHITSKY. at LFS. Its overall purpose is to renew and to the needs and progress of the group. inspire critical, ambitious film thought, It was great to be taught by an discussion and practice. Speakeasy brings experienced professional working INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION together luminaries and troublemakers from LFS has numerous international partnerships the British and international film worlds, in the industry including the annual EU MEDIA funded including directors, producers, distributors, ‘Production Design and Technical ‘LOW BUDGET FILM FORUM’ (London and teachers, as well as selected writers, Drawing’ workshop participant.

2008, Budapest 2009, Les Arcs European artists and thinkers, LFS students and recent Film Festival 2010, Copenhagen 2011) in graduates. partnership with La Femis, the Budapest Academy of Film and Drama and the Danish National Film School, The Forum is designed to create a multi-national conversation about

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

HOTHOUSE

PROGRAMMES

A Practical Introduction to Location Sound: Recording and Mixing

Demystifying the HD Camera

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Cinematography is the process of capturing a vision on film. As both an art and a craft, it is a dynamic process that involves the composition of light, shadow, time and movement.

cinematographers and a new residency scheme, bringing working professionals into even closer engagement with the day–to-day teaching at the school.

For the cinematographer this requires a synthesis of technical skills and LFS has an extraordinary record of camera teaching since 1956 and its creative sensibility. In terms of craft, at LFS we teach photographic theory, Cinematography graduates include Roger Pratt, Tak Fujimoto, Howard concepts and techniques in lighting relevant to each term of the MA Atherton, Terry Bedford, Curtis Clark, Bahram Manocheri, David Scott, Filmmaking programme. We teach the practical use of our film cameras; Ivan Strasburg, Gale Tattersall and Ian Wilson. these include Arri SRs, Aaton XTRs and Moviecam Super Americas. We The Head of Camera is Harriet Cox. are also privileged to have on permanent loan a Gold Panaflex from Panavision. We Harriet joined the film industry in 1982 and The programme at LFS works for people run 2 inhouse studios for the 35mm shoots worked on a wide range of features, and lighting classes. These are equipped from all over the world because it can be commercials, promos and documentaries. with lighting rigs, studio dollies and fresnals Her feature credits include operating on the adapted to all conditions; professional and HMI lamps.

Terence D a v i e s f e a t u r e s D i s t a n t actors or non actors, different sized V o i c e s , S t i l l L i v e s and T h e L o n g D a y crews, 35mm or miniDV. What I loved C l o s e s. She completed an MA in Film We combine these skills with the working about LFS is the way we were taught to ethos of a professional crew, and from this Studies and taught cinematography skills at platform we encourage cinematography as AFECT before joining LFS in May 2001. think about films; without pretense, with a creative means of visual story telling. discipline, and centered around process T e r r y H o p k i n s - Deputy Head of During their time at the school, those and finding things out for ourselves. It’s students interested in becoming Cinematography Dept /Senior Lecturer an extraordinary thing to teach film without A n d r e w S p e l l e r - Senior Lecturer/Industry cinematographers will find many reducing it to techniques and rules, and opportunities to explore, experiment and Liaison C a r l o M u z i - Camera Technician develop their own cinematographic yet teach the rigour and effort that is R o n a l d o F a g a r a z z i - Stage sensibilities. necessary to improve your work.

Supervisor/Gaffer Paz Fabrega We believe that LFS students gain MA Filmmaking graduate 2006 Recent visiting lecturers, speakers enormously from the discipline of working Selected as Skillset Trailblazer. First Prize and “DoPs in residence” include: with, and being educated on film. Currently, Buenos Aires Film Lab terms 1, 2, 4 and 5 originate exclusively on Barry Ackroyd, Howard Atherton, John de film. During the documentary 3rd term, units Borman, Oliver Curtis, Nina Kelgrin, can choose a digital or film format and Seamus McGarvey, Nic during the 6th term, camera and lighting classes are offered on, and for Knowland, Tony Piercedigital formats. Each student can choose the origination format for their Roberts, Dick Pope, own graduation film.

David Scott, Chris Seager, Oliver Stapleton In parallel students are offered in-depth master classes on , Ueli Steiger, Ivan cinematographic concepts, theory and history. Each term is assigned a Strasburg, Peter tutor who will cover the technical and skills instruction on the relevant Suchitzky and Haris camera and lenses, and analysis of rushes.

Zambarloukis.

MA FILMMAKING

CINEMATOGRAPHY

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There are regular Q&A and masterclass events with leading DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

Lisa Muzzulni using Aaton XTR

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A large part of a film‘s meaning is carried in its soundtrack. Most directors know this but few of them know how that soundtrack is created – unless they are graduates of the London Film School, where every student, whatever their preferred field, is taught the theory and practice of recording and manipulating sound.

It starts with the study of how we hear sound, and indeed what sound is.

Next comes practical experience with Nagra V digital recorders, together with the electrical theory needed to understand how they work.

Then comes shooting sound in synchronisation with picture, also the principles behind a full range of modern microphones, mono and stereo, that are then used on location and in the studios.

Head of Sound is Howard Thompson After graduation (BA Oxon. English Lang. and Lit.) Howard worked in TV, then in cutting rooms and subsequently as a writer and sound recordist on many documentaries. He has also written three childrens’ features and ran the sound department at the legendary Royal Court Theatre.

The beauty of a good film school is that it invites you to make mistakes, but never dampens your enthusiasm. At LFS I made plenty, and ignited a passion.

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Duncan Jones, MA Filmmaking graduate 2001. Duncan Jones won the BAFTA Outstanding Debut Award for his feature debut ‘Moon’, plus Best Film awards at Athens, Sitges and Edinburgh Film Festivals.

WOJCIECH WRZESNIEWSKI - Senior Sound Lecturer KAREN WARNOCK - Sound Assistant Vasco Hexel is the current music consultant at the LFS. Vasco is a composer and arranger for film, TV, advertising, and pop music productions. He runs the Masters Programme in Composition for Screen at the Royal College of Music, which continues to provide a pool of screen composers to LFS filmmakers.

At last, it might be thought, after all that acquiring of technical knowledge ‘Sound Design’ begins. Well, without technical knowledge there is nothing to design with. But imagination – hard to teach conventionally but essential to filmmaking – is always required of a student, right from the moment in their second term when they start to think how their pictures and sounds might work together to stir an audience. That audience most likely will never understand how they have been affected, but a filmmaker graduating from the school will know, since they have learnt how to work with sound and make it work for them.

The school employs a music consultant who holds group seminars for 2nd term students and is available to all students for music consultations on a 1-to-1 basis. Students are welcome to discuss their projects at script stage, seek guidance during production and post-production. All music-

DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

LFS PROTOOLS SUITE

STONE ISLAND GRADUATION FILM. DIR. ADRIANA PARAMO PEREZ

From the second term onwards, all films have stereo soundtracks. In the Fifth Term, shot on 35mm colour, tracks are prepared on Protools 24 work stations so they can be mixed in Dolby SR.

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related matters, including spotting, stylistic choices, finding a suitable composer, working with composers and mixing, can be raised in these sessions.

MA FILMMAKING

SOUND

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We aim to give every student on the MA Filmmaking programme an understanding of the value of the editing craft and the importance of communicating with other departments and technicians involved during the production process, in order to provide the best material for the edit suite. The focus is on the practical aspects of film editing, with instruction in the use of both digital and analogue equipment, to enable London Film School students to become familiar with current professional industry standards. Film Editing lectures are structured around classic and contemporary films, highlighting the contribution of editing to the development of a rich and coherent film language.

For those individuals wishing to develop film and video editing as their intended field of work, the Editing Department offers more advanced supervised instruction and experience in cutting various formats and genres.

First term students edit 16mm monochrome rushes without sound, as an exercise in purely visual narrative.

Term Five is an extension of the previous exercise, working on 35mm. colour negative. colour negative. After fine cut, the sound is edited on Pro-tools in preparation for a Dolby SR sound mix.

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Terms Four and Five finished film prints are screened with a separate magnetic sound at the end of each term.

During Term Six, students have the opportunity to choose subjects and formats for their graduation films and lectures during this period are focused on helping each student to integrate all their acquired knowledge.

Head of Editing is JAIME ESTRADA-TORRES. Jaime started as an assistant film editor with David Naden Associates in London’s Azhur Saleem Soho, gaining his 16mm experience on a MA Filmmaking graduate 2006 number of documentaries for the BBC, ITV Young Director Award at the Cannes and the then emerging Channel 4. He Advertising Awards 2007 worked as 2nd Assistant Editor on Tim Burton’s Batman, Assembly Editor on Mike Figgis’s Hotel, On-Line Editor for Werner Herzog’s Pilgrimage; Picture and Sound editor on Biggie & Tupac directed by Nick Broomfield, winner of the 2004 Grierson Best Feature Documentary Award. Jaime was Avid consultant for Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut, George Lucas on the Star Wars Trilogy, James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and The HBO series Band of Brothers produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

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Term Three introduces students to synchronised

LFS Final Cut Pro Suite

Shira Pinson and Haim Litani in Avid Suite.

The Term Four editing exercise is an introduction to drama. Shot on B&W 35mm. with sync sound, the films are edited on a non-linear system, and film prints are then conformed: the analogue film is cut with a splicer and put together to match the digital cut. The sound is dubbed to Stereo.

LFS opened avenues for me that may not have been possible if I’d trawled up through the industry/runner route. Being given the chance to direct the LFS trailer on a professional level, using equipment for free that would be reserved for the most expensive ad campaigns, and dealing with a client, helped me gain my current employment as a commercials director.

Second term students shoot and edit nonsync pictures. Sound is then added during post-production. Through the combination of ADR (additional dialogue recording), Foley (sound effects) and music scoring sessions, each editor will discover the creative use of sound on film.

DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

sound, providing new challenges in structuring picture and sound.

MA FILMMAKING

EDITING

Editing department lecturers: STEFANIA MARANGONI - Senior Editing Lecturer ADAM SHARMAN - Instructor/Technician

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“The true mystery of the world is the visible not the invisible.”

Oscar Wilde

Students learn how to develop a visual concept and how to transform it into a cinematic reality. We use traditional drawing techniques alongside Photoshop, Sketch Up and Vector Works. The close proximity of London exhibitions and permanent collections of national galleries are used as teaching resources by the department.

Production Design is the creation of mood, atmosphere and context through the expressive use of objects, forms and colour, in the realisation of a script. In professional filmmaking a Production Designer interprets the written word for the screen, inventing a visual world and language through objects, interiors, and Head of Production Design - DIANA CHARNLEY architecture. He or she adapts and dresses locations or builds settings on a sound Diana’s feature film credits for Production Design and Art Direction include High stage employing all aspects of art direction and Hopes, Defence of the Realm, Clockwise and design to dramatise and enhance the narrative The Dawning. She was previously head of visually.

Production Design and Art Direction at the NFTS The great thing about LFS is you plot and has lectured widely including Cambridge your own way within it. You try your The design component of the MA Filmmaking University and the University of Strathclyde. Diana’s hand at every discipline, which makes programme aims to develop the student’s writing on Production Design has been published you a better director - to know what knowledge of the subject area as it directly relates by the BFI. She gained an MA from Goldsmiths everybody does on a set, the difficulties to film exercises and to each student filmmakers College in History of Modern Art and is a painter. and the technical issues. I can now sit practice. In terms 4 and 5 this involves the design down with any filmmaker and discuss and build of a set on one of the School’s sound Senior Lecturer - HAYDEN GRIFFIN any aspect of film and not be lost in a stages. All units develop and execute Production Hayden is an international theatre and film maze of terms!!

Design concepts for each script in production. The production designer and has designed for theatre, Kemal Akhtar department teaches all aspects of Production ballet and opera. Film credits include Intimacy MA Filmmaking graduate 2007 Design for both 35mm colour and black and white directed by Patrice Chereau, Painted Angels Winner Race in the Media Awards 2006 for film. These include classes in model making, directed by Jon Sanders and Wetherby by David 5th term film Zohra. composition and colour, set dressing and drawing.

Hare

MA FILMMAKING

PRODUCTION DESIGN

INFANT, 2002, dir. Steve Earls, prod. Harry Lagoussis Tomomi Maruyama and Aya Fujii set building

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The set of APPOINTMENT

All visiting lecturers and consultants in the department are professionals in feature film production working as art directors, production designers or set decorators.

Visiting Design Lecturers: Eve Stewart, Alan MacDonald, Tom Conroy, David McHenry, Adrian Smith Production Design and Costume Consultants: Jim Clay, Annie Symons Construction: Jeff Woodbridge, Ian Hammond Titles and credits: Chris Allies

DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

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Directing is principally taught by making films. Every term students make a film. In the second term every student directs.

In the graduation term every student has the opportunity to direct if they wish. In other terms students alternate roles within their small units.

This pattern of exercises through the course offers an opportunity to students to develop their personal orientation to this most complex of all arts: their syntactic narrative skills, their understanding of the pattern of possibilities presented by a script, their capacity to find their results in, and with their collaborators, the ability to construct expressive mise-en-scène.

in class: films are presented in terms of strategic decisions, made in a context of historic, technical and aesthetic limitations and possibilities.

This means that students are encouraged to look at film history and their film The London Film School offers a huge environments in terms of developing a complex meaning-based repertoire on creative challenge to any artist. It forces which to found their own directing practice. you to be self-critical, hard working and

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ambitious in a wide range of roles and on many different projects. Most importantly, it is run by people with integrity who have a genuine and infectious belief in film as an art form.

The lessons I have learned from it have been invaluable, not only to film making but to every creative discipline I have worked in since. If only real life permitted it, I would gladly go through the whole thing again!

Contributors to workshops, panellists and lecturers have included: Tony Bicat, Les Blair, Don Boyd, Terence Davies, Alnoor Dewshi, Bille Eltringham, Stephen Frears, Jack Gold, Enrique Goldman, Khaled al Hagar, Kevin Hull, Kim Hopkins, Martin Jones, Richard Kwietniowski, Rajan Khosa, Mike Leigh, Carol Morley, Lech Majewski, Pawel Pawlikowski, Udayan Prasad.

MA FILMMAKING

DIRECTING

Classes supporting this area discuss and rehearse: preparation, shot lists and storyboards, blocking, protocols of dealing Jack Mcnamara with professional actors, reading scripts, the MA Filmaking graduate 2005 construction of film sequence. In the second year the main teaching of directing is through workshops: the attitude of the school is that the range should vary as widely as possible to give students their own space to build their own repertoire of formal approaches.

Workshops deal with script interpretation, directing actors, improvisation, mise-en-scène, use of camera, location shooting.

LFS has evolved a uniquely practical approach to discussions of directing

MIKE graduation film. Dir. Giacamo La Monaco

HOUSE OF CARDS Dir:Jean-Phillipe Tremblay Prod: Basil El-Titi 2004

FRENCH EXCHANGE, Term 4 exercise, directed by Sasha Collington

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DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

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The dual focus of screenwriting education on the MA Filmmaking programme is to instil the habit of writing as a valuable skill in all aspects of filmmaking and to develop scripts for the fiction film exercises in Terms 4 and 5, as well as the graduation project/

develop working relationships with the writers through joint classes, evening screenings and social events. MA screenwriters are also appointed to selected 4th and 5th term projects as script editors and are available to work with filmmaking students on their graduate projects.

See page 11 for details of the MA Screenwriting programme.

The school does not impose an institutional regime on screenwriting but all scripts explored and revised through an Head of Screenwriting - BRIAN ongoing process of discussion and criticism.

DUNNIGAN We involve visiting lecturers and the whole At LFS I’ve been exposed to ideas and Recent contributors to script workshops, school in an ongoing debate about scripts influences that are many times wider panels and assessments include: Petra being conceived and developed. We treat the and more catholic than the industry Cooper, Erin Cramer, Roger Hyams, Kolton script as a blueprint for the story’s realisation standard McKee orthodoxy and I’ve Lee, Amanda Schiff, Karen Street, Archie as film rather than as a literary artefact. enjoyed feedback, camaraderie and Tait, Edward Windus.

From the second term every student is part of encouragement that will continue to a writing workshop, developing and refining inform my development for many years working relationships along with the scripts. to come.

Every script that goes into production in Terms Three, Four and Five goes through rigorous Jimmy Ruzicka discussion at a guest Script Panel. The panel’s 2007 MA Screenwriting Graduate advice can be fed into further development and into the script choices of the term. Before going into production there are further script editing sessions with all the selected projects. It is also possible to see a range of tutors on a one-toone basis throughout the term.

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DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

MAX – 2nd term exercise. Dir Karim Higazy

Since September 2005 LFS has also been running a separate MA degree course in Screenwriting. The short and feature scripts written on the course are a valuable resource for MA filmmakers who are encouraged to

PEACE TIME graduation film. Dir. Corin Taylor

BLUE COLLARS AND BUTTERCUPS, Graduation Film Production Dir: Janis Pugh Producer: James Youngs

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MA FILMMAKING

SCREENWRITING

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The Producer’s job stretches from the widely undervalued discovery stage, where they find strong material and corral together those who will bring it all to life, through production to sales and delivery. Through each stage the producer has a mission: the effective, creative and collaborative management of priorities. Every film is a prototype, and every complex decision in film production, however familiar-seeming, is strangely individual. Producers have the duty and privilege of managing filmmaking decisions from conception to presentation. We know that they are the producers partly because they arrive in this process first and quit last.

Filmmaking is a collaborative art built on real dialogue between creative partners, and for this reason we emphasise the role of the Producer. For instance, we don’t like taking script meetings without the Producer present. In a small unit fiction producing can be effectively combined with just about any job - other than Director.

Most LFS Production teaching is about project development, script and resource issues. The school teaches the essential detail of production management: preparation, script breakdown, budgeting, scheduling, unit management and the tasks that will be undertaken in the Production Department, Film schools should not be factories from First Assistant Director to Continuity. which produce filmmakers on an We offer production forms and agreements assembly line. A good film school should through the student intranet to back up this be a laboratory where students look for work. Producers are also Script Editors, their own language. The London Film feedback monitors in the cutting room, and lobbyists to the school and outside School gives you this space. supporters.

Remi Borgeaud

Film school units, with their overwhelming flavour of creative ferment and their limited resources, tend to call people Producers who in fact have the limited creative power of Production Managers.

Production Management is a key part of the whole production role, which takes its place alongside Script Editing, Crewing MA filmmaking graduate 2007 and Casting, Contracts and Distribution Production is taught in the school by Ben First prizes at Corto In Bra and Mexico for and other key areas. What’s important is Gibson, the Director, Margaret Glover, graduation film Un Riff Para Lazaro. to create a genuine creative understanding Senior Lecturer, and by visiting tutors. from which to collaborate, and avoid the vital role of Producer getting caught up in the all enveloping powerbase of the Director.

Recent visiting lecturers, Honorary Executive Producers and panelists include: Mia Bays, Don Boyd, Chris Collins, Natasha Dack, Emma Dobinson, Mike Downey, Mike Elliott, Peter Ettedgui, Bertrand Faivre, Robin Gutch, Laura Hastings-Smith, Sally Llewelyn, Janine Marmot, Eliza Mellor, Keith Northrop, Rebecca O’Brien, Kate Ogborn, Nikki Parrott, Sarah Radcliffe, Lisa-Marie Russo, Iain Smith, Sylvia Stevens, Jeremy Thomas, Stephen Woolley.

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ONE LAST FIGHT - Term 2 Film Exercise Dir: Ben Enebi Producer: Dana Verde

WHAT IS HE BUILDING IN THERE, Term 4 film exercise Dir: Patrick Graham Producer: Salil Fernandez

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MA FILMMAKING

PRODUCTION

DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

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Film History. Director Strategies. Politics and Culture.

and sound eras, and new cinema of the “third world”. Screen studies is taught by Alan Bernstein, Head of Studies and First Term Tutor, Dr. Barry Salt, Fourth and Fifth Term Tutor, and Visiting Lecturer Simon Louvish.

Film History: This is a survey course. The emphasis is on the development of the technology and the stylistic use of new possibilities created by The amount of growth these advances.

The primary series is aimed at the First Term, but the course is repeated and varied on a six term cycle, so that over two years students have access to more than eighty film history sessions.

Director Strategies: Each term a director or group of films is selected: a film is shown each week, usually in 35mm, and analysed from the point of view of the complex pattern of directing strategies it reveals, set in the contexts of technical possibilities, the director’s other work, and the possible and impossible options presented by film, cultural and social history. Across the two years there are nearly seventy different classes.

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that I experienced as a filmmaker in two years at LFS is really…unquantifiable. Not only did we learn how to watch, shoot and discuss film intelligently, but also we learned how to work from the inside out.. The staff are absolutely committed to cultivating their students to flourish to become the best filmmakers they are capable of being. Simply the training both practically and emotionally, is second to none.

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Barney Elliot MA Filmmaking graduate 2003 Cannes Residence Du Festival participant 2007.

There are many other classes given as individual sessions, by staff or visiting lecturers, individually or as short series.

Some of these are regular presentations and some take advantage of a particular specialist’s availability.

During the first four weeks of term the School’s Film Society plays host to a number of evening masterclass presentations of new work, classic films reconsidered and programmes of short films.

All students on the MA Filmmaking, MA Screenwriting and MA Curating programmes are welcome to attend Screen Studies classes.

MA FILMMAKING/MA SCREENWRITING

SCREEN STUDIES

DEPARTMENTS AND STUDIES

Students attending a rushes viewing

A PIANO IN WARSAW, Term 4 film exercise Dir: Thorsten Wien Producer: Samuele Romano

BRAIDS ON A BALD HEAD Graduation film, Dir. Ishaya Bako

Politics and culture: Film as the voice of a society and its ideas, ranging from the early days of Hollywood, through global cinema in the silent

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MA FILMMAKING CURRICULUM

The first term gives students a thorough grounding in the basics of filmmaking. The centre of the term is the film exercise, which provides the platform for basic teaching in camera skills, exposure control, and editing. The assumption is that students all start from a similar background and all need a full, fast introduction to professional procedures.

The term is dedicated to the principle of learning how to tell a story in pictures. Scripts are subject to detailed scrutiny and discussion. Students have to practise basic production management skills: organising location permissions, securing props and costumes. They have to cast and work with professional actors. In parallel, all through the term, courses run in film history and in the close analysis of directors’ strategies, showing and discussing work from Hitchcock to Lang via, say, Spike Lee and Kiarostami.

There are classes on photo theory, directing syntax, producing, production management, production design, practicals on the Aaton XTR, use of light meters, and editing.

THE ROAD HOME Graduation film. Dir. Rahul Gandotra

Romi Aboulafia - Camera Assistant on BLUE COLLARS AND BUTTERCUPS, Graduation Film Production Dir: Janis Pugh Producer: James Youngs

FIRST TERM EXERCISE: A three and a half minute, 16mm, black and white, mute film made on location. All students are expected to produce a script. From these a selection is made and the final script filmed by students working in units of three.

CURRICULUM

MATERIALS FOR EACH UNIT: 16mm Aaton XTR + prime lenses, 400 feet of Kodak 7217film for delivery as monochrome TK; edit on Avid Media Composer.

SECOND TERM EXERCISE: Each student scripts and directs their own film: 1-3 minutes long, 16mm colour shot on location, with post-synchronised sound. They edit and design sound tracks for their film. Re-recording/mixing of soundtracks is carried out in outside professional studios.

MA FILMMAKING

Unit 1 - Image, Meaning, Style

The Second Term is intense and exciting. This term introduces students to lighting skills and to sound recording and digital editing. Students work in units of five or six , directing their own films and camera operating, lighting and fulfilling other supporting roles on the films of their colleagues, so that they are intimately involved in all their unit’s projects.

MATERIALS FOR EACH STUDENT: 16mm Aaton XTR + prime lenses, 200 feet of 16mm Kodak colour film; lighting kit; Nagra V recorder; edit on Avid Media Composer; outside dubbing theatre.

This Second Term project involves students producing films inspired by paintings in an art gallery. Students are taken on a conducted tour of selections of paintings which are discussed in terms of composition, colour, narrative and patronage. They then choose a painting from the gallery’s collection as an inspiration for their film.

An exciting element of this exercise is that the students may respond to any aspect of the painting thus following in a tradition embraced by many directors, cinematographers and set designers who have been influenced by artists from Rembrandt, Vermeer and Caravaggio to Turner and Renoir.

Previous work can be viewed at www.nationalgallery.org.uk/education.

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MA FILMMAKING CURRICULUM THIRD TERM EXERCISE: A ten minute, 16mm, colour documentary film, with synch sound. Students work in units of five, with each student taking on at least one of the major roles - Producer, Director, Lighting Camera, Camera Operator, Sound Recordist and Editor. Re-recording/mixing of soundtracks is carried out at professional sound studios. Students shoot their own titles on the 16mm rostrum camera. Students are also offered the option of shooting on HD using the Sony EX1 camera. Editing is done on Avid Composer.

The remit of the term is wider than that of the ‘classical’ documentary, and students are encouraged to think of the expressive functions of images of the real world and their use in new forms.

RAVI GOES TO SCHOOL, Graduation Film Dir/Producer: Anu Menon

Britain has a long and rich documentary tradition, going back to Grierson, and kept alive by television. Today this tradition informs feature film making as much as television reportage and current affairs.

The school recruits a ‘Resident Documentarist’ each term who will show their work, consult units on their films and provide support. There is a wide range of classes supporting the non-fiction production: lectures on documentary history, showings of contemporary non-fiction, classes in research techniques, interviewing, music in documentary, recording synch systems, use of synch sound on location, synchronising rushes and editing synch material, practical demonstrations of location lighting, a practice shoot with synch sound, lecture/demonstrations and practicals on video camerawork, and practicals on the 16mm rostrum camera. Throughout the term script workshops are developing drama scripts for the later terms.

MATERIALS FOR EACH UNIT OF SIX STUDENTS: Film: Aaton XTR with Zeiss 10/100 or Cooke 9/50 zoom lens; 2,000 ft of 16mm Kodak colour negative; Location lighting kit. HD: Sony EX1 or similar with integral zoom lens; 2 Sony SxS Pro Memory cards (100 min. per card); Location lighting kit; Nagra V recorder; Edit on Avid Media Composer.

Resident Documentarists, Documentary lecturers and panelists include: Helena Appio, Don Boyd, Antonia Caccia, David Glover, Peter Gordon, Mike Grigsby, Ann Hawker, Kevin Hull, Marc Isaacs, John Krish, Patrick Keiller, Victoria Mapplebeck, Hugh Purcell, Witold Starecki, Joram ten Brink, Michael Whyte, Elizabeth Wood.

CURRICULUM

FOURTH TERM EXERCISE: A ten-minute, 35mm, black and white sound film, shot in the studio and on location. Units consist of five students, each taking at least one major role. The films are shot with synchronised sound. Recording and laying post-synchronised tracks are also an important part of the exercise.

Rerecording/ mixing of soundtracks is carried out at professional sound studios.

MA FILMMAKING

Unit 2 - Non-Fiction and Fiction

In Terms Four and Five the requirements and expectations from students are very high. The London Film School is one of the few schools in the world offering 35mm studio film making as an integral feature of the curriculum. Scripts have been developed, discussed and criticised during the previous term.

Students choose scripts and crews. Student producers are then required to develop a set of production forms detailing all the film’s requirements, and these, together with the scripts are presented to production conferences with all heads of department to initiate the process. Over this and the next term there are an important series of directing workshops, and working with actors is a major component of these.

Other classes include production design, art direction, set building, production management, continuity, studio lighting theory/practicals, studio sound recording, 35mm editing, practicals on Moviecam Superamerica cameras, laying multiple sound tracks, demonstration at external sound studios of ADR techniques, practicals on 35mm rostrum camera and demonstrations and workshops on non-linear editing.

Students design, build and dress their own sets, and there are classes and consultation sessions taking them through this. Studio lighting is at the heart of the exercise, and for many students this is the major excitement of the term. By this stage students are expected to manage their lighting in a highly professional way.

MATERIALS FOR EACH UNIT: 35mm Moviecam Superamerica + prime lenses; 2800 feet of Kodak Double X; studio and location lighting equipment; Nagra V digital recorder; edit and tracklay on Avid Media composer.

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MA FILMMAKING CURRICULUM FIFTH TERM EXERCISE: In the fifth term students make a drama up to fifteen minutes long, in colour and 35mm, on location and in the studio. This continues the form of the fourth term, but at a higher level. Scripts written and developed over the previous year are chosen by the students. Crews are built around the scripts. Scripts are broken down by producers and presented to production conferences with heads of the various departments. Sets are designed; models built and discussed.

The excitement - and successes - of lighting are at an even higher level than the previous term. The programme of directing workshops continues. As in the fourth term, the number of films scheduled is high given the number of students. This means that students work on more than one film, and that students from the lower terms are drawn in as assistants in all departments. The integral learning process of each film is shared widely. Classes and workshops include directing actors, stereo sound and preparation for the Sixth Term graduation project.

SIXTH TERM EXERCISE: THE GRADUATION FILM: CURRICULUM

THE BORSELINO EXPERIMENT, Term 5 film exercise Dir: Samuele Romano Producer: Miri Shapiro

PART OF ME Graduation film. Dir. Mihaal Danziger

MATERIALS FOR EACH UNIT: 35 mm Panavision Gold for studio, 35mm Moviecam Superamerica for location; 3600 feet of Kodak Colour; studio and location lighting equipment; Nagra V digital recorder; edit on Avid Media Composer; Tracklay on ProTools HD Digital Audio Work Station. Final mix in Dolby SR.

THE GRADUATION FILM: Students are assigned a budget by the school to build a project. They can work individually or pool their budgets and efforts. They can shoot on any format and at any length they can budget and schedule.

Students are strongly encouraged to raise funds and build coproduction deals, with production companies and/or other graduate film schools, either here in the UK or abroad.

MA FILMMAKING

Unit 3 - Industry and Independents

Each project’s script, schedule and budget will be examined and discussed with the Term Tutors. The Development Process is supported through specialist workshops in directing, camera & lighting, and postproduction led by LFS faculty in collaboration with industry specialists.

Pre-production is monitored by the Term Tutor and relevant Heads of Department. Before a project is given the green light all necessary paperwork must be in place and approved. Delivery requirements match those of the major international festivals.

In addition to advising on the festival strategy for each graduation film, the school supports the transition from student to professional in a variety of ways. To begin, the school’s Director takes each graduating filmmaker through a week-long workshop on international industry practice, thus providing the context for their entry into the profession.

This is followed by job club, for specific strategies for opening doors and gaining experience, as well as work. In addition to this core curriculum, industry guests meet with graduating filmmakers to discuss presentation techniques, preparing CVs and showreels, and networking. Finally, there is the mentoring programme. Students are invited to select a mentor and put together a mentoring plan in consultation with the Term Tutors. This programme is currently supported by Skillset.

LFS is committed to supporting its graduates in developing a strategy for their entry into the expanding and fast-changing media industries.

Through the growing network of associates LFS maintains and develops contacts throughout the world to support this work.

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THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

MA SCREENWRITING CURRICULUM The programme is non-modular. It is composed of three units to be taken sequentially. The course is full-time only and lasts one year. Some of the component classes are term specific and others run continuously across the whole programme.

Each unit will carry 60 credits at MA level. The result for the first two units shall be pass or fail. The result for the third unit shall be pass with distinction, pass or fail. The corresponding awards will be MA Screenwriting (Units 1-3 passed), Post-graduate Diploma (Units 1-2 passed) and Post-graduate Certificate (Unit 1 passed).

Unit 1: The Screenwriters Craft This unit provides an introductory and theoretical framework for the practical work with an emphasis on the writer’s personal development. It includes an overview of dramatic principles as applied to a distinctively cinematic approach to storytelling. It also encourages a critical evaluation of those principles in relation to the creative process and the development of original work for the screen.

Workshops on storytelling and film language, characterisation, scene writing and step outlines, the development of original ideas for the screen and adapting material from another medium are based around practical writing exercises. Visiting professional screenwriters discuss their methods of working with practical examples of past and present work.

Classes on film style and history, including a programme of evening screenings in the film theatre, provide a context for the written work. In addition students have the option to work on film exercises produced by students on the Filmmaking MA - while their short and feature screenplays are a valuable resource for the filmmakers. Collaboration between writers and filmmakers is continually encouraged through joint sessions, social events and the posting of projects on the screenwriters’ blog site.

Students’ reflections on the relationship between theory and practice, screenwriting and filmmaking as well as establishing a partnership with 38

a professional writing mentor, profoundly influence the outcome of their work and the preparation for their major project. This includes the writing of a Work and Research Journal which tracks their personal and project development through the inclusion of visual references and self-reflective notes on course and project work.

The main practical focus of this unit is the writing of a Short Film Screenplay and the production of a Feature Film Portfolio through small group and one-to-one feedback sessions with actors, directors and development professionals.

Unit 2: The Screenwriter’s Practice Students will normally have passed Unit One before starting Unit Two. The main focus of this unit is the development of a First Draft Feature Screenplay through small group feedback and one-to-one Mentoring.

This unit continues to place screenwriting within the context of craft skills, film style and the filmmaking process. It also introduces the economic and industrial context for film production, distribution and exhibition and the role of the writer and the screenplay within that context.

Class work and exercises including the Writers Gym and a National Gallery day - focus on visualisation and cinema specific aspects of screenwriting - while workshops with actors, directors and editors demonstrate how a knowledge of the filmmaking process is essential to the developing screenwriter. Alternative models of screenwriting are explored through case studies of screenplays, screenwriters and filmmakers.

The Work and Research Journal continues to provide a transparent account of the writers’ creative development and engagement with the course while the Feature Film screenplay remains the practical, assessable outcome of that process.

Unit 3: Writing the Feature Film Students will normally have passed Unit Two before starting Unit Three.

This unit continues the series of lectures on the history of cinema with CURRICULUM

evening screenings built around debate and contact with contemporary filmmakers. Visiting writers, producers and agents with specialist workshops on television writing and adaptation provides the industrial context.

The principle focus of this unit is on the key practical work of the Masters programme the writing and development of a Feature Film project through two further drafts supported by a professional writing Mentor.

The final screenplay along with an outline of project development and the Work and Research Journal complete the assessable work for the MA programme.

Selected scenes from the graduate screenplays are presented at a Showcase event for industry professionals later in the year.

BRIAN DUNNIGAN - Head of Screenwriting

Visiting lecturers and mentors have included: Tony Grisoni - Writer: Tideland, In This World, Red Riding Trilogy Mike Leigh - Director/Writer: Vera Drake, Secrets and Lies, Another Year An LFS education is not limited to Laurence Coriat - Writer: Me without You, Wonderland, Genova the technical skills that produce new Ronald Harwood - Writer: The Pianist, filmmakers. It’s an education that Diving Bell and the Butterfly challenges you to find your voice William Nicholson - Writer: Shadowlands, and make it heard.

Gladiator Oliver Hermanus 2009 MA Filmmaking Olivia Hetreed - Writer: Girl with a Pearl graduate. Oliver’s graduation feature Earring, Wuthering Heights ‘Shirley Adams’, co-written by 2008 Tony Marchant - Writer: Crime and Screenwriting graduate Stavros Pamballis, Punishment, The Mark of Cain won Best Film, Best Director and Best Guy Hibbert - Writer: Five Minutes of Actress at the South African Film Heaven, Blood and Oil and TV awards and first prizes at Dubai, Richard Kwietniowski - Writer/Director: Love Amiens and Durban. and Death on Long Island Pawel Pawlikowski - Director: My Summer of Love, Last Resort Udayan Prasad - Director: My Son the Fanatic, Gabriel and Me Sandy Lieberson - Producer: Performance, Stars and Bars Andy Paterson - Producer: Hilary and Jackie, Girl with a Pearl Earring Aishling Walsh - Writer/Director: Song for A Raggy Boy Rebecca O’Brien - Producer: The Wind That Shakes the Barley, A Fond Kiss Mark Solomon - Editor: Chicken Run, Frankeweenie, The Tale of Desperaux Roger Smith - Script Editor: Land and Freedom, Route Irish

‘

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SURVIVOR, WRITTEN BY GABRIEL VALLEJO (MA SCREENWRITING GRADUATE 2007), DIRECTED

BY NICOLE VOLAVKA (MA FILMMAKING GRADUATE 2009)

Course tutors: Ellis Freeman, Roger Hyams,

Amanda Schiff, Hope Dickson Leach, Jonathan Hourigan, Philip Palmer, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Roxy Spencer, Ed Windus, and Hugh Stoddart.

MA SCREENWRITING

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

CURRICULUM

39

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

LFS GRADUATES The film industries of almost every country in the world are liberally sprinkled with graduates of the School, who are entitled to call themselves ALFS (Associates of the London Film School). A very short list might include: Brad Anderson Howard Atherton Terry Bedford Les Blair Philipp Blaubach Don Boyd Ole Bratt Birkeland Curtis Clark Harley Cokeliss George P. Cosmatos Boaz Davidson Ross Devenish Bill Douglas Julian Doyle Steve Dubin Sara Duvall Mark Forstater Tak Fujimoto Nic Gaster Mark Goldblatt Pedro González-Rubio Eduardo Guedes Anne Hui Danny Huston John Irvin Ahmed A. Jamal

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Director, Writer, Editor, Cinematographer Director of Photography Director / Director of Photography Director / Writer, Producer, Editor Director of Photography Director / Writer / Producer Director of Photography Director of Photography Director / Director of Photography Director Director / Writer / Producer Director Director / Writer Editor / Director Visual Effects Producer / Director / DoP Producer Producer Director of Photography Editor Editor Director / Cinematographer Director Director Director / Actor Director Director

Transsiberian, The Wire (TV), The Machinist Fatal Attraction, Bad Boys, Lolita Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwacky, Slayground H3, Bad Behaviour, Jump the Gun The Disappearance of Alice Creed, The Escapist Andrew and Jeremy Get Married, My Kingdom, Twenty-One The Arbor, Helen The Draughtsman’s Contract, Extremities, Nicky and Gino An Angel for May, Black Moon Rising, Dream Demon Tombstone, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cobra The Expendables, Bad Lieutenant, Brooklyn’s Finest Bleak House (TV), Dalziel and Pascoe (TV), Between The Lines (TV) My Childhood, Comrades, My Way Home Brazil, Life of Brian, The Wind In The Willows The Lord of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, I Robot Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Signs Moon, Venus, Enduring Love Terminator, X-Men, Armageddon Alamar, Toro Negro Rocinante, Bearskin, An Urban Fairytale, Facas e Anjos The Postman Life of My Aunt, Ordinary Heroes, July Rhapsody Children of Men, The Constant Gardener, 21 Grams Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV), The Dogs of War, Hamburger Hill The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl, Mad Dogs, Majdhar

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

LFS GRADUATES Knut Erik Jensen Duncan Jones Faris Kermani Mike Leigh Robert Leighton Luis Manoki Michael Mann Bahram Manocheri Joáo César Montieiro Horace Ove Kant Pan Ron Peck Migual Pereira Roger Pratt Alessandro Di Robilant Franc Roddam Shimako Sato David Scott Geoffrey Simpson Iain Smith Ueli Steiger Ivan Strasburg Gale Tattersall David Thompson Herschel Weingrod Arnold Wesker Ian Wilson Ho Yim

Director / Writer Director Director Director / Writer Editor Director Director / Writer / Producer Director of Photography Director Director Editor Director / Writer Director / Writer Director of Photography Director Director / Producer Director / Writer Director of Photography Director of Photography Producer Director of Photography Director of Photography Director of Photography Film Historian Writer Playwright Director of Photography Director

Cool and Crazy, Passing Darkness, Burnt By Frost Moon, Source Code The Sabri Brothers, Karachi Kops (TV) Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake The Bucket List, For Your Consideration, Stand By Me When a Man Loves a Woman, Message in a Bottle, Amazing Grace Public Enemies, Collateral, Heat Bleak Moments, Boxed, Johnny West Recollections of the Yellow House, God’s Wedding, Come and Go Pressure, Playing Away, Reggae The Crying Game, Solomon and Gaenor, Kicks Empire State, Nighthawks, Fighters The Man Who Came to a Village, Che Ernesto, Veronica Cruz The Karate Kid, Dorian Gray, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Il Nodo Alla Cravatta, Ill Giudice, Raazzino, Forever Quadrophenia, K2, Auf Wiedersehen Tales of a Vampire, k20: Legend of the Mask, Yasha Il Giudice Ragazzino, Il Nodo Alla Cravatta Shine, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Little Women Cold Mountain, Alexander, Children Of Men The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Shooting Dogs, Bloody Sunday, Endurance The Commitments, House, Ghost Ship Twins, Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop Chicken Soup with Barley The Crying Game, A Way of Life, Emma Wo ai chu fang, Tian guo ni zi

HONORARY ASSOCIATES Amma Asante Jim Broadbent Stephen Frears Cedric James Abbas Kiarostami Samantha Morton Pawel Pawlikoski Roy Pointer Tessa Ross Lynne Ramsay Jeremy Thomas Colin Tucker

Writer / Director Actor Director Focus Puller Writer / Director Actress / Director Writer / Director Cinematographer Channel 4 Film and Drama Controller Writer / Director Producer Producer / Script Editor 41

THE LONDON FILM SCHOOL

ENROLMENT All applicants must complete the relevant Application Form, Reference Forms, and Special Needs monitoring Form. EU students must complete the Ethnicity form.

The need to follow and understand the intensive course of lectures, and the high pressure of group work make it imperative that all students must have a satisfactory knowledge of the English language.

Evidence of such knowledge would be: •Minimum TOEFL at grade 550.

•Minimum IELTS with a score of 6 and no element below 5.5.

•Minimum Cambridge Proficiency Grade C. •Other evidence of spoken or written fluency.

Acceptances are conditional on a suitable knowledge of English. Students may be refused entry on presenting themselves if their command of English is considered to be insufficient. Students so refused entry will be invited to attend a language school and, after three months, will be entitled to enrol, provided that by then they have reached the required standard.

Candidates resident in the United Kingdom may be required to attend for an interview. Candidates resident abroad should make themselves available for interview in the event that they visit the United Kingdom and intend to submit, or have already submitted, an application. They may be interviewed by telephone.

MA Filmaking A new MA Filmmaking Course starts each term, so it is possible to enrol for entry in September, January or May. With the application they must submit a script for a short film about three minutes in length, consisting of approximately twenty to thirty shots. Each shot must be illustrated by a sketch or photograph of not less than 6cm by 8cm in size. All work on such scripts must be the original work of the candidates. Please enclose a personal statement of not more than 750 words. This should include an account of why you think you are suitable for the course and how it might support your future plans.

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Any experience in photography, music, theatre, AV, journalism, painting, graphics etc. is also valuable and should be detailed. You may support your application by submitting a portfolio of examples film, photography, art or literary work. If you prefer to bring material to an interview, please note this on the application.

Minimum qualification for an application to be considered are a three year university degree or equivalent professional experience in a relevant area.

The average age of students is in their middle or late twenties, but the range is great and we welcome applications from older students.

MA Screenwriting Entry is in September each year. With their application the candidate must supply the following: •A script for a short 10-15 minute film.

•1 - 2 page synopsis for an original feature film plus an opening sequence with dialogue.

•Three half page pitches for original features.

•A description of your life up to the point of applying for the course (max 1000 words).

For applications forms and for information on fees and funding please see our website www.lfs.org.uk Enrolment for the Exeter-LFS Doctoral Programme and for LFS workshops are also available on the website.

Disabled Access The School welcomes applications from disabled people, including those with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. While we cannot claim to have all the facilities and services that will meet each need for students undertaking our MA Filmmaking or MA Screenwriting programme, we will endeavour to remove barriers to access and to success in post graduate film education for disabled people.

THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE INDUSTRY WITHOUT WHOM OUR WORK WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE

SPONSORS

The London Film School 24 Shelton Street London WC2H 9UB U.K. Registered in England No. 1197026 Registered Charity No. 270302 Telephone: +44 (0)20 7836 9642 Fax: +44 (0)20 7497 3718 Email: info@lfs.org.uk Web: www.lfs.org.uk

lfs.org.uk