BFAFilm
Express your identity as a filmmaker and move beyond conventions to break new ground in cinema.
Overview
Join a creative community
As a film major at CCA, you’ll learn to master the fundamentals of filmmaking within a dynamic art school environment. Our program’s interdisciplinary culture, influenced by the college’s collaborative community and range of academic disciplines, challenges you to be creative and thought-provoking in your work. Our program’s world-class group of faculty supports the development of your personal style and artistic vision and encourages you to experiment and invent new approaches to filmmaking process and technique. You’ll graduate from the BFA Film program ready to forge exciting opportunities within the rapidly shifting landscape of contemporary cinema and media arts. Like CCA Film on Facebook for the latest updates.
Explore Film
@ccafilm
April 24, 2024
Meet Xiaofeng (Cell) @xiaofeng2293 the Director of “The Time Refrigerator” premiering at the BFA Thesis screening on March 3rd at 6pm located on Campus at Timken Hall.
Cell is an incredible Director of Photography, known for being a brilliant problem solver. He has spent his time at CCA working on numerous of sets within the BFA and MFA program. He is such a kind and professional artist with a profound new short film that is worth watching.
April 22, 2024
Come to Timken Hall on Friday, May 3rd @ 6pm to watch the BFA thesis films one of them being “World Wide Web”
Meet Tori, an experimental filmmaker from Baltimore.
They prefer narratives that are made of abstract, low-fidelity images, woven like a web or fabric. Image fatigue from the internet is real; It gives video the potential to be phantasmagorically weird and subversive.
Most of Tori’s work is video art exploring inner realities. They take inspiration from everything; mainly dreams, music, experiences and encounters.
April 19, 2024
On May 3rd at 6pm, the BFA graduating class (and Marley I guess) will be screening their thesis films at Timken Hall. There will be a reception afterward. Please come and support the film program! 🕺✨🎥
March 14, 2024
Congratulations to CCA Film faculty and Interim Chair Alison O’Daniel and everyone who made @thetubathieves great- Critics Pick in @nytimes !
Studios & Shops
Explore a variety of forms
CCA film majors learn how to make films from start to finish, working both independently and in groups. Practical skills—such as writing, producing, filming, and editing—paired with a comprehensive grounding in cinema history and theory will inform your creative decisions and storytelling. Our curriculum is designed to help you think broadly about the medium of film, giving you the freedom to explore a variety of forms in your work, including narrative, experimental, installation and multiple channel video, media art, and documentary.
Cutting-edge methods and ideas
Mastering the tools of cinema is just the beginning. As you work toward your senior project, you’ll have opportunities to experiment with new processes and techniques. Collaborating with graduate film students, as well as with students studying animation, photography, and writing and literature, will push you to challenge your ideas about film and performance. You’ll also meet a range of filmmakers and artists who are working at the forefront of the medium today through CCA Film Week and our lecture series, Voices in Moving Image.
Senior project and public presentation
The BFA Film program culminates in the Senior Projects course, where you’ll conceptualize, produce, and edit a final work. You’ll create a sample reel, share your work at a screening or exhibition, and write an artist statement. Through the process of public presentation, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of how your work engages the larger discourse of contemporary film and art.
Facilities and resources
- Film Cage for equipment check-out
- Production stage with green screen
- Audio suite
- Post-production edit suites
- Post-production lab
Faculty
Award-winning filmmakers and artists
Our faculty are working filmmakers and media artists. Their backgrounds range from directing and cinematography to post-production, sound design, and installation. Rather than guiding students along one preferred path, faculty encourage students to broaden their perspectives, experiment with form, and work outside their comfort zones.
Ranu Mukherjee, Chair of Film
Chair Ranu Mukherjee is an artist who makes hybrid work in moving image, painting, and installation to build new imaginative capacities. She draws inspiration from the histories of collage, Black feminist science fiction, and Indian mythological prints of the late 19th century.
Her solo projects and exhibitions have been presented by the Asian Art Museum, de Young Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Tarble Arts Center, Karachi Biennale, Galerie Barbara Thumm, and Gallery Wendi Norris, her representing gallery. Mukherjee is currently a Lucas Arts Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center (2019–2022) and the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2020).
Curriculum
We think with our hands
Learn filmmaking at an art school
Our program covers the fundamental principles of film production, as well as specific areas of film and related audiovisual practices. Focused workshops—such as advanced editing, writing and sound for the moving image, and expanded cinema— offer intensive, collaborative experiences. As a CCA Film student, you’ll discover how your individual style fits within the aesthetic, philosophical, and social discourse of contemporary film. View sample courses.
Investigate ideas through every dimension
Every undergraduate participates in the First Year Experience, where you’ll explore a wide range of materials and tools over the course of two semesters. Faculty from different disciplines guide studio projects, group critiques, and theoretical discussions, setting you up for success throughout their major coursework.
BFA Film
Core Studio
- Drawing 1
- 3.0 units
- 2D, 3D, and 4D
- 9.0 units
Film Major Requirements
- Film 1: Image and Sound
- 3.0 units
- Film Language and Form
- 3.0 units
- Film 2: Production
- 3.0 units
- Post-Production
- 3.0 units
- Film Studio (FILMS 3700)
- 3.0 units
- Film Studio (FILMS 2700 or 3700)
- 15.0 units
- Junior Tutorial
- 3.0 units
- Film 3: Advanced Production
- 3.0 units
- Senior Project: Film
- 3.0 units
Additional Studio Requirements
- Interdisciplinary Critique
- 3.0 units
- Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Studio
- 3.0 units
- Studio Electives
- 12.0 units
Humanities & Sciences Requirements
- Writing 1
- 3.0 units
- Writing 2
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Arts
- 3.0 units
- Introduction to the Modern Arts
- 3.0 units
- Foundation in Critical Studies
- 3.0 units
- Media History: Film Genres and Practices
- 3.0 units
- Critical Ethnic Studies Seminar (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Literary and Performing Arts Studies (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Philosophy and Critical Theory (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Social Science/History (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Science/Math (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- History of Art and Visual Culture (2000 level)
- 3.0 units
- Humanities and Sciences Electives (2000 or 3000 level, at least 6 units must be 3000 level)
- 12.0 units
Total 120.0 units
Careers
Evolve your practice
Students graduate from film school with experience in every aspect of film and video production and are ready to make a lasting impact on contemporary cinema, visual, media, and sound arts. They find opportunities inside and outside the industry—from short documentary and narrative film projects, to experimental and multidisciplinary work, to gallery and museum exhibition.
Potential career paths
- Filmmaker/Director
- Cinematographer
- Film editor
- Screenwriter
- Visual artist
News & Events
CCA's cinema culture
How to Apply
Express your vision through film
We look for aspiring filmmakers and artists who want to learn all the tools of cinema and who dream about expressing their vision through the moving image. Follow the link below for information on the admissions process, application due dates, scholarships, and more.
Find your creative community at CCA
