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
Nov. 14, 2022
Join us VIRTUALLY this Wednesday for lecture with guest filmmaker Whitney Fuller! November 16th, 4-7pm for Voices in Moving Image w/ CCA Film
Zoom https://cca.zoom.us/j/92239410570
[event link in bio]
Whitney Fuller is a Development Executive for @monkeypawproductions working across television, film, and podcasts. Previously, she was a Creative Executive for Will Packer Productions in Features and spearheaded the Podcast division formed under their iHeartMedia deal. Prior to that, she cut her teeth in development at Legendary Television and WGN America. Whitney Fuller is a NY/GA native and graduate of Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a satirical comedy starring Regina Hall as Trinitie Childs - the proud first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch, who together with her husband Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown), once served a congregation in the tens of thousands. But after a scandal forces their church to temporarily close, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must reopen their church and rebuild their congregation to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen.
Free and open to the public.
Nov. 4, 2022
TONIGHT! Friday, November 4th at 4pm. Production Stage. 16mm film performances followed by Q&A.
Tomonori Nishikawa and Madison Brookshire join us from NY and LA respectively to present three 16mm film projector performances between them. Nishikawa will present his on-going 16mm film projector performance piece, Six Seventy-Two Variations, for which he uses a wood carving knife to scratch off the photographic emulsion of the looped film to produce images and sound as a live performance. Brookshire will present two double-projection performances, Double or Nothing and No. 2, 2022, which, in their own ways, accentuate idiosyncrasies inherent in running 16mm film through a projector.
Presented by Dicky Bahto, Expanded Cinema, CCA Film
Nov. 3, 2022
Congratulations to @td_quq BFA Film student, for being selected as a semi-finalist for @indieshortfest !
Nov. 1, 2022
Join us this Wednesday, November 2nd for the Voices in Moving Image lecture with guest filmmaker Reid Davenport! 4-7pm in Timkin Lecture Hall.
[event link in bio]
Reid Davenport makes documentaries about disability from an overtly political perspective. Reid’s first feature film, I Didn’t See You There, will premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. His 2016 short film, A Cerebral Game, won the Artistic Vision Award at the 2016 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival for “creating a visual landscape that is at once disorienting and nostalgic - and the result is so raw and compelling it's impossible to turn away.” Wheelchair Diaries and RAMPED UP, are distributed by New Day Films. He is currently in production of another feature film, which is being produced by Multitude Films. Reid’s work has been supported by The Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, Creative Capital, XTR, ITVS, NBCU, CNN and the Points North Institute, among others. In 2020, he was named to DOC NYC’s “40 Filmmakers Under 40.”
Davenport is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Through My Lens, a nonprofit with a mission to amplify voices of and issues related to people with disabilities through original content, media consultancy, and personal instruction. In 2017, Reid was a TED fellow and gave a TED Talk about incorporating his own literal body into his filmmaking. His work has been featured by outlets like NPR, PBS, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Davenport received a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University in 2016, and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication from The George Washington University in 2012.
Free and open to the public with proof of Covid-19 vaccination.
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
