| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2024-09-06 | - |
| 2024-01-12 | - |
Program Overview
The semester program at Prague Film School is a highly-intensive, praxis-oriented course with a steep learning curve. The objective of the program is to instruct concrete craft skills through substantial production and course work. By the program's end, students will have developed a certain fluency in both the technical aspects of filmmaking and in film language in general.
Students enrolled in the semester program are required to follow courses in each of the core modules of screenwriting, editing, cinematography and directing. Students attend classes in sound, camera-related workshops and two elective courses from a menu of courses listed below. Within the semester, each student can direct four film productions while working on up to an additional 16 - 20 film sets.
By the end of the course, students will be competent in: shooting with RED, Black Magic cameras; operating and designing with lights ranging from dedos to 4K HMI, editing with AVID Media Composer systems, color grading, applying graphics and animation using Affer Effects, location sound recording and sound post production. Students will have also received training in screenplay structure and dramaturgy, character development, script analysis, visualization, color theory, directing the camera, directing actors and more.
The semester program is the first semester of the year course. It is possible to enroll in the semester course and then prolong ones studies to the second semester of the year course while studying in the semester program. However, doing so incurs higher fees than enrolling in the year program directly.
Program Outline
Content of the semester
The semester curriculum of narrative filmmaking program covers foundation courses including: (1) screenwriting, (2) directing, (3) cinematography, and (4) editing, in addition to a number of other subjects which can be taken as electives.
1. Foundation Courses (obligatory)
Screenwriting Course
Directing Course
Cinematography Course
Editing Course
2. Elective/Specialization Courses (each student takes 2 courses)
Acting
Art Direction
Advanced Cameras
Aspects of Film Language
Blocking
Central and East European Cinema
Czech Language
Directing Actors
Directing the Camera
Documentary Theory and History
Experimental Film
Film Industry
Film Comedy
Film Analysis
Lighting
Master Shot
Photography for Cinematography
Post-production effects
Post-production workflow
Screenwriting Feature Film
Sound
3. Production Workshops (obligatory)
Operation of filmmaking equipment (camera, lighting and sound systems)
Crew production protocol
Sound production (recording, mixing, design)
Grip equipment (camera support systems)
4. Studio Work: End of Semester Film
64 hours of studio work.
Film and practical exercises play an extremely important role in the program. Classroom-based courses are supplemented with a number of practical exercises in the studio and at different locations. In the first semester, each student completes four film projects of his/her own, performing the functions of screenwriter, director, cinematographer and editor on all of them. Each student works on another sixteen to twenty projects shot by other students.
