The Rutgers Filmmaking Center offers a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) degree in filmmaking, an innovative program with individualized training in fiction and documentary film production taught by industry professionals. The interdisciplinary model is designed to establish marketable skills in the emerging field of digital communication blended with a wide array of liberal arts electives.
Students become technically astute filmmakers who are also intellectually informed artists. They are trained in all aspects of their craft in both fiction and documentary production by working with professional filmmakers with a track record of producing award-winning feature and short documentaries that reach broad audiences.
Recent graduates have been accepted to esteemed graduate film programs and have gained employment as associate producers, editors, and cinematographers.
Training
The filmmaking program at Mason Gross trains students in all aspects of film production, from research and treatments to cinematography, lighting, field production, directing, script writing and story boarding, editing, and post-production. Our pedagogy interweaves documentary and fiction with emerging film technologies and platforms, while providing opportunities for students to build a wide array of professional, marketable skills.
Students collaborate, take risks, and build a solid foundation in all areas of filmmaking to create original digital narratives. Upon completion of the BFA degree in filmmaking, students demonstrate technical proficiency, narrative film form, film production as educational research/team collaborative skills, creative expression through production-oriented classes, and management of complex projects—all within a firm grounding in the humanities.
Opportunities
Because the Rutgers Filmmaking Center is located within a major research university, our program provides students access to vast intellectual resources and opportunities for cross-disciplinary learning.
Filming Abroad
In partnership with our Documentary Film Lab, BFA filmmaking students have the opportunity to partner with departments across campus to research and document exciting stories around the globe. Past projects have taken students to Antarctica, Brazil, Greenland, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Thailand, and Zambia, among many other places.
Workshops & Employment
Outside of their coursework, students have opportunities to further develop their skills through program-sponsored workshops held throughout the semester. Recent workshops have focused on commercial video production, color correction, and advanced Adobe Premiere techniques.
The Rutgers Filmmaking Center regularly receives requests for student employment and participation in external film and media projects. These opportunities are circulated to students through our weekly newsletter.
Internships
The Rutgers Filmmaking Center maintains a record of internship placements with a range of organizations and companies where students have worked in the past. Located within the New York City metropolitan area, the program offers students access to a wide range of internship opportunities across the film and media industries. Each semester, BFA Filmmaking students pursue internships in various sectors, with past placements including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Warner Bros. Studios, Thunder Road Films, Elara Pictures, BBC, CBS, NBC, Panasonic, Saturday Night Live, Sony Pictures, and many others.
BFA Coursework
BFA students are required to take eight 4-credit core film production courses, taken sequentially by semester—Part I in the fall and Part II in the spring. In addition, students are required to take seven 3-credit filmmaking elective courses that are designed to integrate production and theory. BFA students also take external electives in areas such as Cinema Studies, Art and Design, and other interdisciplinary fields across the university. Film courses maintain an average student-to-faculty ratio of 12:1, providing students with frequent opportunities to engage closely with faculty and receive individualized feedback.
Learning Goals of the BFA in Filmmaking
- To expose students to a broad range of cinematic traditions and a wide array of concepts and approaches so they can become informed filmmakers that can integrate theory with practice.
- To create technically astute filmmakers who understand the fundamental skills of film language, know how to work collaboratively, and have the ability to create a film from conception, through development, shooting, editing, to a finished product.
- To help students establish their unique intellectual and creative approach that can be applied to both narrative and non-narrative modes of filmmaking.
- To develop the students’ critical thinking skills so they can analyze their work and the work of others and be able to interpret films through a variety of aesthetic, historical, and theoretical frameworks.
Faculty
Faculty
Faculty
Faculty
Faculty
