academics : departments

Directing

Write your movie

Imagine a story; write the synopsis and the screenplay taking advice from a professional screenwriter.

Prepare your movie

During the location, find the place of your dream to shoot your movie. Prepare a casting to choose the actors who will play your characters. Imagine how to shoot your screenplay by writing a shooting script and a story-board. Plan your shooting.
All these stages are supervised by a professional director.

Shoot your movie

Take the leap: discover group work and concretize all your ideas on the film set in collaboration with your team.

Finalize your movie

Go through all the steps of the post-production of your film taking advice from professionals: montage, sound effects, sound mixing, calibration, clothing, special effects…

Show your movie

Finally, you will be able to show your film. You will experience the unique prickle of a director who screens his movie in public for the first time.

The objectives

The Directing course allows you to gain technical skills and to develop the creative talents required for the director job.

From screenwriting to editing, you will discover all the steps of creation and production of a motion picture. All steps and techniques will be studied during theoretical and practical courses, exercises and real filming.

This training course allows to acquire the following skills:

Theoretical know-how which allow to deal with:

1. Cultural and artistic diversity of film-making.

Cinema history.
Film analysis.

2. Economic dimension and internationalization of the industry.

Economy of cinema (production/contracts).
English.

Technical know-how adapted to the versatility required in the cinema world:

Camera and light (DV and HD).
Sound (on-set sound recording, sound mixing).
Montage.
Management of the shooting set.
Directing assistantship.
Logistics.

Artistic know-how:

1. Which develop the student’s creativity

Screenwriting, dramaturgy, shooting script and storyboard.
Staging, Directing.

2. Which develop synergy and crossed disciplinary skills between the departments.

Actors direction, casting.
Special effects, animation.

From the first idea to closing credits, discover all techniques: writing, filming, editing...

Discover all the short films made by the students of the Directing department.
The vidéos
(French site)

The directing training allows to apply for the following positions:
- Director assistant
- Stage manager assistant
- Production assistant
- Film editor assistant
- Commercial director
- Video-clip director
- TV films director
- Documentary films director
- Films director
- Institutional films director

Curriculum

First year: Core curriculum

The first year curriculum focuses on two main fields:

Learning of basic knowledge required in directing position, theoretically, practically, technically and artistically.
Putting into practice these skills through the collective and complete making (from writing to post-production) of a fiction movie. This film production will allow you to practice the different positions and to understand the different steps of making a film.

Thorough yet versatile curriculum, this year focuses on the importance of team work in film making. This year is based on a core curriculum. It will enable you to understand the various issues of cinema and the audiovisual sector.

Common courses

Screenplay
Economy of cinema
Cinema and animation history
Film analysis
English
Story-board
Actors direction

Specific Directing courses

Technical learning (Image-sound-montage)
Direction/Special effects
Directing

Second year: specialization

The student gives attention to various kinds of works (advertisement, documentary film…) and prepares his personal graduation project. The different departments still work together all through projects which gather directors, technicians and actors during shooting times. Moreover, those projects are also supervised and supported by a professional director.

This professional director intervenes to educate students (through practical and analysis exercises) and to follow the development of the projects (screenplay, shooting script, filming constraints…)

The 2nd year program focuses on personal projects; the students produce 3 audiovisual realizations during this academic year:

A commercial shot in DV (maximal duration: 45 seconds)
A short portrait shot like a documentary film (shot in DV. Maximal duration: 5 minutes)
A short fiction film (shot in DV. Maximal duration: 8 minutes). The writing part starts in January.

Third year: professionalization

The third year is dedicated to research and autonomy for personal projects. Students work on their graduation project. They are still accompanied by a professional director who offers practical exercises and organizes practical and theoretical tutorials. During this third academic year, each student has to make a fiction film (maximal duration of 15 minutes) shot in high definition.

The aim of the year is to work on each stage of the film making process: writing, shooting script, preparation, filming, montage and sound mixing. The director helps with this discovery by communicating with students, giving them advice.
This graduation film, directed solely by the student will be a real “business card” in the professional environment.