What’s the buzz surrounding online video distribution like among film students? I’m excited to find out, though initial signs indicate that there isn’t much reaching whomever compiles the schedule of courses. If I’ve seemed a little quiet here at NewTeeVee, it’s because I’ve been making arrangements to spend one last semester at NYU’s film school over thirteen years since I first matriculated. So, um, maybe “undercover” is a bit optimistic — just watching an introduction to the school on YouTube is making me feel old. Go Violets!
The market for video content has certainly changed. Digital media and networks have been the biggest thing in visual storytelling since motion, sight and sound, both on the creator’s side and on the consumer’s side. So how’s that reflected in the curriculum? We used to joke that we were using the same batch of Arriflex 16mm film cameras that the school bought when it opened in 1965 — and I won’t be surprised if I’m given the same one this year that I checked out back then.
But first, what kind of idiot pays for four years at film school and doesn’t walk away with a diploma? Long story short, I already had an entry-level job in “the biz” after commencement, so I never did get around to turning in a few assignments, leaving me a few credits short. Cut to now, and I figure the next time I find myself in the ebb tide of the economy, it’ll be off to grad school, if only to defer the payments on the $25,000 in debt I just signed up for.
In an industry that didn’t even have a university-level school focusing on motion picture production until the mid-’60s, it’s not like other professions where academia’s imprimatur is a necessary stage in your career trajectory. As online video has proven, simply doing good work and finding an audience can get you in the door. And certainly apprenticeships, networking, money and good old nepotism — or some combination thereof — are all better candidates than just an education.
With no hope (or, frankly, interest) in following the trail blazed by fellow former NYU student Brett Ratner, I was especially looking for things that I could relate to my current work while signing up for classes. Scanning the old core curriculum, while non-linear editing is introduced early, it’s definitely still geared toward actual film. More surprising was that the Broadcast Documentary course is still taught using the Betacam SP analog video format!
A “new media workshop” class, now called DVD Design, has been introduced. It’s an intermediate production course that uses Apple’s suite of video editing and mastering tools to create interactive content. To see how much faster technology is moving on that side, check out the course description from 2002: “The technology of broadband delivery of media/content is here and statistics tell us that it will soon be widespread.”
It’s true that most high-end professional work is still being done on film, though what’s “film” and what’s “digital” is certainly blurrier than ever — is 300, shot on film against a green screen and then digitally composited and shown in theaters from both film prints and digital projectors, “film” or “digital? And there is something to be said for using analog video, as tape-to-tape editing forces you to hand write editing decision lists and understand luminance waveforms. But it’s long been abandoned by the industry in favor of hi-definition digital formats.
Certainly animation, including digital, has always been very strong at the school. And there is a gut class on creating web sites. But there’s absolutely nothing on the distribution side. For instance, there is both art and science to digital video compression. And what aspiring online video impresario wouldn’t benefit from a course on managing a server farm and the most cost efficient way to deliver bits?
Something about NYU warning prospective students about the evils of copyright infringement tells me that the school is ambivalent, if not hostile, to peer-to-peer networks and unauthorized distribution — though even my experience from a decade ago tells me practically every student in the department is participating.
None of this means I’m not nervous and excited. I am. And my age alone promises that I’ll be in for a culture shock. Again. Hell, a contemporary of mine (who got her degree, and then another…) is teaching over in the photography department. Or, should I say, the Photography and Imaging department. So the kids on the eighth floor have certainly broadened their horizons digitally. Who knows, maybe once I finish, I’ll apply to the Interactive Telecommunication Program — I know for sure they’re hip to the scene.
[From the editor: His plane doesn’t leave till tomorrow, but we’re already missing Jackson. We’ve been hatching plans to visit him in NYC in late September. Stay tuned for details about a NewTeeVee meetup circa the 24th.]
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/08\/29\/back-to-school-undercover-at-nyu-film\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_ff5909fc32b05e0b7c12a6de03d9253c","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}