Study Struc­ture

Study­ing at the DFFB is divid­ed into two phas­es: basic stud­ies and main stud­ies. The first five semes­ters of the basic study peri­od are required for all sub­jects; the main study peri­od fol­lows and usu­al­ly com­pris­es up to sev­en addi­tion­al semes­ters. The stan­dard peri­od of study for the cours­es in Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Direct­ing, Pro­duc­tion and Edit­ing & Sound is 12 semes­ters; for stu­dents of Screen­writ­ing the stan­dard peri­od of study is 7 semes­ters.

• The aca­d­e­m­ic year is divid­ed into semes­ters, which run from Octo­ber to the end of March, and from April to the end of Sep­tem­ber.
• Cours­es are main­ly struc­tured in the form of block sem­i­nars, so that stu­dents can work inten­sive­ly with lec­tur­ers dur­ing this time. Spread­ed between the sem­i­nars are also lec­tures, col­lo­quia, mas­ter class­es, men­tor­ing, and project and mate­r­i­al devel­op­ment pro­grams.

Basic Stud­ies: Semes­ters 1–5

The basic stud­ies phase teach­es stu­dents how to work with the fun­da­men­tal film­mak­ing tools and meth­ods. Dur­ing the first and sec­ond semes­ters, all stu­dents, regard­less of their lev­el of knowl­edge and spe­cial­i­sa­tion, par­tic­i­pate in a joint inten­sive gen­er­al­ist cur­ricu­lum, in which work­ing with 16 mm film plays an impor­tant role.

The objec­tives of the first year are the fol­low­ing:

• for stu­dents to gain a basic knowl­edge of each film­mak­ing spe­cial­i­sa­tion
• to try out new things and self reflex­ion
• to get know oth­er film­mak­ers and their film­mak­ing approach­es
• to nar­row exist­ing gaps between the fel­low peers cre­at­ed by dif­fer­ent approach­es and exper­tise
• to find part­ners for future work
• and to devel­op a unique film­mak­ing per­spec­tive.

It is also impor­tant for stu­dents to under­stand the neces­si­ty of col­lab­o­ra­tion and to respect the work of all depart­ments with­in the film­mak­ing process.

Prac­ti­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal sem­i­nars are taught by lec­tur­ers who work in the film indus­try: screen­writ­ers, pro­duc­ers, direc­tors, cin­e­matog­ra­phers, edi­tors, sound engi­neers, etc.

Dur­ing the third and fourth semes­ters, stu­dents also com­plete a fixed, com­pul­so­ry cur­ricu­lum. They now enter their respec­tive spe­cial­i­sa­tions in a more inten­sive man­ner, learn­ing the advanced skills of each spe­cial­i­sa­tion.

Screen­writ­ing stu­dents par­tic­i­pate in the project devel­op­ment of their basic stud­ies films. They end their basic stud­ies in the fifth semes­ter with a fea­ture-length screen­play.

Stu­dents spe­cial­is­ing in Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Pro­duc­ing, Direct­ing, and Edit­ing & Sound end their fourth semes­ter with the approval of their basic stud­ies film idea. Dur­ing the fifth semes­ter, their film is then shot, post-pro­duced, and com­plet­ed.

Main Stud­ies: From Semes­ter 6 Onwards

The main stud­ies phase con­sists of the fol­low­ing ele­ments:

• prac­ti­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal sem­i­nars
• mas­ter­class­es
• the real­i­sa­tion of an indi­vid­ual film or the real­i­sa­tion of an indi­vid­ual aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment rel­e­vant to the student’s spe­cial­i­sa­tion
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of real­is­ing film projects that are not part of the oblig­a­tory course require­ments
• devel­op­ment of grad­u­a­tion projects in fac­ul­ta­tive project and sto­ry devel­op­ment pro­grams
• and the devel­op­ment and real­i­sa­tion of a grad­u­a­tion project.

Build­ing on the foun­da­tion of sound craft knowl­edge acquired dur­ing the under­grad­u­ate pro­gram, the grad­u­ate pro­gram pro­vides the space to exper­i­ment with, inter­ro­gate, and explore cin­e­mat­ic means with­in the con­text of col­lec­tive work that is mean­ing­ful and nec­es­sary for each project.

There are many sem­i­nars offered dur­ing the main stud­ies phase and each stu­dent is respon­si­ble for choos­ing their sem­i­nars. We encour­age stu­dents to take an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to select­ing their sem­i­nars in order to fur­ther their pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment.

In addi­tion, stu­dents are sup­port­ed dur­ing the devel­op­ment of their projects and screen­plays by lec­tur­ers, heads of stud­ies, and the direc­tor of the DFFB.

Insight into the Range of Cours­es

DFFB Mon­days are com­posed of var­i­ous lec­tures, film screen­ings, and sem­i­nars offered to all stu­dents; this event is com­pul­so­ry for all basic stud­ies stu­dents.

The week­ly film his­to­ry sem­i­nar is made up of var­i­ous blocks ded­i­cat­ed to dif­fer­ent gen­res of inter­na­tion­al films, from ear­ly to con­tem­po­rary cin­e­ma. The series presents films non-chrono­log­i­cal­ly, allow­ing us to view these films in a time­less man­ner. The series is designed kaleidoscopically—the order of the films cross­es sev­er­al time peri­ods, form­ing con­stel­la­tions, and allow­ing films to com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er in sur­pris­ing ways.

Assess­ment: Dur­ing an inter­nal forum on Mon­day after­noons, stu­dents and lec­tur­ers dis­cuss each film pro­duced at the DFFB. The dis­cus­sions focus on the film itself. Every stu­dent can present their film at the DFFB forum. In fact, stu­dents must present their films at the forum if they wish to screen their films out­side the DFFB.