The AFI Conservatory is a division of the American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 founded in 1969, located in Hollywood's Griffith Park

Griffith Park

Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park covers of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America...

. The school is the only existing Master of Fine Arts conservatory in advanced film education. In July 2011, it was voted the #1 film school in the world by The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter

Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...

 which called it “among the most selective film schools in America,” with its Fellows benefiting from “speakers and teachers drawn from the highest levels of the industry, supported by the full weight of AFI itself...AFI's glittering parade of alumni, from David Lynch to Darren Aronofsky, remains unrivaled when it comes to auteur filmmakers...If you know where you're going, AFI can get you there.”

It is ranked in the top 5 graduate film programs along with USC

USC School of Cinematic Arts

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...

, UCLA

UCLA School of Theater Film and Television

The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...

, NYU

Tisch School of the Arts

Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....

 and California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

 by the Princeton Review and US News and World Report

Over the years, the program has graduated 3,000 fellows, many of whom went on to become influential Hollywood filmmakers. Notable alumni include: John Cassavetes

John Cassavetes

John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...

, David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

, Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick

Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....

, Todd Field

Todd Field

William Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field is an American actor and writer/director. He has received three Academy Award nominations.-Background and personal life:...

, Carl Franklin

Carl Franklin

Carl Franklin is an American actor, screenwriter and film and television director. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986...

, Paul Schrader

Paul Schrader

Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....

, Victor Nuñez

Victor Nuñez

Victor Nuñez is a film director, professor at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts, and a founding member of the Independent Feature Project. He is best known for directing Ulee's Gold, a critically acclaimed movie starring Jessica Biel and Peter...

, Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold OBE is a filmmaker and former actress from England, who made her feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Red Road.-Early TV work:...

, Patty Jenkins

Patty Jenkins

Patricia Lea "Patty" Jenkins is an American film director and writer. She grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and attended the AFI Conservatory. She graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1993. The most famous film she has directed to date is Monster, a docudrama about...

, Robert Elswit

Robert Elswit

Robert Christopher Elswit, ASC is an American cinematographer. He has had multiple Oscar, BAFTA, and Independent Spirit nominations for several films, including There Will Be Blood. Elswit frequently works with director Paul Thomas Anderson.Elswit is a fierce defender of shooting with film, and...

, Janusz Kamiński

Janusz Kaminski

Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...

, Wally Pfister, Caleb Deschanel

Caleb Deschanel

Joseph Caleb Deschanel, A.S.C. is an American film cinematographer and film/television director.-Early life:Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school...

, Robert Richardson, Carl Colpaert

Carl Colpaert

Carl Colpaert is an American film director and the founder of Cineville, a production and distribution company based in Los Angeles.-Background:...

, Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...

, Martin Brest

Martin Brest

Martin Brest is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.-Education:He was born in a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York....

, John Dahl

John Dahl

John Dahl is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.-Life and career:John Dahl was born in Billings, Montana, the second of four children . Dahl spent his young life in and around Montana all the way up through his college years...

, Bill Duke

Bill Duke

William Henry "Bill" Duke, Jr. is an American actor and film director with over 30 years of experience. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke's work frequently dwells within the action/crime and drama genres but also includes comedy.-Early life:Duke was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the...

, Amy Heckerling

Amy Heckerling

Amy Heckerling is an American film director, one of the few female directors to have produced multiple box-office hits.-Early life:...

, Mimi Leder

Mimi Leder

Mimi Leder is an American film director. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory in 1973.-Movie career:...

, Matthew Libatique

Matthew Libatique

Matthew Libatique is an American cinematographer best known for his work with director Darren Aronofsky on such films as π, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and Black Swan.-Background:...

, Patrick Creadon

Patrick Creadon

Patrick Creadon is an American documentary filmmaker, best known for the documentary film Wordplay. A profile of New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, Wordplay premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and became the second-highest grossing documentary of that year...

, John McTiernan

John McTiernan

John Campbell McTiernan, Jr. is an American film director and producer, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October, along with later movies such as Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a...

, Edward Zwick

Edward Zwick

Edward M. Zwick is an American filmmaker and film producer noted for his epic films about social and racial issues. He has been described as a "throwback to an earlier era, an extremely cerebral director whose movies consistently feature fully rounded characters, difficult moral issues, and plots...

, Arthur Dong

Arthur Dong

Arthur Dong is an Academy Award-nominated American documentary filmmaker. His work combines the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues, examining topics such as Asian American history and identity, and gay oppression...

, Scott Frank

Scott Frank

Scott Frank is an American screenwriter & director.- Filmography :*Plain Clothes *Dead Again *Little Man Tate *Malice *Get Shorty...

, Susannah Grant

Susannah Grant

Susannah Grant is an award-winning American screenwriter and director. She wrote the screenplays for Ever After, Erin Brockovich, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 28 Days and Disney's Pocahontas. For Erin Brockovich she received an Oscar nomination in 2001...

, Jeff Nathanson

Jeff Nathanson

Jeff Nathanson is an American film writer, film producer, and director.He is best known for his work on the Rush Hour series, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and The Last Shot, and has also co-written a story draft for the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with George Lucas...

, Elizabeth Sung

Elizabeth Sung

Elizabeth Fong Sung is an Asian American actress and film director.From 1994-96, she appeared on the American soap opera The Young and the Restless as Luan Volien....

, Alon Bar

Alon Bar

Alon Bar is an Israeli/American filmmaker.He wrote the award winning feature film "Aaron Cohen's Debt,"...

, Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue is an American film and television producer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, attended Jesuit College Preparatory, and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America...

, and Eric Red

Eric Red

Eric Red is an American screenwriter and director, best known for writing the horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark.-Early life:...

.

Conservatory program

AFI Conservatory is a five-term Master of Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 program in six disciplines: Cinematography, Directing, Editing, Producing, Production Design, and Screenwriting. Traditionally, the Conservatory accepts 28 students - called Fellows - per year for most disciplines and 14 for Design and Editing.

First Year - Fellows from all disciplines work on at least three digital video

Digital video

Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...

 or high definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 short films (up to 20 minutes), appropriately referred to as 'cycle projects'. Each of these first-year projects are accomplished by the fellows with a minimum of oversight from the senior faculty. The purported goal being to stimulate a flexible and creative approach to filmmaking within imposed budgetary constraints and without the crutch of seasoned oversight. These 'cycle projects' make up the core curriculum of the first year experience and amount to a 'boot camp" of filmmaking that simultaneously challenges and invigorates the fellows involved.

Second Year - Most fellows work on at least one thesis short film, shot on digital video

Digital video

Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...

, high definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

, 35mm film, or 16mm

16 mm film

16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...

 film, and develop portfolio materials (such as a reel and a feature film screenplay). Screenwriting fellows have the option of writing two feature length screenplays instead of participating in a thesis film. They are responsible for raising the bulk of their own financing for these projects (average budget is $30,000), and must adhere to standard industry regulations, such as SAG charter rules, during filming. The senior faculty of the conservatory oversee the development of the 'second year' projects and monitor their development in a manner similar to what might be expected of an Executive Producer

Executive producer

An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

.

Student work

AFI Conservatory student thesis or second year films can be seen at the AFI Los Angeles International Festival.

External links

• http://www.afi.com/education/conservatory/