| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2024-09-06 | - |
| 2024-01-12 | - |
Program Overview
The semester documentary film progam is the first semester of the year documentary course. The curriculum is aimed at imparting technical hard skills through weekly filmmaking projects and a solid knowledge of the discipline through a rigorous examination of important documentary works throughout history and from around the world.
Concretely, the first semester covers the following: documentary camera and coverage, interviewing techniques, research, preproduction, story structure and analysis, ethics, authorship and voice. Students learn to edit using Avid Media composer and shoot using Blackmagic Pocket and Ursa Mini, Sony 4K HDCam and Canon.
Film and practical exercises play an extremely important role in the program. Classroom-based courses are supplemented with a number of practical exercises in the studio and at different locations. In the first semester, each student completes seven film projects.
The semester program is the first semester of the year course. It is possible to enroll in the semester course and then prolong ones studies to the second semester of the year course while studying in the semester program. However, doing so incurs higher fees than enrolling in the year program directly.
Program Outline
Content of the semester
The first semester curriculum of documentary filmmaking program covers foundation courses including: (1) documentary theory / history (2) documentary workshop (3) cinematography, (4) editing and (5) documentary industry, in addition to a number of other subjects which can be taken as electives.
1. Foundation Courses (obligatory)
Documentary Theory/History
Documentary Workshop
Cinematography
Editing
Documentary Industry
2. Production Workflow (obligatory)
Operation of film-making equipment (camera, lighting and sound systems)
Crew production protocol
Sound production (recording, mixing, design)
Grip equipment (camera support systems)
3. Elective/Specialization Courses (each student takes 2 courses)
Aesthetics of the Film Shot as a Component of Film Language
Acting Styles
Advanced Cameras
Central and East European Cinema
Directing Actors
Directing the Camera
Film Industry
Film Comedy
Film Analysis
Lighting
Photography for Cinematography
Post-production effects
Post-production workflow
Visualization
4. Studio Work: End of Semester Film.
64 hours of studio work.
What makes Prague Film School special?
Praxis-oriented
Students hit the ground running, shooting documentary projects from week one and then throughout the semester and year on a weekly basis. Each documentary students will shoot around 8 documentary projects per year.
Skills-oriented
Students completing the program are guaranteed to have acquired skills in working with Avid Media Composer editing software, DaVinci color correction, ProTools sound design and After Effects special effects programs. They will know how to operate the Black Magic Pocket, Sony 4K HDCam, Red Epic Dragon and Arri Alexa cameras. They will be proficient in recording with portable mixers, directional, shotgun, omni and wireless microphones, and knowledgeable of how to light using a wide range of lights, from 100 W Dedolights to 4K HMIs.
Knowledge-oriented
The program instructs the history and theory of documentary, involving students in viewing a substantial number of documentary films weekly. Production-based but academically rigorous, Prague Film School programs are approved for university credit by many top tier colleges, including Vassar, Bowdoin, Oberlin, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Barnard, Northwestern, to name a few.
Creates the Self-Sufficient and Versatile Filmmaker
Students graduating from the course will have the technical skills to fulfill all key positions on a film set and be able to singlehandedly write, produce and edit their own works.
Stories Available
Living in Prague, a city with a tumultuous past (WWII, communism, etc.), students have access to a wealth of local historical, social and cultural subjects.
Size
The Prague Film School Documentary Filmmaking Program offers the additional advantage of being a boutique course – run with a small and selective group of students paired up with top academics and documentary professionals.
Intensive
The type of student who chooses Prague Film School comes to us because he or she has essentially only one year in terms of time or financial resources to cross from where he or she is in life at the moment into the world of professional filmmaking. We then have only one year to bring these students to a level of competence where they can operate professionally. As such the program is highly squeezed.
What does the program offer?
- Creates the self-sufficient and versatile filmmaker, competent in shooting, editing, lighting, sound recording at a professional level all on one’s own.
- Provides a total immersion experience, involving students shooting projects on a weekly basis
- Orients students to the diversity and breadth of the discipline, covering the history and theory of documentary from the early 20th century to the present.
- Provides a how-to guide in terms of interviewing techniques, coverage, ethics, authorship, voice, working with archival material and more.
How will the program help filmmakers get into the industry?
- The program will inculcate the skills to make non fiction audio visual products at a professional level
- Students in the PFS documentary course take part in the industry section of both the Jihlava and the One World documentary film festivals held annually in the Czech Republic
- Part of the curriculum covers industry related topics – from pitching to film festivals and distribution
Student careers
Students entering the Prague Film School documentary program typically come socially-minded, prepared to tell truth to power and already sensitized to the infinite number of fascinating stories embedded in real life around us. The documentary program gives its students the skills to tell these stories –structurally, aesthetically and technically.
★ Sample Alumni Career Trajectories
Caitlin Mae Burke (2005) pursued a career producing and directing non-fiction and reality television in the United States after her time at PFS. The feature films she went on to produce (both documentary and scripted) have won Emmy, Grand Clio, and Gotham Awards, and been nominated for Independent Spirit Awards and Cinema Eye Honors, as well as being broadcast and shown theatrically worldwide. She is an inaugural inductee into DOC NYC's 40 Under 40 and a 2018 alumna of Berlinale Talents.
Anne Svejgård Lund (2011) was accepted Britain’s prestigious National Film School largely based on her work at Prague Film School. She was in the production of The Russian Woodpecker, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2015. She is currently in production with her own feature documentary Deepali shot in India and produced in Denmark and the UK. In 2020 Anne completed Big Dreams in a Small Place, a poetic documentary telling the story of young women in a small community dreaming of becoming the majorette and leading the march in the traditional marching band.
Dieter Auner (2006) distributed his first acclaimed documentary feature, Leaving Transylvania, the year following his graduation in 2006. His second feature, Off the Beaten Track, was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2012 IFTA awards. His third feature, Dreams of a Clown, was distributed by EastWest Film Distribution. The skills Dieter picked up in Prague have enabled him to work today as a DP, camera operator and editor on fiction and non fiction films alike.
Omid Marzban (2010) directed the documentary Rebel Beats a few years following graduation at Prague Film School. The film tells the story of a young female rapper in Afghanistan and was screened at One World Human Rights International Festival. Omid works as a video journalist at Radio Free Europe.