The Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, more commonly referred to as the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, is a
film school
A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training ...
and one of the
graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...
s of
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
, a senior college within the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
. It is located on the
Steiner Studios film lot in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York. Feirstein is the first
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
graduate film school in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and is the only public graduate film school in the United States located on a working film lot. The school is named after Barry Feirstein, a donor and Brooklyn College alumnus.
Development was officially announced in January 2011, and funding was provided by private donations and by investments from New York City and New York State. Though Feirstein initially aimed to open for the fall 2013 semester, the school accepted its inaugural class for the 2015-2016
academic year
An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study.
School holiday
School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...
.
History
The Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema was developed between
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
of the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
and
Steiner Studios.
Douglas Steiner and founding director
Jonathan Wacks
Jonathan Philip Wacks is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.
He has directed a number of films including ''Powwow Highway'', produced by George Harrison. The film won the Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker’s Trophy, was nominate ...
wished to promote diversification of the film industry.
Development was first referenced by
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
in his January 2011
State of the City address and was officially announced the same month.
The school initially aimed to open for the fall 2013 semester.
New York City invested over $8 million into the development of the school.
Funding was provided through the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
, Brooklyn
Borough President Eric Adams
Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and retired police captain serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022.
Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York C ...
, the City University of New York, and the
Made in NY
Made in NY is an incentive program and marketing campaign of the City of New York Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. Under the program, television and film productions which complete at least 75% of their shooting and rehearsal work in ...
program.
New York State also invested $5 million.
Brooklyn College alumnus Barry Feirstein donated $5 million to development, and the school is named in his honor.
The school is the first public graduate film school in New York City.
The school accepted its first
cohort
Cohort or cohortes may refer to:
* Cohort (educational group), a group of students working together through the same academic curriculum
* Cohort (floating point), a set of different encodings of the same numerical value
* Cohort (military unit ...
for the 2015-2016
academic year
An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study.
School holiday
School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...
and was officially opened by Mayor
Bill de Blasio
Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...
in October 2015.
Awards
The Feirstein website, designed by Brooklyn United, won a 2015
Webby Award
The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...
for best School/University website. Feirstein was awarded a 2016 Building Brooklyn Award for Education by the
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; the award is given to "recently completed construction and renovation projects that enrich Brooklyn’s neighborhoods and economy".
Building and facilities
Feirstein occupies two floors of Building 1 on the
Steiner Studios film lot in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York.
It is the only public graduate school in the United States located on a working film lot. Steiner and Wacks felt that integration into a film lot better facilitated entry into professional filmmaking.
The facilities designed by Dattner Architects include a
foley studio, an
ADR ADR or adr may refer to:
Computing
* Asynchronous DRAM refresh, an approach for persistent memory found in some Intel Xeon processors
* The adr microformat, part of the hCard microformat
* Architectural decision record
* Action–domain–respond ...
studio, a
sound mixing
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic ...
studio, and a
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
.
The school's systems and post-production courses use
Avid Technology
Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It specialises in audio and video; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video edi ...
's editing software.
Oscar-winning director
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker.
Soderbergh's direc ...
is on the advisory council to the school and described it to ''Worth'' magazine as "by any standard one of the best facilities I have ever walked in to. I certainly never set foot in anything like that until I started working for studios."
Academics and admissions
Feirstein has two degree programs,
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in Cinema Studies and
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...
. The Master of Fine Arts degree program is further divided into multiple
academic tracks. Upon the school's opening, these tracks were:
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
,
directing,
post-production
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments.
The ...
,
producing,
screenwriting
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, devel ...
.
Digital animation and
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
,
media scoring, and sonic arts tracks were offered beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. However, the media scoring and sonic arts programs are also part of Brooklyn College's
conservatory of music
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger i ...
.
Applications are accepted on a
rolling admission
Rolling admission is a policy used by many colleges to admit freshmen to undergraduate programs. Many law schools in the United States also have rolling admissions policies. Under rolling admission, candidates are invited to submit their applicati ...
policy and are not accepted for the spring semester.
Each Master of Fine Arts track accepts fourteen students,
except for cinema studies
and screenwriting.
Feirstein began accepting applications in November 2014 and accepted 69 students for the fall 2015 semester.
The inaugural class was about 50% women,
43-46%
persons of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
,
and 70% students from New York.
Notable faculty and staff
Jonathan Wacks
Jonathan Philip Wacks is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.
He has directed a number of films including ''Powwow Highway'', produced by George Harrison. The film won the Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker’s Trophy, was nominate ...
was the school's first academic director.
He was succeeded by
Richard Gladstein
Richard N. Gladstein (born June 4, 1961) is a two-time Academy Award nominated film producer. His production company is FilmColony. He served as the Dean of the American Film Institute Conservatory from 2017 to 2018.
Biography
Gladstein was bor ...
in July 2020.
Feirstein's
advisory board
An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...
includes
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction.
Aronof ...
,
Celia Costas,
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...
,
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker.
Soderbergh's direc ...
,
and
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens (born Steven Fisher; November 27, 1963) is an American actor, director, producer and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Ben in ''Short Circuit'' and '' Short Circuit 2'', Chuck Fishman on the 1990s televi ...
.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Brooklyn College
Film schools in New York (state)
Art schools in New York City
Educational institutions established in 2015
2015 establishments in New York City
Universities and colleges in Brooklyn
Culture of Brooklyn