This combined studio offers students an expanded opportunity to experiment with image-making across both lens-based mediums of film and photography. Students will spend half the day working on projects focusing on film, then delve into photography in analog black and white, digital, and experimental processes.

CCA has long been in the vanguard of the media arts. In this introduction to filmmaking, modern cinema, and digital art, you experience the immediacy and flexibility of the vast hybrid medium of film. You work within multiple genres, such as documentary and narrative fiction, compiling a well-rounded, professional video reel.

Working with film language, digital cameras, lighting, sound recorders, scriptwriting, and Adobe Premiere, you immerse yourself in the conceptual and technical fundamentals of narrative and non-narrative filmmaking. Screenings, critiques, and research are used in the class to inform individual and collaborative projects. You gain inspiration as you develop your own voice as an artist and filmmaker.

A highlight of making film projects includes access to digital classroom facilities, editing suites, and the Carmen M. Christensen Production Stage on campus, where students make a short film, or film-scripted scenes, using the green screen setup.

The photography studio curriculum encourages you to explore analog, alternative process, and digital photography while experimenting with new ways of seeing. Through lectures, critiques, and discussions, you will learn the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography. Topics include: Advanced metering, exposure, and processing; Darkroom photograms and enlargements; Cyanotype printing (hand-coated non-silver process); Manipulating images using Adobe Photoshop; Making digital negatives using inkjet transparency media; Self-publishing techniques; DIY magazines; Alternative origins of digital images (scanning/re-photographing/collage).

By the end of the course, you will have developed a portfolio of images in a variety of mediums, a set of small handmade magazines, and the ability to think critically about and articulate the power of images and image-making.

Students should have access to a DSLR or mirrorless camera with battery, memory card, and fully manual functions (full control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO, color balance), capable of making RAW files, and a zoom or prime lens capable of manual focus.

Film & Photography are combined for an all-day studio.

The Pre-College 2025 application opens in late September 2024 and closes mid June 2025.