Filmmaking is a creative practice rooted in storytelling and curiosity—about yourself and the world around you. As a student here, you’ll learn the craft from every angle, from writing and pre-production to shooting and editing. You’ll explore narrative, documentary, experimental filmmaking and video art, discovering what type of artist you want to be and developing the practical skills to become one.
At Pratt you begin making your own films and collaborating with your peers in your first semester. You will have access to everything you need to make your work– professional cameras, tripods, sound, and lighting equipment as well as computer labs, software and production facilities. Our faculty of filmmakers and artists will facilitate your learning in intimate classes of 12 students through screenings, readings, technical demonstrations, production exercises, class critiques, and visiting professionals. By the time you have graduated, you will have created 12-20 short films and will have crewed on many others directed by your peers. You will leave with a sample reel of your work ready for entry into the professional landscape and your strongest work will be ready to submit to film festivals and/or used as the foundation of an application to graduate school.
In your first semester, you’ll gain essential conceptual and technical training in two rigorous foundational courses: Film Fundamentals and Production Studio. You’ll then explore varied modes of filmmaking in fiction, nonfiction, and experimental studio courses. In your junior year, the curriculum broadens to include more electives and advanced coursework in Fiction II and either Nonfiction II or Experimental Studio II.
Senior Thesis Project
The culmination of the program is a guided but self-defined year-long senior thesis project. You will direct and edit your most ambitious short film to date. Finished films will be presented as part of our Senior Showcase in our state-of-the-art Katharine L. McKenna Screening Room and at the prestigious BAM Rose Cinemas.
Internships
New York City is teaming with film and television production and we encourage all of our students to gain experience by doing an internship in the junior year. Our internship program mimics a real world job search in that it is personalized to the goals and interests of each student. When you have identified an area of interest (production, post-production, color correction, live television, distribution) we will coach you through the research and application process. Our students have been placed in internships in a wide range of contexts including Saturday Night Live, Late Night, A24, MoMA, Technicolor, Kino Lorber, and MTV.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can shift your perspective and inform your creative work. In addition to a spring break program in Cuba, Film/Video students can study abroad at partner institutions in the spring semester of junior year in cities such as London, Lisbon, Paris, Rome, and Florence. Learn more.
Learning Resources
While you will develop disciplinary fluency in our program we celebrate the interdisciplinary, collaborative nature of filmmaking and encourage students to explore everything Pratt has to offer. Learning resources.
The Film/Video program at Pratt Institute provides a foundation in nonfiction, fiction, experimental, and other time-based media practices. Our rigorous, project-based curriculum is centered around the creation of a sequence of films and videos that grow in complexity each semester, culminating in a year-long thesis project.
Each student is offered ample opportunity to grow and advance their conceptual, technical, and professional skills. They are encouraged to take creative risks, and to push the boundaries of conventional forms. They are introduced to a diverse canon of creators and works, and are asked to investigate complex histories and contexts as they strive to become reflexive and conscientious artists.
We aim to foster a supportive and collaborative creative community in which differences are respected and celebrated. We value the personal perspectives that each student brings to the classroom, and our goal is to elevate that unique voice to the forefront of their artistic vision.
The Pratt Film/Video Department strives to recognize, accept, and celebrate differences (such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and other individual characteristics), while creating a safe, welcoming, and respectful environment that champions the creative and academic empowerment of all individuals. We condemn oppression in any form and recognize, in particular, the systemic prejudice and discrimination at play in the media industry. With this awareness, we ask students and faculty to join us in actively interrupting the paradigms of power and privilege that might play out subtly or not so subtly in the classroom and on set. As such, we intend to foster a creative and collaborative community in which all students enjoy the comfort that comes from being seen, valued, respected and included as uniquely talented individuals. It is our hope that students will emulate this model and have a positive impact in the field as they move into their roles as industry professionals.
Our Faculty
Our full time and part time faculty are active filmmakers and artists representing a myriad of professional possibilities and creative directions students might take with their work. They are award-winning directors, professional editors, sound mixers, colorists, experimental filmmakers, animators, and video artists.
John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (BFA ‘91) returned to do a public talk in 2022
Our students go on to do many different kinds of things. They are directing television, feature films, commercials, and music videos. They are professional editors, colorists, cinematographers, and sound recordists. They are award-winning writers, producers, and educators.
Highlights
Liz Hannah (BFA ‘07) Golden Globe Nominated Screenwriter of The Post (directed by Steven Spielberg), showrunner of ‘The Girl From Plainville’ and a writer on ‘The Dropout’
April Maxey (BFA ‘12) was named one of Sundance’s “Women to Watch 2023”. Winner of Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding US Narrative Short Film at the Tribeca Film Festival 2022
Park Min-woo (BFA ‘17) is the director of photography on the Korean dramatic TV series Oasis (2023)
Yessenia Sanchez’s (BFA ‘21) thesis film Double Cultura is streaming on HBOMax as part of the Latino Short Film Competition in 2023/24
Yi Xiong, ‘22, A Tortoises Year of Fate an official selection in the Locarno Film Festival
Glenn Ficarra (BFA ‘91) & John Requa (BFA ‘91) are showrunners for the Paramount+ spy thriller Rabbit Hole (2023). They wrote Bad Santa and wrote and directed Crazy, Stupid, Love
Luiza Gonçalves (BFA ‘19) won best film in competition for A BANANA TREE IS NO COINCIDENCE Pesaro Festival of New Cinema in Italy, 2021
Joel Haver (BFA ‘18) is a YouTube phenomenon whose weekly animations and comedic skits regularly get hundreds of thousands if not millions of views
Owen Kline’s first feature Funny Pages (2022) was produced by A24 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
Mika Altskan (BFA ‘15) is a cinematographer whose commercial work includes a Nike ad with singer Billie Eilish; his narrative work includes Wild Nights with Emily (2018) which premiered at SXSW
Mackie Mallison’s (BFA ‘22) short film It Smelled like Springtime (2022) premiered at the New York Film Festival
Myrsini Aristidou’s (BFA ‘13) short films have screened at the Toronto, Venice and Sundance film festivals; and Semele (2015) won a Special Jury Prize at the Berlinale
Jungah Kim (BFA ‘86) is a producer and was the first female president of CJ Entertainment in South Korea
Join us at Pratt. Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
You’ll find yourself at home at Pratt. Learn more about our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, gallery exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighborhood communities. Check us out.
Charlotte Böhning, MID ’23, is this year’s US winner of the @JamesDysonAward for her graduate thesis project, the Gutsy port!
Current Ostomy bags are mostly single-use and disposable, and the design hasn’t been updated for 70 years. Ostomates go through an excess of bags (and expenses). Current pouches are also one-size-fits all and must be “cut-to-form,” often fitting poorly and leaking, while users also have little autonomy over when their stoma releases waste into the pouch.
The Gutsy port is custom fitted to each stoma, acting as an artificial sphincter of sorts and offering reprieve from the bag. Optimizing fit reduces both painful leakages and time spent creating a strong “seal.” Gutsy controls the flow of waste for hours at a time and takes a prosthetics approach, meaning the design supports reuse.
@char_bo13, @PrattIndustrial @Pratt.MID
#OstomyAwareness #Ostomate #IndustrialDesign #JamesDysonAward2023 #JamesDysonAwardNationalWinner #MedicalDesign #Sustainability #StudentCompetition #IndustrialDesign
Double Cultura is an award-winning short film from @PrattFilm_Video graduate Yessenia Sanchez. The film follows 12-year-old Marisol as she navigates the English-speaking world, acting as translator for her Spanish-speaking mother. This overwhelming responsibility climaxes when Marisol must be the bearer of bad medical news.
The film will screen on @HBO Max for Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month.
Yessenia(she/her/ella) is a Mexican-American filmmaker from Northern California. She received her BFA in Film at Pratt Institute (2021) where she was awarded the 2020-21 Horn Art and Design Award for notable creative achievement in filmmaking.
Recently, Yessenia was a finalist for the 2022 American Cinema Editors Internship program, and is currently working as an Assistant Editor at @Media.Monks based in Los Angeles. Her independent projects aim to redirect fictional narratives to reflect non-fictional moments we live through. By focusing on the complexities of Latine/x experiences, she plans to share the vibrancy of multiculturalism, the versatility of language, and the heart of what it means to be more than one thing.
Video courtesy of @yessenia.sanchez21
#LatinxHeritageMonth #HispanicHeritageMonth #LatinxFilmMaker #MexicanAmericanFilmMaker
“the oceans are rising and so are we!” Repost from @nypirg_pratt at the Climate Week NYC March to End Fossil Fuels.
Over 75,000 people joined the protest, the largest since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
#ClimateWeekNYC #PrattInstitute #NYPIRG
Pratt Industrial Design Alumni Chen Chen and Kai Williams (@ChenandKai) share their insights with @Rarify in the new series "How to Collect."
@PrattAlumni @PrattIndustrial
#Design #IndustrialDesign #ProductDesign
There is no denying that hats are a defining feature of Beyonce's Renaissance World Tour and many of these stand-out toppers are from the custom millinery shop of Pratt alumna Sarah Sokol (@SarahSokolMillinery). The 2011 interior design grad discovered her love of the craft after taking a millinery techniques course at Pratt. Her eye-catching chapeaus have graced the heads of icons from Billy Porter to Mary J. Blige, and are a defining feature of Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion's latest video for "Bongos".
#Repost @Beyonce
@PrattInteriors @PrattAlumni
Congrats to @PrattFashion senior @Malek_Rasmussen on winning the Featured Designer Golden Shears Award at @OmahaFashionWeek!
Malek competed with over 40 professional independent designers at the nation's fourth-largest fashion week, presenting looks from his Junior thesis collection. Now in its fifteenth year, Omaha Fashion Week is a nonprofit that aims to nurture emerging designers in partnership with local fashion educators.
Swipe through to check out selections from his winning collection.
Designer: @MalekR_Official
Photography: @HeatherAndJameson
Models: @DevelopModels
#PrattFashion #PrattInstitute #Pratt #FashionWeek
Announcing Pratt>Forward 2024! The upcoming edition of the @PrattFineArt program for emerging artists offers studio space and a month of intensive collaboration in partnership with @SilverArtProjects.
Pratt>Forward is a monthlong program that connects emerging artists with leading practitioners and thought leaders in the field and offers opportunities for professional development, community building, and creative exploration.
Pratt>Forward ’24 will take place in March, in partnership with Silver Art Projects at the World Trade Center. Ten participants, five of whom will be Pratt Fine Arts alumni, will be selected via an open call and receive a full scholarship and a $2,000 stipend.
Pratt>Forward is co-directed by Mickalene Thomas, BFA ’00, and Fine Arts Chair Jane South. Core mentors for 2024 include Pratt Trustee and alumnus Derrick Adams, BFA Art and Design Education ’96; arts organizer and Director of Company Gallery Elizabeth Lamb; curator, art educator, and Director of Communications and Education at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center Emily McElwreath; artist José Parlá; and curator, activist, and Project for Empty Space Founder Jasmine Wahi.
Apply: Please see the link in bio.
Deadline: 5 PM, October 20
Program Dates: March 4–29, 2024
Pratt>Forward is grateful to Lilly Robicsek, director, Silver Art Projects, for her collaboration and to Silverstein Properties for their support. Thank you also to our amazing core mentors @derrickadamsny #ElizabethLamb @emilymcelwreath_art @companygallery @thebrantfoundation @joseparla @browngirlcurator and to @mickalenethomas without whom #PrattForward would not be possible #ThankYou.
📸 Mickalene Thomas by Tropical Cream, Jasmine Wahi by Dario Calmese, and WTC by Joe Woolhead
@prattinstitute @soartpratt
Discover the work of Pratt Alumni in this range of recent books, from deep dives into design and visual journeys around the world, to personal histories, poetic explorations, and literary escapes for all ages. Visit the link in our profile to learn about these and more new and noteworthy titles showcasing the work of Pratt Alumni.
Video: Hands hold books, flipping them up to reveal covers while upbeat music plays. Background is books on library shelves.
Included books:
“Chrome Valley,” Mahogany L. Browne, MFA Writing ’16; “20 Years of Calendars: Street Scenes and People,” Michael Gerbino, BFA Communications Design ’82, Professor Emeritus of Undergraduate Communications Design; “BOOK,” They Might Be Giants -John Flansburgh, BFA Fine Arts (Printmaking) ’84, photographs by Fine Arts alumnus Brian Karlsson; “Fitting In,” John Olson and Haruka Aoki, both MFA Communications Design ’12; “Fashion Portfolio: Create, Curate, Innovate,” Michelle Nahum-Albright, BFA Communications Design ’75; “Tides and Transgressions,” Duke Riley, MFA Fine Arts ’06; “The Heart Is a Sandwich,” Jason Fulford, BFA Communications Design ’96; “City of Secrets (Battle Dragons #3),” Alex London, MSLIS ’10
@mobrowne @michael_gerbino @tmbgofficial @thecosmicharuka @dukerileystudio @mushroom_collector @mnahumalbright @alexander_london
@PrattWriting @PrattBFACommD @Pratt_SOD @SoArtPratt @PrattFineArt @PrattISchool @PrattAlumni
🔥 Repost from Laura Kim, BFA Fashion '04 (@TokiBunBun). The cocreative director for @MonseMaison shared her custom designs for @BlackPinkOfficial ♥️
Credits 📸
Abe Robledo; Jnkloops; Blackpinkministrycorps
#Blinks #BlackPinkWorldTour #PrattFashion #PrattAlumni
In the first semester film majors start making work right away in Film Fundamentals and Production Studio, two rigorous and comprehensive courses, which provide essential foundational training. Students then delve into various modes of filmmaking in Fiction I, Nonfiction I, and Experimental Studio I. In addition to writing, analysis, and theory classes, technical skills are put to practice in Postproduction Studio, Cinematography + Lighting Design, and Sound Design. Students develop advanced skills in Fiction II and their choice of Nonfiction II or Experimental Studio II. In the junior year, the curriculum opens up to electives giving students a chance to try new things and gain more experience in their areas of interest. The culmination of the program is a guided but self-defined senior thesis project, publicly screened in our state of the art screening room and at BAM Rose Cinemas.
Students learn in an intimate workshop setting through screenings, readings, technical demonstrations, production exercises, class critiques, and visiting professionals, as well as through internship programs in the many film, video, and postproduction studios throughout the city.
Upon graduation, students will have produced their senior project as well as compiled a sample reel of personal work, which can be part of a graduate school application, be submitted to galleries and festivals, or serve as a demonstration of students’ skills for entry into the professional landscape.
Upon graduation from the BFA in Film, the student is expected to be competent in the following areas:
Student is able to effectively plan, oversee, and complete all phases of the filmmaking process (pre- production, production and post- production).
Student is able to clearly conceptualize a cinematic project within a historical, theoretical or cultural context.
Student is able to demonstrate technical and aesthetic proficiency in service to the cinematic project.
Student is able to communicate creative, aesthetic and conceptual ideas.
In the first semester film majors start making work right away in Film Fundamentals and Production Studio, two rigorous and comprehensive courses, which provide essential foundational training. Students then delve into various modes of filmmaking in Fiction I, Nonfiction I, and Experimental Studio I. In addition to writing, analysis, and theory classes, technical skills are put to practice in Postproduction Studio, Cinematography + Lighting Design, and Sound Design. Students develop advanced skills in Fiction II and their choice of Nonfiction II or Experimental Studio II. In the junior year, the curriculum opens up to electives giving students a chance to try new things and gain more experience in their areas of interest. The culmination of the program is a guided but self-defined senior thesis project, publicly screened in our state of the art screening room and at BAM Rose Cinemas.
Students learn in an intimate workshop setting through screenings, readings, technical demonstrations, production exercises, class critiques, and visiting professionals, as well as through internship programs in the many film, video, and postproduction studios throughout the city.
Upon graduation, students will have produced their senior project as well as compiled a sample reel of personal work, which can be part of a graduate school application, be submitted to galleries and festivals, or serve as a demonstration of students’ skills for entry into the professional landscape.
Upon graduation from the BFA in Film, the student is expected to be competent in the following areas:
Student is able to effectively plan, oversee, and complete all phases of the filmmaking process (pre- production, production and post- production).
Student is able to clearly conceptualize a cinematic project within a historical, theoretical or cultural context.
Student is able to demonstrate technical and aesthetic proficiency in service to the cinematic project.
Student is able to communicate creative, aesthetic and conceptual ideas.
