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TIRED OF SITTING IN THE AUDIENCE? WANT TO DIRECT INSTEAD?
At SOCAPA, you will realize that goal. Run by young industry professionals, the school offers students the chance to learn contemporary filmmaking in an atmosphere of total immersion.
Make Three Films in Three Weeks:
SOCAPA mixes the best of elite film programs and exciting summer camps. Nowhere else will you find this level of filmmaking intensity combined with this much fun. Each SOCAPA student writes, directs and edits three films of their own during the three-week program. Students in the abbreviated programs make one film per week of attendance. Students in the six-week program form the Advanced Filmmaking class for the final three weeks and make two additional films.
Choose Your Format – Film or DV – Edit on Digital Computer Systems:
 Unlike other film schools, SOCAPA offers the immediate opportunity to learn the most recent digital technologies. For their final projects, students choose to shoot using either 16mm film cameras or state-of-the-art, 3-chip digital video cameras with synchronous sound. Regardless of the capture format, all students edit on Final Cut Pro non-linear, digital computer systems. This lets them create an elaborate multi-track sound design for each of their films, incorporating music, voice-over, sound effects and dialogue. No other beginning film program offers such opportunities.
Choose Your Focus - Acting or Filmmaking Tech:
At SOCAPA, everyone gets to direct his or her own films. Beyond directing, however, some students may enjoy acting, while others may prefer the technical side of production. The students who want to perform can take additional classes in film acting, and act in their classmates’ films. The budding cinematographers and sound techies can take additional camera, lighting or sound classes, and shoot their classmates’ films. In this way, everyone gets the film experience that best suits him or her.
Learn from the Pros:
In addition to the daily morning directing classes, and the afternoon focus-oriented classes, SOCAPA film students have weekly master classes with visiting lecturers from the New York or Hollywood film world. Accomplished industry professionals give lectures on Producing, Acting for Film & TV, Cinematography, and Directing.
 SOCAPA – The Best Choice:
For the aspiring young actor or filmmaker, SOCAPA is by far the best choice. We offer small classes, teachers with recent and ongoing film-set experience, and instant and constant access to the latest equipment. The full-time teaching staff of SOCAPA includes award-winning filmmakers and experienced educators. Drawn from some of the top universities and film schools, including the Ivy League, NYU, and Columbia, the instructors at SOCAPA guide the students through the three-week program with delicacy and skill.
Film Program Curriculum:
Each SOCAPA student writes, directs and edits a film of their own per week of attendance. In addition, students are expected to work in small crews for one another.
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1) The Lumière Film (Week One)
In a single shot of up to one minute, the student tells a simple story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The project takes its name from the first films by the 19th-century pioneers of early cinema, Pierre and August Lumière. |
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2) The Porter Film (Week Two)
Edwin Porter was one of the first filmmakers to consider the possibilities of editing shots together in a continuous fashion. He led the way in creating the illusion of "continuity," where material shot over the course of days or weeks looks, once it is cut together in sequence, as if it all flows together over the course of minutes. His famous film, The Great Train Robbery, is the inspiration for this second film, where students explore the same issues Porter faced, and make a 2 to 3 minute film that focuses on continuity. |
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3) The Kubrick Film (Week Three)
Perhaps the greatest and most innovative filmmaker that America has produced, Stanley Kubrick made one masterpiece after another over his five decade career. He set the standard for cinematic excellence in a multitude of genres, combining staging, lighting, set design, acting, and editing to create a radical new vision of what film can do. With films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Dr. Strangelove," "Barry Lyndon," "Lolita," "The Shining," and "Full Metal Jacket," Kubrick proved himself again and again to be a master of his craft. For their fourth film, a 4-6 minute project, we challenge SOCAPA students to take everything they have learned in the previous three weeks and to forge their own masterpiece. |
Advanced Filmmaking:
Students in our Six-Week Filmmaking Program go on to form the Advanced Filmmaking Program after the first three weeks. Returning students from prior summers join the group and they each make two longer projects in the final three weeks.
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4) The Hitchcock Film: Alfred Hitchcock was a master of visual storytelling. He would often convey information using a single silent shot that it would take a lesser filmmaker pages and pages of cumbersome dialogue to get across. In this film, students are encouraged to take a visual approach to telling their stories. Dialogue should be used sparsely, if at all. Instead, we urge students to use composition, camera movement, shot selection, blocking, lighting, color and nonsynchronous sound to convey meaning. |
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5) The Kazan Film: Co-founder of the famous Actor’s Studio, the breeding ground for "The Method", Elia Kazan is considered one of the great actor’s directors. Twenty-one of his actors have been nominated for Academy Awards and nine have won. Under his guidance, actors like Natalie Wood and Carol Sue Baker soared to levels of performance that they could not match before or after. In this culmination film, we challenge our Advanced Students to elicit the best and most truthful performances they can from their cast without losing sight of all they have learned about visual storytelling. |
[ . . . more on Advanced Filmmaking Program ]
Film Program Schedule:
Writing, Directing, and Editing:
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, in the mornings, SOCAPA film students take their main Writing and Directing Classes. In Writing Class, students generate ideas, learn fundamentals of three-act structure, and workshop their scripts. In Directing Class, they learn the basics of film language, camera placement, and shot construction. Through a combination of hands-on camera exercises, close analysis of film clips, and rigorous exploration of traditional and modern film technique, the teachers quickly bring the students to a highly proficient level of filmmaking skill.
| If it can be written or thought, it can be filmed. |
-Stanley Kubrick
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 Starting in the second week, the Directing Class turns into an Editing Class as well. Students learn the latest Final Cut Pro and Avid editing software and cut their films, under the direct supervision of their instructor, right in class. Extra editing time is available for those who need it. The third week is devoted entirely to editing and shooting. Students finish their second film, as well as direct and edit their final film.
On Thursday and Friday of the first two weeks, the SOCAPA students shoot their films. Everyone directs his or her own movie, working in a crew of three or four students. The acting duties are divided among the acting focus students, and the cinematography/sound duties are divided among the camera focus students. In this way, 3 to 4 films per crew are shot each week.
Acting and Cinematography:
On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, the students break up into two separate groups: one for Acting; the other for Cinematography.
| I have to act to live. |
-Sir Lawrence Olivier
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 Acting Focus:
The Acting students spend the next 3 to 4 hours learning the basics of film acting. They work on vocal and physical exercises, and almost immediately have their first in-class performances captured on camera, so that they can determine precisely what they have to improve. Film and video are unforgiving in the way they reveal an actor’s performance, and we at SOCAPA believe that it is important to get our young actors in front of a camera as soon as possible. The Acting focus students also spend a good deal of time reviewing the merits and faults of the various New York methods. In this way, we hope to teach them about the current state of American film performance.
 Camera Focus:
In the Cinematography class, we introduce the Camera students immediately to the 16mm film and digital video cameras that they will use. The first class is devoted to learning all aspects of our top-of-the-line 3-chip prosumer DV camera, as well as shooting exterior exercises and projecting them in class. In the second class, on Tuesday, the students learn how to light interiors for video, and also shoot and project in-class exercises. As the program progresses, students will have the opportunity to use higher end cameras, dollies and a steadicam.
| A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. |
-Orson Welles
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Master Classes:
At least once per session, SOCAPA invites a top young industry professional from the New York or Hollywood film or performing arts scene to come to campus and lead a master class for all students, regardless of focus. Some past guests included actor Brendan Sexton III (Empire Records, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Hurricane Streets), actor Dwight Ewell (Chasing Amy, Dogma, Flirt), filmmaker Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas, Five Feet High and Rising), actor Sarah Clarke (TV show "24," Thirteen) screenwriter Andrew Marlowe (Air Force One, End of Days, Hollow Man), director Morgan J. Freeman (Hurricane Streets, American Psycho II, Desert Blue, Just Like the Son), and comedian Matt Walsh ("The Daily Show," Bad Santa, Upright Citizens Brigade).
Showcase Festival:
On the final Friday afternoon of the three-week program, SOCAPA holds its "Showcase Festival" followed by a reception for friends and family. All the acting reels, photography slides, music videos and student films are shown on the giant silver screen. In addition to the projected work, there are live dance performances, actor monologues, and a photography exhibit. We encourage you to invite your fellow collaborators, friends and family. Although we do have a final live performance/film screening of all the two-week work just for the camp, please note that students in the two-week program do not have a final showcase festival for friends and family.
College Credit Option:
High School students in the three-week Filmmaking, Acting for Film and Dance Programs may opt to take the course for three AP College Credits issued by Long Island University. [ More Info on College Credit ]
Extra-Curricular:
We at SOCAPA believe that you should work hard and play hard. Discipline and drive are two of the most important attributes of all successful artists, but hey, what's a summer without the beach? Every evening, Monday through Friday, we plan an activity for the students, whether it be a barbecue on campus, a dinner in the city, a cool-off swim, a theater/musical performance, or a film screening. On the Saturday afternoons that are not devoted to shooting and performing, we organize a group excursion. This could include a trip to a museum, the beach or a Broadway show. Past evening and Saturday excursions have included trips to Coney Island Amusement Park, live tapings of MTVs "TRL," Shakespeare in the Park, shopping in SoHo, Unity Sessions Hip-Hop Concert in Prospect Park, Universal Studios, Pilobolus Dance Group at the Joyce Theater, Jones Beach, Off-Broadway Shows De La Guarda, Stomp and Rent, Six Flags Amusement Park, Fourth of July Fireworks, and Bryant Park Film Screenings, to name a few.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
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-Jack Nicholson, "The Shining"
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