Postgraduate Programme in Cinematography

Develop creative, expressive and storytelling techniques to find a distinctive voice in image-making.
Understand the fundamentals of the storytelling language used by a cinematographer.
Train the eye by analysing cinematic and artistic references, and create a working dossier based on them.
Understand the role of colour palette, texture, the volume of light and contrast in an image.

Understand and operate any analogue or digital camera, and understand image capture using a sensor and film.
Correctly expose a digital or film camera using a light meter and digital measuring tools.
Master image formation with cinema lenses, optical accessories and filters.
Understand the properties of light, the different families of lighting fixtures and the essentials of colourimetry.
Get started with non-linear editing and colour correction in DaVinci Resolve.

Prepare breakdowns, equipment lists, lighting plans and schedules.
Calculate the position of the sun and understand the narrative possibilities of a space.
Plan the lighting of a set using one, two or three sources: direct, bounced or diffused light; direction, texture, contrast and colour.
Develop the cinematography for a project from the script stage through to the shoot and staging.

Work as part of a team and understand the hierarchy of camera and lighting teams.
Communicate visual ideas and reach agreements with the team.
Understand how the audiovisual industry works in order to join it after completing the course.

Work confidently in the different camera and lighting roles: assistant, trainee, gaffer and electrician.
Prepare for the selection test for ESCAC’s Master’s programme in Cinematography.

Camera and lighting training bootcamps

At the beginning of the course, students receive practical training from active camera and lighting professionals on how the technical equipment they will use throughout the course works. They learn the basic guidelines for handling and setting up lights on a film set, as well as setting up and operating Sony FX3 and Sony FX6 digital cameras and the ARRI SR3 16 mm camera. Students must master this equipment to be fully prepared for all the workshops and practical sessions in the following weeks. The bootcamps conclude with visits to camera and lighting rental houses.

The cinematographer’s craft

The role of the cinematographer in a film crew: responsibilities, relationships with other departments, tasks during pre-production, production and post-production, differences between fiction, advertising and television, and the creative process from script to screen.

Audiovisual storytelling

Foundations of the cinematographer’s narrative language, with theoretical and practical exercises: lighting and camera plans, scene breakdowns, planning, camera movement, optical language, aspect ratios and lighting continuity.

Visual style

Analysis of cinematic and artistic references: the influence of painting, visual styles and film movements, key cinematographers, colour palette, texture, the volume of light and contrast. Creation of a reference dossier.

The camera: features and operation

Components of an analogue or digital camera and their functions: image capture with a sensor and with film, negative and sensor sizes, shutter and frame rate, resolution, colour temperature, ISO and gain, colour depth, linear and Log curves, and colour gamuts.

Image capture

How to expose a digital or film camera correctly: exposure using linear and Log curves, false colour, zebras and histograms, light-meter readings, middle grey, latitude and dynamic range, RAW versus packaged files, codecs and colour subsampling.

Image formation with lenses

Image formation with cinema lenses: lens components, focusing, differences from photographic lenses, f- and T-stops, lens families, depth of field and its measurement, the relationship between sensor and focal length, and filters.

The properties of light

Fundamental properties of light and types of lighting equipment: the inverse-square law, hard and soft light, direct, filtered and bounced light, native and correlated colour temperature, the visible spectrum and applied colourimetry.

Introduction to colour correction

DaVinci Resolve workflow: native and editing files, transcoding, working with RAW, ingest and synchronisation, proxies and conforming, EDL, XML and AAF, mastering and exporting.

Workshops and external shoots

The course’s central module. Two workshop days each week on a soundstage, shoots outdoors and in real-world interior locations, and group shoots at weekends, with a different cinematographer each week. Students rotate through all camera and lighting roles.

Screenings

A group analysis of each student’s practical work, which the students edit and colour-grade themselves at the school. The work is screened on a large screen using a calibrated projector.

Filming and hand-processing 16 mm film

An introduction to filming and hand-processing black-and-white 16 mm film: emulsion types, negative and reversal processing, shooting with a Bolex camera, and preparing chemicals. The block includes training on ARRI Alexa and visits to rental houses.

ARRI Alexa bootcamp

Specialised training in operating the ARRI Alexa camera, which will be used for all the final shoots.

Tableau vivant workshop

Groups of eight students shoot eight tableaux vivants over eight days using ARRI Alexa. Each student directs the cinematography for one and takes on the other camera and lighting roles for the rest.

Final shoot with the Postgraduate Programme in Directing

A joint practical project with the Postgraduate Programme in Directing, shot using ARRI Alexa. Each student co-directs the cinematography for a project using scripts provided by the teaching staff. The projects are screened at the end of the course.

Classes to learn how to operate camera, lighting and 16 mm equipment.

Practical classes with a specific production objective, held in a classroom or on a soundstage, where students apply what they have learned using specific cameras and software.

One- or two-day sessions with renowned professionals, who share their experience in conversation with students.

Filming in groups of six, during and outside scheduled hours, without direct supervision. The group submits a report, which is reviewed in class; once approved, the group is issued a complete camera and lighting kit.

To obtain the qualification, students must attend at least 80 % of classes.