MPS Film Directing Curriculum

Course Requirements

Fall Semester

DTG-5230 Film Language, Analysis and Criticism I

DTG-5260 Screenwriting

DTG-5310 Producing for Film Artists

DTG-5610 Directing

Spring Semester

DTG-5235 Film Language, Analysis and Criticism II

DTG-5450 Director’s Toolbox

DTG-5470 Editing as Storytelling

DTG-5615 The Thesis Project

General Course Listing

The following reflects the 2025-2026 course offerings. For further details on individual courses, such as meeting days and times, please refer to the Graduate Course Listing.

DTG-5230

Film Language, Analysis and Criticism I

3 credits

Narrative filmmaking has been at the forefront of cinema throughout the 120-year history of motion pictures. Stories have played a critical part in the development and culture of film from the earliest projected images made by the Lumière brothers in the 1890s to works being made today by amateurs on smartphones and transmitted globally on the Internet. This course will analyze the language of narrative filmmaking with examples of significant short films that have expanded the boundaries of cinematic expression from around the world. The lectures, screenings and class discussions will cover the various strategies of telling a story in film, and will suggest a critical framework for thinking about the modes of narrative expressiveness in cinema. A broad range of narrative cinema will be featured, including those films that mix fiction with documentary reality, and those works that even question the idea of narrative itself. The concentration in the first part of this course will be on American and European cinema within a context of social responsibility.

DTG-5235

Film Language, Analysis and Criticism II

3 credits

This is the second part of a two-semester course. The spring semester features short works, primarily from Latin America and the East, and will focus on student-made films as well as digital works conceived in nontraditional modes, such as artist’s narratives and single-channel videos.

DTG-5260

Screenwriting

3 credits

Serving as an intensive exploration of the basic principles of dramatic writing, this course will explore the practice and theory of storytelling through a wide range of contexts—from the ancient Greeks to contemporary Hollywood. With a focus on the elements common to all narratives, each student will develop a short screenplay (8 to 12 minutes). Students have the choice of writing their own screenplay, collaborating with a professional writer, or optioning an original script from a professional writer. Each of these processes will lead to developing a shooting script under the guidance of the instructor. Students will submit numerous revisions until the screenplay is approved for the next phase of production.

DTG-5310

Producing for Film Artists

3 credits

This course is geared specifically toward the practical and creative information needed by film artists to ensure that they have the tools to both realize their artistic vision and find the appropriate media outlets once they’re reached completion. While it is important to push the aesthetic boundaries in our field of the moving image, it is also invaluable to have an understanding of production and distribution options, and general business information that is key to the independent media maker.

DTG-5450

Director’s Toolbox

3 credits

The director’s job starts well before the call of “action!” and doesn’t end at the call of “cut!” This course explores a variety of methods for utilizing the many tools at the director’s disposal before production, during production, and beyond. Students will have the opportunity to workshop scenes; exploring techniques to articulate story through lens choice, lighting, camera position, blocking, and composition as well as optimizing the collaborative process to tell a compelling visual narrative. In the second half of the semester this course shifts to deconstructing the various platforms for engaging in social media and uniquely marketing their films directly to their intended audiences.

DTG-5470

Editing as Storytelling

3 credits

This course will focus on the role of editing in film storytelling. Students will be introduced to the interfaces for popular editing platforms like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro X, and learn advanced techniques for leveraging these applications. The course will cover postproduction workflow, working with an editor, technical and creative challenges of postproduction, and providing deliverables on a deadline. The course will also review the practical application of theories, conventional techniques and unconventional approaches in furthering story through examples screened in class.

DTG-5610

Directing

6 credits

Students are given firsthand experience in the creation and execution of a narrative short film within the context of an evolving industry. The course will advance the importance of telling a uniquely different story. We will discuss and analyze short films, commercials, and scenes from feature films with the objective of studying various techniques. We will meet industry professionals from every discipline within the craft. Each student will be required to produce six narrative short video exercises to further explore the challenges of directing; this course is constantly in motion—discussing, criticizing and experiencing conceptual screenwriting; directing; cinematography; and working with a production team to achieve their vision. Students will learn how to employ the tools of cinema to tell their story.

DTG-5615

The Thesis Project

6 credits

In the final semester, emphasis shifts to preproduction and casting; finding the best professional actors to fill the roles created by the student directors. Throughout the process, students continue to examine the art of directing while moving forward with the logistics of filmmaking: location scouting; hiring an experienced, independent line producer and a talented, experienced director of photography and the necessary complement of crew. Shot lists, scheduling, rehearsals lead to on-set filming and then the emphasis shifts dramatically to the art of editing where the story is told for the third and final time. Then we prepare for the completion of the film with an eye toward marketing and what the future holds for our new directors.