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Wednesday, 15 November 2006 | Levent OZLER
Berkeley Digital Film Institute: Narrative Film Education
Today, the Berkeley Digital Film Institute opens its doors as the most advanced 35mm and high definition narrative film production program in Northern California, offering advanced training in the producing and directing of narrative fiction, commercials and music videos.
Veteran filmmaker Patrick Kriwanek, who leads the producing and directing track, is joined by faculty members who are major Hollywood industry players, including 4-time Academy Award winner Mark Berger ("Amadeus" and "The English Patient"), 28-time Clio award winner Andy Newell (Disney's "The Wild"), Peabody-award winning editor Max Salomon (PBS's "Nature"), and producer/screenwriter Fred Ritzenberg ("Gospel"), among others.
The program is a 16-month intensive full-time curriculum, utilizing 35mm and high definition camera packages, Avid Adrenaline and Final Cut editing suites, Discreet Logic "Smoke" compositing, a dedicated green screen stage, and thesis mixes in a fully-equipped 64-track, 5.1 Dolby surround mixing theater which was once home to David Fincher, David Lynch, and 189 other major motion picture directors.
Together, the program's faculty and guest speakers have worked on more than 1,000 feature films.
"I wanted to create the most intense film school in the Bay Area, at the same time I wanted to create the coolest film school in the Bay Area," said Patrick Kriwanek, founder and CEO of Berkeley Digital.
The program is being conducted in the space formerly occupied by the Saul Zaentz Film Center. Berkeley Digital has acquired more than one million dollars worth of editing and postproduction sound and editorial equipment from the former world-class postproduction center, and this inventory of equipment creates a postproduction sound environment which offers one of the "Top 5" film-school-based sound finishing capabilities in the nation.
"We are one of the only 5.1 Dolby licensed film schools in the country," added Kriwanek. "This is a gorgeous facility."
Graduates of Kriwanek's prior program include music video superstar director Chris Milk, who has just finished directing a series of videos for U2, Green Day, Kanye West ("Jesus Walks"), Audioslave, Gnarls Barkley, The Chemical Brothers, and Jet; and Mike Sloat, who just finished a music video for Staind.
The program is an around-the-clock intense immersion in the process of narrative filmmaking, structured in four 15-week terms. Upon program completion, students will have a Certificate of Completion in Producing and Directing for Motion Pictures.
Classes begin January 16th, 2007, with a class size limited to 12 students per classroom.
Tuition for the Spring term 2007 is $40,200. Berkeley Digital is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2007 term.
Applications can be downloaded at http://www.bdf1.com/ and must be postmarked by January 1, 2007.
Berkeley Digital Film Institute: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/8498/
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