Spring and Fall
Program Overview
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is one of the world’s leading broadcasters, influencing American television and delivering content on multiple platforms. In collaboration with the BBC, the Tisch School offers eight students a rare opportunity to participate in specialized training modules at the BBC and receive practical and professional television production experience.
The first half of the semester offers a series of cumulative development units at the BBC Academy, the very same courses and workshops that BBC staff attend. You learn to direct a three-camera studio shoot assisted by professional vision mixers, lighting and sound engineers. Commentary writing gives you the chance to write a voice-over to pictures. The single-camera drama directing course teaches you how to prepare drama script treatments, storyboards, schedules and shooting plans for a script. Here, you direct professional actors and work with a professional crew. You also take the companion courses, Arts & Theatre in London and Writing for Television: Drama and Comedy.
The last six weeks of the program is your chance to really build your résumé. You are assigned to a BBC production unit based on your interests and strengths. In this attachment you apply your training from the first half of the semester and study in a junior capacity with a professional production team. Your assignment may be in arts and music, travel, lifestyle, the news planning desk, a drama series, or other radio, television, or online BBC program.
At the end of the semester, you will receive a DVD of the exercises shot in the four-day multi-camera course and the four-day single cameral course.
Senate House, the academic center, is next to the British Museum. NYU housing is just off Russell Square, within walking distance of the shops, supermarket and cinema of The Brunswick Center, the parks and gardens of Russel Square, Coram fields and Mecklenburgh Square. The residence is surrounded by the colleges of the University of London, and close to London's West End Theatre district.
Program Curriculum
This is a full-time, 18-unit program that includes the following courses:
Prerequisites: Sight and Sound: Film plus Sight and Sound: Studio or Sight and Sound: Documentary; equivalent experience may be substituted.
Note: Tisch Film & Television majors must have two Sight & Sound courses in any combination.
Intermediate Television Production and Media Training
IFMTV-UT 1077
6 units | BBC staff
This course provides advanced professional training in television production with one of the world’s leading broadcasters. During the first six weeks, BBC production and operational trainers delivera series of cumulative development units, similar to those BBC staff attend, devoted to core production skills and techniques. These include modules on writing for factual television, television research, self-shooting on DV cameras, multicamera studio directing and single-camera drama directing with professional actors and small crews.
BBC-TV Production
IFMTV-UT 1037
4 units
During the second half of the semester, each student is assigned to a BBC production unit for applied training in areas such as factual television (travel, lifestyle, science, arts and music, popular history, consumer affairs, or children’s programming). For six weeks, students study in a junior capacity with a professional production team, one member of whom will monitor and report on their progress. Note: Students are not provided with a separate grade for the applied training.
Note: Students are not provided with a separate grade for the applied training.
Arts and Theatre in London
IOART-UT 1305
4 units | Kate Beales or Mary Jane Walsh, instructors
Designed for BBC students, this course examines the relationship between artist and national culture, considering the influence of British history and politics on visual and performing arts. In the first half of the semester, students attend the Theatre in London class and a weekly theatre performance. The second element of the course, The Arts in London, includes visits to museums, galleries, historic landmarks, and a performance.
Writing for Television: Drama and Comedy
IFMTV-UT 1102
4 units | Archie Tait, instructor
This course provides a grounding in the art and craft of writing for television from a British perspective. Students examine the nature of the medium and how it affects the content and context of the written text as well as the principles of storytelling and character creation, in a workshop-based programme in which students develop a TV drama project from concept to pilot script.
