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Learn How To Create Beautiful, Powerful & Visually Impressive Films and Documentaries.

If you decide to enroll in our online filmmaking course you'll become part of a growing film community. You'll have the ability to interact with a growing pool of talented film students and film instructors and partake in live online lectures (called "Lab Chats") with your new classmates and teachers.

Getting our students to
create and interact are two primary objectives of the Lights Film School program.

COURSE LENGTH & FLEXIBILITY

Our students are given the privilege of working through our film course at their own pace. Most of our students have full or part time jobs, daytime classes or children to care for. Our course is "outcomes based" not "time based", meaning you can take as much time as you need to work through our course material. However, most of our students complete our online film course within 3-6 months.

After you've completed our 6 course modules, as well as completed your corresponding assignments, you'll be awarded with a personalized 8x10 course completion certificate.

OUR FILM STUDENTS

Our students come from around the world. From Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Tokyo, Cape Town, Bangalore, Athens & London to name only a few cities, Our online learning platform means you can enroll from anywhere in the world.

HOW OUR ONLINE COURSE WORKS

Our online course allows students to work through lectures (both written and video tutorials), work on hands-on projects by downloading hours worth of files and working through the lecture using high quality studio grade audio and video files.

You'll also become part of our  "Lights Film School Social" program where you can set up your unique student profile and interact with other students and teacher from around the world.

As a student in our film course you'll also be given access to various media libraries including a script, stock music & sound FX library. If you decide to enroll in our "academic" or "scholar"  program you'll also be given access to 18 hours of live online lectures (called lab chats). 

OUR 6 MODULES

Our course is divided up into six modules.

1. Introduction
2. Screenwriting
3. Directing
4. Cinematography
5. Editing
6. Sound Design

At the end of each module you will be asked to complete an assignment that allows you to practice experimenting with the ideas and theories discussed in each lesson.

When you submit your work for review you are effectively building on a collective learning experience. Not only will you have your own work reviewed and analyzed, but you'll also be able to browse through the assignments of other students and read the instructors' feedback.

This means you won't simply be waiting for your turn. You'll be able to go through other students' work and identify problems within their assignments, read the instructors' analysis of the work and ask yourself questions like "how often do I make that same mistake?"

All of the feedback in our student HUB is constructive feedback meant to help make you a much better filmmaker. The student HUB is a non-judgemental community and a safe place to make mistakes. However, it's important that our instructors are honest with their analysis of your work. The only way you will grow as a filmmaker is by practicing, working hard and by opening yourself up to constructive criticism. We would rather you make your technical mistakes in our online film course before publishing videos for the world to see which may not live up to your (or your audience's) expectations.

That is why we've designed a comprehensive 6 module film course for both documentary and fiction filmmakers that allows our students to systematically work through the different areas of the filmmaking process. The 6 modules of our course are:

1. INTRODUCTION TO FILMMAKING & ONLINE LEARNING
Student introductions / Film basics / Introduction to your online learning environment

2. SCREENWRITING
This module was designed for those interested in both fiction film and documentary filmmaking. While it's true that a strong clinical analysis of a script isn't a definite way to ensure the success of a story, it is true that understanding the mathematics of story design helps you improve your story telling abilities.

3. DIRECTING
Directors need to know many things: How to run a set, how to harness their imagination as a story telling tool, how to create strong moments, how to ensure their film or documentary communicates clearly, how to stitch the individual shots of a scene together seamlessly, how to work with actors, how to strategically use language as a tool when communicating your vision, how to conceptualize designs and how to communicate with the Director of Photography (DOP) to name only a few of the countless things a Director needs to consider when shooting a film. As the Director, you're the captain of the ship and much of the responsibility for the film's success falls on your shoulders.

A Director needs to have clarity on the overall vision for a film. Everything from performance, acting beats, color, blocking, lens choice, lighting, depth, set design, makeup, atmosphere, pacing & wardrobe need to be considered when a director is working towards seeing his or her overall vision for a story come to fruition.

This module is helpful to both fiction and documentary filmmakers looking to refine their own visualization, story analysis & directorial skills.

4. CINEMATOGRAPHY
In this module you'll learn about the 3 main components of cinematography: Lighting, movement & composition. You will study shapes, lines, color theory, color psychology, framing heights, shot types, the line of action, continuity and shot flow as well as exploring temporal & spatial connections.

5. EDITING
In the editing module you'll learn about editing software, optimizing your recoding settings, title sequences, typography, rough cuts, paper edits, tight vs. loose editing styles, in and out points, 3 point editing, splice edits, overlays, fades, dissolves and color correction.

6. SOUND DESIGN
Sound design is undoubtedly one of the biggest contributing factors to a high perceived production value. Understanding sound is imperative if you want to avoid the airy, light, "hissy" sound that is often associated with independent film productions.

In this lecture we'll discuss synchronization, wavelengths, bit depth, sample rates, stereo vs. mono, microphones types, microphone placement, room tone, recording space acoustics, sound editing, equalizers, filters, compression and noise reduction.

As a Lights Film School student, you'll also get access to our stock music and sound effects library where you can download thousands of dollars worth of stock audio for use in your student projects at no cost.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO ENROLL IN OUR FILM COURSE?

All you need to enroll in the Lights Film School online program is a camera with video capabilities and a computer with an editing suite. Neither the camera, editing suite nor the computer needs to be the most advanced on the market.

As far as learning material goes, we provide everything. In order to keep the cost of our course low, we have fully digitized the learning material. All lessons can be accessed online in the student HUB. The student HUB is the community where you can download lecture notes, watch instructional videos and submit your assignments for analysis and review.

HOW DO I ENROLL & HOW MUCH IS ENROLLMENT?

We currently offer 3 different enrollment plans:

1: STUDENT: $399
Course material, 1 on 1 grading center, media libraries, Lights Film School "Social" program, Lights Film School "Mirror" program, music & sound libraries as well as access to one free 2 hour Lab Chat,

2: ACADEMIC: $499
All of the above + access to 18 hours of live Lab Chats (covering topics ranging from cinematography and directing to production design and documentary filmmaking).

3: SCHOLAR: $549
All of the above (including 18 hours of live Lab Chats) + access to the online theatre where once / month you'll be able to watch feature length films with the filmmakers who created them

You can upgrade your account at anytime through our student HUB.

LIGHTS FILM SCHOOL SOCIAL

Lights Film School Social is the heart of the Lights Film School Program. It's here where you'll be able to personalize your account (add a profile picture, location, links to your websites, interests within film and so on. As you progress through our course you'll make friends with teachers and students. The Lights Film School Social platform acts like a social network for filmmakers. You can post updates about your film projects on your wall, comment on your friends' posts and share information through your Lights Film School email account.

You'll also be able to search for other members by their geographic location. You might even be able to collaborate with a Lights Film School student living in your area!

The Lights Film School Social platform is a great way to interact with other teachers and students while still protecting your privacy.

LIGHTS FILM SCHOOL MIRROR PROGRAM

The Lights Film School Mirror Program is a great program that allows you to follow in our footsteps as you work towards taking your idea from concept to a final project. The Lights Film School Mirror Program is a program that we set up so you can see how we bring a film from an idea scratched onto a napkin to a professionally produced and beautifully shot short film.

We take you behind the scenes so you can examine our writing, casting, storyboarding, blocking, directorial concepts, cinematography, editing and sound design. Best of all, we give you all of our footage and audio files to work along with us.

The idea is to get you working on practical examples as you work through each module. For instance, in your sound design module, you'll be asked to download the audio and video files from the Lights Film School Mirror Program associated with the audio design module. You'll work alongside us using the audio files to create a professional soundscape. We'll teach you how to sweeten audio tracks, create your own sound FX's and bring out deep, rich textures in actor's voices.

We also do you the favour of shooting a few of our scenes twice. Once with the mistakes that are common to most first time filmmakers (poor audio, poor movement, poor lighting etc) and then the same scene once again with the corrections. Our hope is that by experimenting with good and bad footage and audio files side by side you'll have a better understanding of what to expect from yourself when you're working on your own projects.

Essentially, we try to make a few of the most common filmmaking mistakes for you to discourage you from incorporating those mistakes into your own projects. That is why you complete the "Mirror Project" before moving onto completing and submitting your lesson assignment.

MEDIA LIBRARIES

As a Lights Film School student you get access to a script library, video tutorial library, stock music library and a sound effects library.

LAB CHATS
ACADEMIC AND SCHOLAR MEMBERSHIPS ONLY

Lab Chats are a great way for you to meet your fellow classmates and dive deeper into the subjects contained within the modules.  Lab Chats are held during predetermined times during the week and are two hours in length. Below you'll find a sample list of the Lab Chats we have planned over the next couple of months.

1. Lighting & Design for Independent Films & Documentaries
2. Sound Design for independent Films and Documentaries
3. Writing for Small Budget Productions
4. Creating the World of Your Script
5. Choosing Themes & Creating Compelling Scenes
6. Defining the Director
7. Writing Dialogue
8. Discussion and Examples of the Hero's Journey
9. Directing a Documentary

ONLINE THEATRE
S
CHOLAR MEMBERSHIP ONLY

Lights Film School has relationships with various professional production studios who allow their Directors' to screen their films to our students. Every month you'll be able to stop by for a guest lecture by a filmmaker who will be screening his or her film in our "online theatre". You'll be able to ask questions about casting, lighting, design, acting, writing or whatever else comes to mind as the film plays. Our online theatre is a place for analysis and discussion.

Enroll Today  - Enroll by February 10th 2012

- By clicking on "Enroll" you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions -  

- Our enrollment fee is in US dollars. If you are enrolling from outside the US the enrollment fee will change to reflect the equivalent amount in your local currency.

30 day 100% money back guarantee.

If you have financial need and would like to apply for a $100 grant to be used for any of our membership levels you can do so on our grant application page.

  STUDENT
$399
ACADEMIC
$499
SCHOLAR
$549
Course Content Yes Yes Yes
Video Tutorials Yes Yes Yes
Grading Center Yes Yes Yes
Lights Film School Social Platform Yes Yes Yes
Stock Music Library Yes Yes Yes
Stock Sound Effects Library Yes Yes Yes
Lights Film School "Mirror Program" Yes Yes Yes
18 Hours of Live Online Lectures -- Yes Yes
Online Theatre (Monthly screenings)  -- -- Yes
       
ENROLL BY CREDIT CARD or PAYPAL

Essential Film School Enrollment Information

Program code: FM 300
Program Length: 3-6 Months estimated (flexible scheduling)
Starting: February 10th 2012
Availability Status: Limited space available
Location: Online & home study
Cost: $399 - $549
Grants: Click here to save on enrollment.

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Course Breakdown

Ideas & Funding
Screenwriting
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