Master's in Montage
Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU)
Key Information
Campus location
Prague 1, Czech Republic
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
3 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
CZK 300,000 / per year *
Application deadline
03 Jun 2024
Earliest start date
16 Sep 2024
* fees might be subject to change
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
Montage program was build on living tradition of Czech Editing Department and FAMU in 2018. Qualities of the new international program have been immediatelly proven with exceptional success of its students including prizes and premieres at major film festivals (Sundance Film Festival, Cannes, Berlinale, Thessaloniki, Rotterdam). Montage program will prepare you for a career in professional film editing and script-editing.
Individual Mentoring by Industry Professionals
The core of the program is intensive work in workshops led by active professional film editors, capable of conveying their current working experience and a theoretical view of film editing to students. There are never more than six students in each workshop, which allows for providing an individualized approach to each of the students.
Masterclasses and Workshops with acclaimed filmmakers (link)
As a student of FAMU you will get chance to meet industry leading professionals and acclaimed filmmakers (See our Mentoring Program). FAMU is a place where tradition meets contemporary trends. The future belongs to you.
FAMU - tradition, innovation and creative community (link)
By enrolling at FAMU you will tap the growing environment of international study programs with access to an entire ecosystem of optional courses outside the range offered by the Montage track. You will encounter, mutually inspire and work with colleagues from around the world studying international programs as well as Czech students from FAMU departments.
You will love the vibrant and family-like atmosphere of the school. The Czech Republic and its capital are inspiring places to live and create. Its position in the heart of Europe has always made it a place full of energy where various cultures and ideas would encounter each other.
Ideal Students
If you have completed a Bachelor’s Degree in film or a related field and wish to expand your knowledge and skills, enroll for Montage, a 3-year follow-up Master’s Program at FAMU.
This is a full-time program taught in English. Applicants are expected to have a keen interest in cinema, literature, fine art, and other related fields. Applicants should demonstrate the capability of analytical reflection, a sense of image and composition, communication ability, and independent thinking.
Curriculum
Core subjects
| Montage Workshop; Tutorial The Montage workshop will accompany you throughout all six semesters of your journey towards obtaining the skills of a professional film editor. The workshop is a space dedicated to intensive collaboration between the mentor and students. In the workshop, you will address the principal issues of the art of editing: narrating through the editing composition, combining sound with image, mastering the differences between a documentary and a fiction film in terms of methods, and many other tasks. In the last year, you will be able to consult your mentor regarding your final project. | Elementary 16mm Film This unique course focuses on the actual film stock and you will receive rare hands-on experience with this type of work. Based on a detailed storyboard, you will shoot a brief sketch using a 16mm camera and including the soundtrack, and then on the flatbed, you will transform this footage into a film story. Doing so, you will use the basic editing methods (parallel montage, cross editing, work progress, line of action rule, etc.). |
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| Script Editing – Short and Feature Film + Projections and Analyses Examples of the leading works in film history with a detailed explanation will show you how a story is told by film. The course will show you how a particular plot can be processed with film narration in various genres, periods, and cinema traditions. You will consider the principal building blocks of a (good) story and the ways to transfer it to a film screen. | Grammar of the Film Language You will learn to efficiently use the principal elements of the film ‘language’ – when, how, and for what purpose these elements are used. To conclude the course, you will get your own assignment – you will be asked to develop the way to ‘articulate’ a specific scene in the screenplay in the film language. |
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| Film Theory The course uses film theory as a tool to better understand the various methods of film narration and ways of thinking about film. Armed with the semiotic theory, you will be able to analyze film structure and its components, think about film composition as a whole, and understand how both past and current film greats use the film language. | Character The editing workshop is the crucial place where each film character is created. The editor is (co)responsible for the final presentation of a character on the screen. In the course, you will study the human psyche, behavior, and the nature of decision-making. In the final hands-on exercise, you will work as the director to gain a practical understanding of his part of the creative process of building a character and the importance of the cooperation between the actor, the director, and the editor in interpreting a character. |
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| Archetype This course goes to the roots of the civilization, revisiting the oldest narrations of religions and cultures and showing how the relatively young film art form reflects thousands of years old stories on eternal topics (the Good, the Evil, Paradise, Death, Revenge, Hero, Anti-hero, God, etc.). | Narrative Film Editing Practice This hands-on exercise is focused on editing skills. Your task will be to process various scenes from the raw footage. The exercise includes lecturing and discussions. As a result, you will master editing as a discipline that has two sides to it – being a craft as well a unique art form. Aside from technical aspects, editing also has aesthetic qualities that play a key role in creating and finalizing a film. |
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| Editing Cooperation In this course, you will get to prove your editing skills in practice as a member of a crew of schoolmates backed by FAMU Studio. At the end of your work, there will be a completed film and a wealth of experience with the process of creating a film while cooperating with the director and the other members of the film crew. | Professional Internship You will take part in a workshop or a seminar outside the FAMU environment at least one or two times. You will get an opportunity to work under the leadership of internationally acclaimed tutors during festivals, seminars, and masterclasses. We usually collaborate with the following festivals and workshops: ExOriente, IFF Jihlava, PAF Olomouc, MidPoint, and Dok.Incubator, European Editing Masterclass, etc. |
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| Consulting and a Second Opinion Consultations will offer you a different view of your work. You will improve and progress with the feedback from experienced tutors, lecturers, and film professionals who will lead you with the help of their hands-on artistic experience and teaching abilities. |
Your final project
Your graduate project can take two forms. One is participating in the final film made by your schoolmates in the other Master’s international programs as an editor. The other option is editing the raw footage of an existing feature film (given to you by mentor), resulting in your own original interpretation and meaning. Either of the two challenges will give you unique experience.