Jerry Sherlock

For most moviemakers, a career as a successful Hollywood producer would be enough to satisfy the creative urge. But for Jerry Sherlock, executive producer on John McTiernan's The Hunt for Red October and a number of other Hollywood hits, the desire to teach the craft of moviemaking was always a lingering desire. He acted on that desire 10 years ago when he founded the New York Film Academy.

Originally located in Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Center, the NYFA has since grown into its own building in historic Tammany Hall. Many of the original faculty, including Sherlock himself, are still with the Academy-and they come from some of the country's most prestigious film programs, including NYU, USC, UCLA, AFI, Stanford and Harvard. But what makes NYFA's program unique from other film schools?

Jennifer Wood (MM): What made you decide to start your own film school in New York, a city where competition is tough? Were you trying to provide students with something you thought was missing from other programs?

Jerry Sherlock (JS): New York is the natural home for an international film school-there's a story on every corner. In many ways the intensive nature of the school matches the intensity of the city.

We provide people the means to make their own films. In many schools students merely study film, but they don't work with film hands-on, or else they work on group projects. At the Academy, every student starts working with the cameras on Day One, and by the end of the first week each student begins directing their first film.

MM: Who are your students?

JS: Our students are a very eclectic group ranging from Buddhist nuns to Wall Street brokers and college students.

MM: You require that all students take part in the entire moviemaking process, from writing and producing their films to directing and editing them. Do you think such a hands-on approach benefits an individual who is just looking to direct or just looking to write?

JS: In our program, students quickly come to understand how all of the fundamental crafts of filmmaking are interwoven and inform each other. For example, to direct you need to understand lighting, lenses, editing, screenwriting, etc. You could be a cinematographer that creates a beautiful set of images, but if those images do not edit together, you haven't done your job correctly.

MM: You offer four-week, six-week, eight-week and one-year long programs. Do you think that students can effectively learn to make a movie in each of these allotted time periods?

JS: Not only can students learn to make films in four, six or eight weeks, they will actually direct their own films in the workshop. The difference between the length of the workshops is in the time allotted and the complexity of the final film projects. The one-year is by far the most comprehensive, and students work with 16mm film, 35mm film and digital.

MM: Do you think it's true that everyone has a story to tell?

JS: We are of the philosophy that those who desire to make films have a story to tell. We can teach you certain things, but you have to bring the talent and the vision for your work.

MM: Digital technology has made it easier for more individuals to become moviemakers. Do you think that first-time moviemakers should 'go digital,' or do you believe students should still first become proficient with film?

JS: The quality of film is still far superior to digital, though our students work with both formats for different purposes. However, once shooting both formats, almost all of our students choose to shoot film on their final projects because the image quality is so much greater. We believe the best way to learn editing is hands-on-to physically cut the film. But once they have learned the craft of editing in this manner, many students edit their final projects digitally on our Apple G4 Final Cut Pro editing stations.

MM: What is expected of students as far as prior education-and are individual aspirations considered?

JS: Our workshops are open enrollment-we don't judge whether our students have talent or not before they come to our program. We make every effort to impress upon our students the difficulty of the course and the workload involved in directing their own films. Then we leave it to the students to make the determination if they have what it takes.

MM: Only in the one-year program does NYFA incorporate film history, which many consider essential to the study of film in general. What are your feelings on the role of film history in film education?

JS: We believe [that] film history and theory are extremely important, but that is not the purpose of our workshops. Even in our one-year program, where we study film history, we approach it from the point of view of the craft of the filmmakers involved, i.e. we discuss how a certain lighting effect was achieved, or why the filmmaker edited the scene in a certain way.

MM: If you were to recommend a "crash course" in film history for prospective students that consisted of 10 movie essentials, which films would you recommend?

JS: Some films/directors I would recommend would be: The 400 Blows by François Truffaut; Tunes of Glory by Ronald Neame; Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick; Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou; The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa; Seven Beauties by Lina Wertmüller; Notorious by Alfred Hitchcock; La Strada by Federico Fellini; M by Fritz Lang; and Citizen Kane by Orson Welles.

MM: What does 2002 look like for the NYFA?

JS: In addition to our year-round workshops in New York City and at Universal Studios, Hollywood, in 2002 we will be offering workshops at the Harvard Faculty Club, Princeton University, King's College London (year-round as of June, 2002), The French National Film School (La Femis) in Paris, France; Mexico City; Toronto, Canada; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan.

We are also offering a special summer Digital Filmmaking Workshop, workshops in 3-D Animation, and Feature Screenwriting workshops in New York City and Los Angeles.