For Parents

Berkeley Digital is a leadership school, creating team leaders in the Production and Direction of digital content from digital independent feature films and documentaries, to broadcast and cable television, to web 3.0 content creation. The length of our program is 16 months.

You will learn to both produce and direct, because it is important for directors to understand what their producers are going through, and vice versa.

Everyone takes all the classes, and everyone works in different capacities on everyone else's projects. There is a high sense of collaboration, and it is important to have done each and every one of the crew positions, to understand what each craftsperson does.

Everyone edits their own pieces, and often delegates sound to other classmates.

Class size is limited to 12, and there is a high degree of mentoring inherent in our curriculum.

With this small class size, we are truly able to observe and guide the development of our students; we are able to keep track of their progress, their needs, and their work, week by week.

Tuition is $9,750 per semester, $37,500 for four semesters, with an additional $250 for each semester for materials, camera rentals and supplies.

We have student financial aid available through the Sallie Mae Financial Aid program.

Our next program starts are September of 2010 and January of 2011.

Our requirements for acceptance are a passion for learning how to make films with integrity in the film business, and a genuine willingness to collaborate with others.

There are no prerequisites for the program, but people who have had prior film and editing classes do have a good start. We teach everything from the beginning; we assume no prior production knowledge.

Executive Summary for Parents

Administration

The Berkeley Digital Film Institute is run by an administrator with relevant experience in both the private and public education sectors.

Patrick Kriwanek, the founder of Berkeley Digital, was a Division Dean II of Fine and Applied Arts (Permanent Appointment) in the California Community College system.

He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and holds a Masters Degree in Education from San Francisco State University.

He holds a current School Director's Certificate of Authorization for Service issued by the State of California Bureau of Private and Postsecondary Vocational Education.

As director of the Academy of Art of San Francisco's film and video program, he grew that program from an initial enrollment of 79 students to an enrollment of over 900 students in 5 years, and was responsible for the placement of over 1000 students in film and television industry jobs, at some of the world's most prestigious media companies, including:

LucasFilm
Skywalker Sound
SKG Dreamworks
The Matrix
Warner Brothers
Fox Searchlight
Ridley Scott/RSA
Radical Media

As a filmmaker, Patrick has produced and directed two pilots for Fox Television, and he has produced and/or directed more than 60 music videos for MTV, MTV2, BET, and NHK Japan.

He has also produced and directed more than 200 corporate projects and commercials for Fortune 500 Companies, including Apple Computer, Intel, and Sun Microsystems.

Lucas Digital
Francis Coppola
PBS ÒFrontlineÓ
The Matrix Reloaded
Viacom/Nickelodion
Pixar
NFL Films
Pacific Data Images

Lucas Arts
American Zoetrope
Fox Sports Network
Shrek I and II
Disney Corporation
Toy Story I and II
MTV Music
E! Entertainment TV

Faculty

Our faculty and guest-lecturer roster members have truly worked on more than 100 feature films. They represent the highest level of industry-connected talent in the Bay Area. They are also augmented by guest lecturers flown in from Southern California, and other guest lecturers from the Bay Area.

For example, Mark Berger, who teaches Sound Design in terms 3 and 4, has won 4 Academy Awards for Best Sound and has worked on more than 140 features.

The list goes on, and can be viewed in further detail on the "Faculty" button to the right.

Facility

This facility really did participate in the editing and post production re-recording and mixing of more than 190 major motion pictures, including "Amadeus", "The English Patient", "Se7en", "K- 19", "Twin Peaks" Fire Walk With Me", and 186 others.

Track Record

The success rate of the founder's prior program is real.

Job placement, which is the ultimate test of a curriculum, was exceedingly high, according to figures provided by the Academy of Art College.

Job placement was at 90% or above for the graduating seniors during his entire six year Tenure as the Department Director of the Motion Pictures and Video division.

What is the arc of the program?

Berkeley Digital is a 16-month, 4 term accelerated curriculum in Producing and Directing.

It emulates "living" in the film business from day one.

They will have 20 15-week classes with at least 20 main instructors, and will hear from an additional 80 guest lecturers, so they will be hearing more than 100 voices on how to enter, remain in, and succeed in the business.

Their instructors and all of their guest lecturers are all working professionals,

Students attend more than 30 hours of direct instruction and supervised lab every week.

Additionally, they are expected to put in an additional 20 to 30 hours per week in open labs and in project execution.

Every form, every protocol, every piece of equipment, is exactly what they will touch every day in the industry.

Most importantly, class size is limited to 12 students per instructor, the single most significant element of the Berkeley Digital curriculum.

The Big Picture

Ultimately, the program is about creating leadership talent in the areas of content creation.

Yes, feature films are the gold standard of this industry, but we honor the employment opportunities present in the "2nd screen" environment of broadcast and cable television, and the erupting "3rd screen" content creation opportunities in the platforms of broadband desktop, hand- held devices, video gaming, and other burgeoning 3rd screen markets.

There are two keys to success in the future of content creation.

The first is the ability to lead, in whatever content creation arena one is placed in, and to be able to bring the crucial team-building and consensus building skills to bear on each and every project.

The second is to be able to think laterally in interpreting where the content creation career opportunities lie, and to be open to understanding that the key intellectual tools needed to bring a team together and lead it through the storytelling process are the same across all content delivery platforms. And therein lies the advantage to a graduate who has been purposefully trained in leadership.

These two elements constitute the vertically-integrated elements of our curriculum.

They are present in detail, in the delivery of every class in the curriculum, for 60 weeks.

Ultimately, Berkeley Digital is a Leadership School, steeped in a love of craft, coupled with a respect for, empathy for, and an understanding of the work of all of the massive numbers of subcontractors on any production.

Leadership is a set of skills which can be nurtured and developed, and at the end of the day, this is the primary mission of the Berkeley Digital Film Institute;

To develop graduates who are not only fluent in craft, but who exemplify and transmit the qualities of self-reliance, leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit which make them an asset to the companies which hire them.