B.F.A. in Film

CIN 1 The Art of the Film/1900-1930
This course studies the silent film and the birth and development of film as an art form in the United States, Germany, Russia and France. 
Fall, 3 credits

CIN 2 The Art of the Film/1931 to Present
In this course, students study the sound film: the international development of creative motion pictures from the advent of sound through Neorealism, the New Wave and the work of major new directors.
Spring, 3 credits

CIN 3 Major Forces in the Cinema
The influence of major movements in the cinema is examined in this course. Subject changes each semester. May be taken for a maximum of three semesters.
Spring, 3 credits.

CIN 4 Major Figures in the Cinema
The personal styles and influences of major directors are covered in this course. Subject changes each semester. May be taken for a maximum of three semesters.
Prerequisite: CIN 1, 2, or 11, or permission of the instructor. 
Spring, 3 credits

CIN 5 The Art of the Documentary Film
This course is an analysis of the major contributors to the film documentary from the Kino Eye movement of Vertov through the contemporary documentary.
Prerequisite: CIN 1, 2, or 11, or permission of the instructor.
Spring, 3 credits

CIN 6 Basic Motion Picture Production
The basic concepts of film production, direction and editing are covered in this course. Prerequisite: Film Major or permission of department. 
Co-requisite: CIN 12
Fall, 3 credits

CIN 7 Intermediate Motion Picture Production
The techniques of sync sound and learning to work as a crew as emphasized as student produce a short film. Individual approach is encouraged.
Prerequisite: CIN 6
Spring, 3 credits

CIN 8 Advanced Motion Picture Production
This course integrates color and advanced lighting into the techniques of filmmaking and application of professional practice. Individual approach is encouraged.
Prerequisite: CIN 6, 7
Spring, 3 credits

CIN 9, 10 Screenwriting
These course include an intensive program of screenwriting techniques, from short form to full-length screenplays.
Annually, 3 credits

CIN 11 History of World Cinema
A concise history of film from its origins in the 1890s to the present is covered. Silent and sound films from around the world are screened and discussed each week. Suggested for non-majors core requirement.
Every Semester, 3 credits

CIN 12, 13 Basic and Intermediate Editing and Sound Techniques
These courses are designed to give students basic skills in digital picture and sound editing, sound recording and sound mixing.
Co-requisite: 12, CIN 6; 13, film major or departmental permission. 
Fall and Spring, 3 credits

CIN 15 Cinematography
This course is an intensive study of the motion picture camera and lighting technology.
Prerequisite: CIN 6, 7
Fall, 3 credits

CIN 24 Video Documentary Workshop
Students learn the basics of producing a short documentary film, including research, interviewing, budgeting, shooting styles and organizing footage for editing.
Annually, 3 credits each semester

CIN 28, 29 Film Theory
These courses analyze theories related to realism, montage, narrative and non-narrative films. Writings by Eisenstein, Vertov, Bazin and others are examined and films are viewed and discussed, and students learn to write short critical pieces.
Prerequisite CIN 1, 2
Fall, Spring 3 credits each

CIN 35, 36 Production Laboratory
These courses are intensive practica in motion picture production that cover advanced cinematography, advanced sound, research, budgeting, casting, production design and graphics, and postproduction practices.
Prerequisite CIN 6, 7, 12, 13
Annually, 3 credits each

CIN 37, 38 Film Production Lab-Practicum
These courses are intensive production experiences that culminate in a group-made professional film.
Prerequisites: CIN 6, 7, 8, 12, 13; co-requisites CIN 35, 36. 
Annually, 3 credits

CIN 44 Directing for Film
This course focuses on learning directing techniques for motion pictures. Workshop approach includes scene study, blocking, performing and critiques of the scenes.
Every Semester, 3 credits

Mike Atkinson

Adjunct Professor
Screenwriting, Film Theory, Criticism

Mike Atkinson is the author of six books, including one volume of poetry and an upcoming novel from St. Martin's Press. He has written about film for The Guardian, SPiN, Film Comment, Sight & Sound, The Village Voice, Chicago Reader, Details, IFC.com, and many others. His TV pilot BABYLON FIELDS was produced by CBS TV and his pilot “All Things Awakened” is currently in production. His books include: “Blue Velvet” (British Film Institute), “Ghosts in the Machine: Speculating on the Dark Heart of Pop Cinema,” (Limelight Eds.), and “Exile Cinema: Filmmakers at Work Beyond Hollywood” (SUNY Press). Professor Atkinson has been teaching at C.W. Post for more than 11 years.

John Koshel

Film Professor
M.F.A., New York University
john.koshel@liu.edu
Writing, Directing, Film Theory

John Koshel’s professional work spans digital, film and video media and includes network television and feature films. His background includes digital-asset and archives management, and historical media research for NBC-Universal, in addition to several producing and directing credits, editing experience, and contract negotiations with corporations and entertainment labor unions. Professor Koshel’s interests include motion picture history and production, preservation and restoration. Academic credits include the M.F.A. from the NYU Graduate Institute of Film and Television, concentration in writing and directing, and a Senior Fellowship in screenwriting from Hamilton, College, Clinton, N.Y.

John Mainente

Adjunct Professor and Technical Director

B.F.A., C.W. Post of Long Island University
M.F.A., Columbia University
john.mainente@liu.edu
Cinematography, Directing, Film Production

John Mainente directed an independent feature film titled “Bright Ideas.” The Long Island Voice lauded it as one of 1998’s “Best of the Year” and Newsday’s John Anderson applauded it, calling it a “Laurel and Hardy film for the ‘90’s.” Professor Mainente has also directed two nationally shown television commercials, eight short subject films, was the chief editor on a computer graphic anti-drug PSA music video, was the supervising editor to a Silver Anvil nominated video for Creamer Dickson Basford and has written five feature length scripts. John earned his B.F.A. from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and an M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University, where he studied with academy award winner Milos Forman.

Gia McKenna

Assistant Technical Director, Advisor

Gia McKenna graduated from LIU Post with a BFA in Film Production in 2010 and was awarded the Martha Holmes Award for Excellence in Film.  Fresh out of college, she started her very own boutique video production company, 1909 Productions LLC. She works part-time at LIU Post as the Assistant Technical Director of the film program as well as an advisor to the film students. As ATD, she manages and maintains the equipment room, editing suites and film studios. As an advisor, Gia encourages students to be on her film sets outside of school so that they can have hands-on experience and will be better suited for a professional film setting. She also advises students on their own personal projects, films and theses.

In 2013, Gia produced an independent short, The Necklace (Dir. Joan Stein-Schimke). In September of the same year, her thesis film Poker Face (2010) made its small screen debut on Long Island Screening Room (WLIW21, New York Public Media).  Currently, Gia has served as Associate Producer on her first indie feature A Pebble of Love (Dir. Hossein Keshavarz).  She has also released a new web series An Actor Unprepared, which she both directed and produced.

Lisa Robinson

Professor of Film
B.A., University of California, Berkeley
M.F.A., New York University
lisa.robinson@liu.edu
Film Production, Screenwriting, Directing

Lisa Robinson works as a screenwriter and director. She co-wrote and co-directed (with Annie Howell) the feature film SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS which premiered at SXSW in 2011, screened at over 20 festivals and won the Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It has played theatrically in more than 15 cities, was a Time Out and New York Magazine Critics Pick and Roger Ebert praised it as “effortlessly engaging”.  Robinson also recently wrote and directed HOLLOW, a short film funded by ITVS (a division of PBS) Futurestates series that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and is currently streaming at PBS.org. Robinson also co-created SPARKS, a web series about humans and technology, that was syndicated by the Sundance Channel. She has written and directed short films that have screened at film festivals around the world including Cannes-Directors Fortnight, Telluride, Edinburgh, and Clermont-Ferrand. She is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Prize, the Mitsubishi Digital Media Lab Award for Excellence, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Robinson received her MFA from New York University’s Graduate Film Directing Program.

• Writer/Director of short film (FutureState Series for PBS) "Hollow" (2013)

• Co-writer/Co-director of feature film "Small, Beautifully Moving Parts" (2011)
• Recipient Sloan Feature Film Prize - Hamptons Fillm Festival (2011)
• Co-creator, “Sparks,” Webisode syndicated by the Sundance Channel (2008-2009)
• Writer, “Mind Blast” (IMAX feature, in pre-production)
• Director/writer, short films including “Breaker” (2001), “Head Stand” (2000), “Heads, Tires & Other Studies” (1997)

• Recipient, Sloan Foundation Feature Production Award

• Recipient, Newman’s Own Fellowship – Yaddo
• Recipient, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
• Recipient, Martin E. Segal Prize for Excellence in Film
• Recipient, Lew Wasserman Fellowship
• Recipient, Gold Prize and Kodak Award, New York Expo
• Finalist, Wasserman Award
• Recipient, Martin Scorsese Post Award
• Recipient, Mitsubishi (Japan) Digital Media Lab Grant
• Recipient, Clive J. Davis Award

Soopum Sohn

Professor of Film
B.F.A., Chung Ang University; Art Center College of Design
M.F.A., American Film Institute; New York University
soopum.sohn@liu.edu
Film Screenwriting, Directing, Cinematography, Editing

As director/writer, Soopum’s short films include “Island to Island,” winner of a 2002 Student Academy Award, and “Fish in the Sea Is Not Thirsty,” an official selection of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival (Quinzaine). “Make Yourself at Home,” Soopum’s first feature film as a director/writer, was invited to the 2008 Pusan International Film Festival, Gala Presentation; Oldenburg Film Festival; San Diego Asian Film Festival; and Athens Film Festival. 

As cinematographer, Soopum’s films include “Michellville” (dir: John Harkrider), which screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival (American Spectrum), and “SA-KWA” (dir: Yi-Kwan Kang), winner of the International Critics Award at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.
Soopum holds M.F.A. degrees from American Film Institute (cinematography) and New York University (film directing).

• Cinematographer, Writer and Director, “Make Yourself at Home,” 35mm, 90 minutes
• Director of Photography, “Sa-Kwa,” 35mm, 118 minutes
• Director of Photography, “Mitchellville,” 35mm, 83 minutes
• Cinematographer, Writer and Director, “Fish in the Sea is not Thirsty,” 16mm, 15 minutes Director, Island to Island, 16mm, 8 minutes

• "Make Yourself at Home," official selection of the San Diego International Asian Film Festival (2009) and the Athens International Film Festival; chosen as the Gala Presentation for the Pusan International Film Festival (2008)
• "Sa-Kwa," International Critics Award, Toronto International Film Festival (2005); Montblanc Award, San Sebastian Film Festival (2005)
• "Mitchellville," official selection of the Sundance Film Festival (2005); Grand Jury Prize, Cine Vegas (2004)
• "Fish in the Sea is not Thirsty," official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Director’s Fortnight (2002), and the Hawaii International Film Festival (2002)
• "Island to Island," Student Academy Award (2002); Certificate of Merit Award, Chicago International Film Festival (2001); Grand Jury Prize, Athens Film Festival

Susan Zeig

Program Director, Professor of Film
B.S., Empire State College, SUNY
susan.zeig@liu.edu 
Documentaries, Independent Films, Latin American Films

Professor Susan Zeig is a documentary filmmaker focusing on issues of social concern. Her current work leads from the decades of dismal graduation rates in many urban neighborhoods, and how communities are successfully working to turn this around. She has received grants for these projects from the C.S. Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the Irvine Foundation, the Walter and Elise Hass Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, National Latino Communications Center, Independent Television Service (I.T.V.S.) New York Foundation on the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Humanities, New York State Council for the Arts, the Film Fund, and the Research Committee of Long Island University. Her films are in national distribution in educational, community and labor union circuits as well as being broadcast over PBS, transmitted on cable and the Internet. She also created a University Satellite Network with a 20 -university link-up, serving as Co-Project Director.

• Producer/director, "In production: (untitled)" documentary on High School Redesign in Oakland, California
• Producer/director, "A Community Concern," feature length documentary on community organizing and school reform
• Producer/director, "All They Deserve," innovative situations in NYC public schools
• Producer, "The Global Society and the Latino Community," short on Latinos in a changing United States economy
• Producer, "Beyond the 'Browning of America'" three 50-minute television programs on the growing Latino presence in the United States, hosted by Maria Hinojosa 
• Producer/director, "Plena is Work, Plena is Song," documentary about a form of Puerto Rican music analogous to the blues 
• Producer/director, "Manos a la Obra: The Story of Operation Bootstrap," feature documentary on the origins and impact of the U.S./Puerto Rican industrialization model called Operation Bootstrap
• Director, "All In Favor," film documenting women taking new roles in labor movement. Produced by the Coalition of Labor Union Women

*San Francisco Film Society, Harvard School of Education, Rutgers University, California State University, Brooklyn College School of Education, Communities for Public Education Reform Convening, Temple University, Project, Wellesley College, CUNY Graduate School of Education, Grantmakers for Education Conference, 2010 Give Kids Good Schools Week, LaGuardia Community College and New York University*