NYFA’s Custom Built Facility
Teaching takes place within NYFA’s physical facility, custom-built for hybrid AI and physical production
The 4-Week In-Person AI Filmmaking Workshop at NYFA’s Cinematic AI Center is an intensive, full-time training program held at our dedicated Los Angeles facilities. Designed for aspiring filmmakers, visual storytellers, and digital creators, this program pairs traditional filmmaking disciplines (Writing, Directing, and Editing) with generative AI technologies.
Students learn narrative structure, scene craft, dialogue, blocking, coverage, and editorial pacing through both traditional craft perspectives and the agile generative loop: “write, visualize, repeat”.
Program Overview
Format and Duration: 4-Week, Full-time In-Person Workshop
Schedule: Monday through Friday, 6 hours per day (30 hours per week).
Monday to Thursday: 6 hours per day of lectures, practical demonstrations, and on-set/lab exercises led by faculty.
Friday: 6-hour Supervised Systems & Production Lab dedicated to project iteration, troubleshooting, and rendering.
Faculty Model: Dual-Faculty Instruction. Classes are co-taught by two cross-trained instructors: one specializing primarily in traditional filmmaking and directing, and one specializing in AI systems and machine learning pipelines.
Lab Supervision: Friday lab sessions are monitored directly by faculty members or specialized AI laboratory technicians to support complex renders and node-based troubleshooting.
On-Campus Facility & Infrastructure Integration
Genesis Lab (Computer Lab)
High-performance workstations featuring dedicated NVIDIA GPUs, dual monitors, drawing tablets, and direct connections to high-speed networked storage so students do not need to manage local file limits.
Production Soundstage & Cyc Wall
Soundstage spaces equipped with proxy sets and cyc walls used to shoot practical reference plates, acting reference, and lighting passes that feed directly into control networks and AI restyling pipelines.
Audio Capture Room
Acoustically treated spaces for recording pristine dialogue, performance reference, and synthetic voice model targets.
Areas of Study
Introduces directorial intention and audience impact through camera placement, staging, blocking, and shot composition. Students translate scripts into beats, coverage, and cuts while directing live and synthetic talent. AI is integrated through look tests, previs passes, alternative coverage design, and rapid iteration.
Builds practical AI literacy for filmmakers. Covers diffusion fundamentals, latent space mechanics, managing visual drift, and promptcraft using film language (lensing, lighting, blocking). Students create styleframes, keyframes, LoRA datasets, and shot-based video workflows (text-to-video, image-to-video, video-to-video) while utilizing control inputs like OpenPose and Depth maps.
Teaches editorial rhythm, pacing, and screen direction alongside generative continuity challenges. Students practice “directing for the edit” by diagnosing story issues and creating targeted AI pickups. NLE discipline covers media organization, versioning, AI audio integration, color management, and final exports.
Focuses on story mechanics (theme, character, conflict, stakes) and screenplay syntax. Students practice an outline, pages, visualization, and revision feedback loop using AI for ideation while retaining human authorship.
Graduation Requirements (Creative Projects)
To receive a Certificate of Completion, students must complete three major projects:
- AI-Enhanced Micro Project (15 to 30 seconds): A polished micro-film demonstrating story intention, AI image/video control, and editorial assembly.
- AI-Enhanced Short Project (45 to 90 seconds): A narrative micro-film demonstrating performance lip-sync, scene coverage, and spatial continuity.
- AI-Enhanced Final Short Film (5 to 10 minutes): A completed short project in the student’s choice of format: Narrative, Music Video, or Documentary/Unscripted.
Evaluation Procedures
Grading is split evenly across the four core areas of study:
- Directing: 25%
- AI Imaging + Video: 25%
- Editing: 25%
- Writing: 25%
Software, Hardware, and Custom Workflow Architecture
Workstations in the Genesis Lab come pre-configured with a dual-stack software suite combining traditional post-production tools, cloud-based generative platforms, node-based local engines, and custom proprietary pipelines.
Final platform selections are confirmed prior to the start of each workshop cycle to reflect the latest model updates and industry releases.
- ComfyUI: Primary node-based architecture used for custom generation graphs, ControlNet setups (OpenPose, Depth, Canny), and spatial continuity management.
- Custom LoRA Training: Students build and train dedicated character, location, and style LoRA models to lock visual consistency across sequences.
- Naifu Proprietary Workflows: Pre-built, custom pipeline recipes and node templates developed by NYFA faculty, designed to give students enterprise-level control and speed.
Students learn to evaluate, select, and prompt across leading generative AI platforms:
- Kling: High-fidelity video generation and motion vector control.
- Runway: Shot-based video synthesis (Gen-2 / Gen-3), image-to-video, and video-to-video restyling.
- Luma AI (Dream Machine): High-speed spatial rendering and camera movement control.
- SeaArt: Multi-modal image generation, upscaling, and asset exploration.
- Adobe Creative Cloud: Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop for editorial assembly, plate touch-ups, and compositing.
- DaVinci Resolve Studio: Color grading, audio sweetening, and final master exports.
- Genesis Lab Workstations: Dual-monitor PC/Mac workstations with high-end NVIDIA GPUs (RTX 4080/4090 equivalent) and drawing tablets for precision masking and control.
- Networked Server Core: High-speed 10GbE network storage allowing students to save project files, datasets, and renders directly to centralized servers without local file limits.