Recognized as a premier film and acting school in the U.S., the New York Film Academy (NYFA) is visiting Turkey for a one-month HD filmmaking program at the Istanbul Media Academy. The major partnership between the two established institutions focuses on film production, covering different aspects of the international film industry in more depth.Starting today, the four-week HD filmmaking program teaches the art of film production at international standards at intensive workshops and seminars based on a special curriculum that offers participants the opportunity to learn innovative ways of moviemaking. The curriculum covers scriptwriting, production, editing, the uses of cameras and light, filmmaking theory and HD film directing. As stated on the Istanbul Media Academy's website, each week covers a different subject. Participants are asked to make a maximum 7-minute film, either experimental, fiction or documentary.Aside from the ongoing courses, the Istanbul Media Academy offers a one-year filmmaking program in New York. Students can take comprehensive courses at the NYFA, drawing an incredibly diverse international group of students from France, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, China, Brazil, Australia, Spain and the U.K. The one-year film program contains a series of classes, including directing, screenwriting, lighting, camera technique, digital editing, directing actors, production workshops, music and montage. Instructors at the NYFA follow the institution's philosophy, "Learning by doing." The school has one-year programs not only in filmmaking, but also acting, producing, screenwriting, 3-D animation, cinematography, broadcast journalism, digital photography and game design.Six NYFA instructors will be giving courses, including cinematographer Kelly Gardner, award-winning filmmaker Abraham Heisler, Gilbert Shelton, Hilarion Banks, Thomas Moura and Shani Patel. In an interview at the Istanbul Media Academy, Los Angeles-based director Heisler said participants will learn "how to cut, when to cut and why to cut from one clip to [the next]" during the editing course. "In the editing room, you decide rhythm, tone, feel [and] all the different aspects of [the] viewing experience of your audience," he explained.Trainees will attend camera and cinematography workshops with Kelly Gardner, who teaches production methods on the back lots of Universal Studios Hollywood. "In our workshop in camera and lighting, we will be looking at fundamental aspects of what it means to tell a visual story. We start to understand that the camera is a tool for sculpting light," he reiterated in another interview. Following his workshop, attendees will have learned "how an image begins to tell a story and how these images are put together to move [the] story forward." Spreading over 2,000 square meters, the Istanbul Media Academy, which works closely with the Turkish film industry, is a giant media center with two main studios, a recording studio and one of Turkey's largest green box studios. Equipped with state of the art technology, the studios allow students to practice with real-life television programs. The NYFA has hosted many film and television professionals in the past as guest lecturers, including Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Kevin Spacey and iconic Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning actor Al Pacino, known for his groundbreaking performances in movies such as "Scarface" and "Serpico."