CORNISH_Logo_TypeOnly

Show Us Your Work

Film Portfolio

Film portfolios give Cornish the chance to understand your artistic work and creative process, and your passion about each. Applicants applying to major in Film should submit work that best represents their ability to make film scenes and completed short films. We are looking for your ability to stage and light scenes, record sound, work with sound design generally, edit scenes together, and tell stories. If you do not have several short films to submit, please make work following two of the three prompts below.

PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS FOR FILM MAJORS

Your film portfolio should include up to twenty pieces that may include work in visual media (drawings, photographs, 3D pieces) in addition to scripts and films. Also welcome are examples of your sketchbook, process book, reflective journals, works-in-progress, and other items that can help inform us of your creative process, influences, and technical proficiency.

If your portfolio lacks completed films, please respond to two of these three prompts to include with your application.

Film Program Prompts

  • Film a scene of up to two minutes that uses a single light source to light a conversation between two people. Choose the location with some care: diner, living room, kitchen, public park? Your goal with the conversation: neither person is willing to say what they really mean. Give it some emotional resonance.
  • Write a 3-5 page scene set in a single location such as a kitchen, a diner, a party, a car. Two characters are talking, but neither is really paying attention to what the other person is saying. This could be comic or dramatic. Use standard screenplay formatting if possible.
  • Find twelve to fifteen slides of a family from a site like www.archive.org. The photos should compel you, hold your interest. Download them and lay the pictures out on a timeline (in Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro) and write a story about them that helps you to say what the family story is. Record your own voice telling the story and lay that on the timeline, too, adding pauses and other sounds as they make sense for texture, ambiance, or emotional power.

National Portfolio Day

We welcome the opportunity to meet you in person or online and review your work before submission. Look for Cornish at the National Portfolio Day or schedule an online appointment with an admission counselor here.