MIAP Courses

This course introduces all aspects of the field, contextualizes them, and shows how they fit together. It will discuss the media themselves (including the technology, history, and contextualization within culture, politics, and economics) Topics include: conservation and preservation principles, organization and access, daily practice with physical artifacts, restoration, curatorship and programming, legal issues and copyright, and new media issues. Students will learn the importance of other types of materials (manuscripts, correspondence, stills, posters, scripts, etc.). Theories of collecting and organizing (as well as their social meanings) will be introduced.

4 points
CINE-GT.1800

Fall 2024 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Fall 2007 - Fall 2006 - Fall 2005 - Fall 2004 - Fall 2003

This course will explain the principles of conservation and preservation, and place moving image preservation within the larger context of cultural heritage preservation. Questions of originals vs. surrogates will be raised, and the wide variety of variant forms will be covered. The course also addresses tensions between conservation and access. Students will learn principles of collection assessment, and how to write a preservation plan. They will also learn about dealing with laboratories, writing contracts, etc. On a more pragmatic level, they will learn about optimal storage conditions and handling.

2 points
CINE-GT.1802

Fall 2024 - Fall 2023 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Spring 2008

This class will prepare incoming first year MIAP students for working with digital technologies throughout their academic and professional careers. The course will focus on web applications, databases, and data management tools — technologies that play a fundamental role in moving image collections management today. The course will emphasize digital literacy so that students will be equipped to make informed technology decisions in the future. By introducing these topics in their first semester, this course provides students with core competencies that will be utilized in subsequent classes in the MIAP program.

2 points
CINE-GT.1808

Fall 2024 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015

With the advent of new technologies, film producers and distributors and managers of film and video collections are faced with a myriad of legal and ethical issues concerning the use of their works or the works found in various collections. The answers to legal questions are not always apparent and can be complex, particularly where different types of media are encompassed in one production. When the law remains unclear, a risk assessment, often fraught with ethical considerations, is required to determine whether a production can be reproduced, distributed or exhibited without infringing the rights of others. What are the various legal rights that may encumber moving image material? What are the complex layers of rights and who holds them?Does one have to clear before attempting to preserve or restore a work? How do these rights affect downstream exhibition and distribution of a preserved work? And finally, what steps can be taken in managing moving image collections so that decisions affecting copyrights can be taken consistently? This course will help students make intelligent decisions and develop appropriate policies for their institution.

4 points
CINE-GT.1804

Fall 2024 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 Reading List - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2010 Reading List - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Fall 2007 - Fall 2006 - Fall 2005

This course is a companion to Introduction to Moving Image Archiving and Preservation and is required for all first semester MIAP students. Designed to prepare students for internships and class projects, the course provides hands-on training with moving image materials. This course discusses the physical and chemical structures of media and the history and development of media formats. It covers basic media handling techniques and tools, media inspection and documentation, assessment and storage. Students enrolled in this course will also attend additional lab sessions.

4 points
CINE-GT.2920

Fall 2024 - Fall 2023 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Fall 2007 - Fall 2006

This course studies the different kinds of institutions that collect and manage cultural material: museums of art, natural history, and motion pictures; libraries and historical societies; corporate institutions. It compares and contrasts these types of institution to reveal how they differ from one another, paying particular attention to how different institutional missions affect internal metadata and information systems. It examines theories of collecting, the history and ethics of cultural heritage institutions, the organizational structures of institutions that house collections (including trends in staffing and the roles of individual departments), and their respective missions and operational ethics. The class will visit a variety of local cultural organizations, and will have working professionals talk about their organizations and duties.

4 points
CINE-GT.3049

Spring 2024 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2014 - Spring 2011 - Spring 2010 - Spring 2009 - Spring 2008 - Spring 2007 - Spring 2006 - Fall 2005 - Spring 2004

This course will examine the daily practice of managing collections of film, video, audio, and digital materials. Topics discussed include appraisal, collection policies, inventorying, and physical and digital storage. Students will learn how to prioritize preservation and access activities by weighting copyright, uniqueness of content, format obsolescence and deterioration, and financial considerations. An emphasis is placed on digital project planning and budgeting. Fundraising strategies are also discussed. Coursework includes students completing a collection assessment as well as a grant proposal for prioritized activities associated with their collection.

4 points
CINE-GT.3401

Spring 2024 - Spring 2023 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2014 - Spring 2013 - Spring 2012 - Spring 2011 - Spring 2010 - Spring 2009 - Spring 2008 - Spring 2007 - Spring 2006 - Spring 2005

Students in this course will learn about describing and managing moving image collections through metadata, or "data about data". Metadata may be defined as "structured information that describes, explains, locates, and otherwise makes it easier to retrieve and use an information resource." Because it facilitates the access, management and preservation of moving image resources, it is crucial that metadata be created and collected throughout the life cycle of the resource. Topics include how metadata supports various functions in the moving image archives; specific metadata schemes used for describing, providing subject access to and managing moving image resources; the importance of standards for resource description; information needed for preservation of moving image resources; and how metadata is implemented and used in a variety of settings.

4 points
CINE-GT.1803

Spring 2024 - Spring 2023 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Fall 2007 - Fall 2006 - Fall 2004

During the Spring semester, each student completes 182 fieldwork hours at an internship site (generally 13 hours per week for 14 weeks). The internship provides hands-on experience with moving image material, as well as deep exposure to the various types of institutions that handle this material. Internships may be paid or unpaid. Students meet bi-weekly as a group with an instructor to contextualize the internship experience.

see The MIAP Internship Guide

4 points
CINE-GT.2911

Spring 2024 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 -  Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 -   Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2013 - Spring 2011 - Spring 2010 - Spring 2009

This class will address the use of digital files and infrastructure as preservation media, and will investigate current theories and practices for the conservation and preservation of both digitized and born digital materials. Students will learn the details of the functions of digital preservation environments and repositories, and what infrastructure, policies, and procedures need to be a part of a repository in order to make it preservation compliant. Students will gain practical skills with identification, analysis, handling, and risk assessment for works as a whole, their component parts, and associated software and metadata. Initiatives and R&D efforts by national, international, regional, and cooperative organizations will be explored. Digital literacy will be emphasized, and through a combination of lectures, discussion, and hands-on activities and lab exercises, students will develop an increased understanding of digital technologies, ecosystems, and requirements.

4 points
CINE-GT.1807

Fall 2024 - Fall 2023 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Spring 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2008 - Fall 2007 - Spring 2007 - Spring 2006 - Spring 2005

This is the first course in a two-course sequence that gives students direct experience with the process of re-formatting video materials for preservation and access. Addressing in-house systems and work with vendors, the class increases knowledge in areas of: archival standards; prioritization and decision-making; source and destination formats; technical requirements and systems; preparation and workflow; documentation and metadata capture; quality assurance; and overall project management. Students have hands-on experience with tape preparation and re-formatting using equipment in the MIAP Lab, and interact with experts from preservation companies and from other NYU departments.

2 points
CINE-GT.3403

Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2010 - Fall 2009 - Fall 2007

During the Fall semester, each student completes 182 fieldwork hours at an internship site (generally 13 hours per week for 14 weeks). The internship provides hands-on experience with moving image material, as well as deep exposure to the various types of institutions that handle this material. Internships may be paid or unpaid. Students meet bi-weekly as a group with an instructor to contextualize the internship experience.

see The MIAP Internship Guide

4 points
CINE-GT.2912

Fall 2024 - Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2011 - Fall 2009

Through small–group study, the seminar will address advanced and/or special topics, and will focus on successful completion of student thesis or portfolio projects. In addition, the class will address preparation for employment, publishing and professional engagement upon graduation.

2 points
CINE-GT.3490

Fall 2022 - Fall 2021 - Fall 2020 - Fall 2019 - Fall 2018 - Fall 2017 - Fall 2016 - Fall 2015 - Fall 2014 - Fall 2013 - Fall 2012 - Spring 2010 - Spring 2009 - Spring 2008 - Spring 2006

This course examines the constitution of the codes and institutions of cinema and the ways in which the history of film has been, and has been understood to be, embedded in, shaped by, and constrained by material and social practices. Various historiographical methods and historical contexts are explored. A required course in NYU's existing MA Degree in Cinema Studies.

4 points
CINE-GT.1015

* Students are no longer required to take both CINE-GT 1026 Television: History and Culture and CINE-GT 1015 Film History/Historiography in their second year. They must complete at least one of these courses (Film History in the third semester or TV History in the fourth), unless they successfully petition for exemption from one of these requirements based on prior coursework.

* An advisor-approved four-credit elective or independent study can be taken in either the third or fourth semester. If a student takes CINE-GT 1015 Film History/Historiography in the third semester, then the elective/independent study would move to the fourth. If a student takes CINE-GT 1026 Television: History and Culture in the fourth semester, then the elective/independent study would be move to the third.

Video Preservation II is the second of two courses that give students direct experience with the process of reformatting analog video materials for preservation and access. This course focuses primarily on lab work, deepening the skills and principles introduced in Video Preservation I. The course also emphasizes the management of preservation projects through assignments involving both the outsourcing of collections to vendors and the use of in-house labs. In addition, a series of off-campus excursions expose the students to preservation practices for formats unavailable in the NYU labs.

2 points
CINE-GT 3404

Spring 2023 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2013 - Spring 2012 - Spring 2011 - Spring 2007 - Spring 2006

Curating Moving Images

This course embraces a broad conception of curating as the treatment of materials from their discovery, acquisition, archiving, preservation, restoration, and reformatting, through their screening, programming, use, re-use, distribution, exploitation, and interpretation. It focuses on the practices of film and video exhibition in cinematheques, festivals, museums, archives, web platforms, and other venues. The course examines the goals of public programming, its constituencies, and the curatorial and archival challenges of presenting film, video, and digital media. We study how institutions present their work through exhibitions, events, publications, and media productions. We examine curatorial practices of festivals, symposia, screening series, distributors and others. Our guest speakers are professionals involved with an aspect of curating and programming.

4 points
CINE-GT.1806

Spring 2024 - Spring 2023 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2010 - Fall 2008

This seminar will increase students' knowledge of primary issues and emerging strategies for the preservation of media works that go beyond single channels/screens. Students will gain practical skills with identification and risk assessment for works as a whole and their component parts, particularly in the areas of audio and visual media and digital, interactive media projects that are stored on fixed media, presented as installations, and existing in networks.

Examples of production modes/works to be studied are animations (individual works and motion graphics) web sites, games, interactive multimedia (i.e., educational/artist CDROMs), and technology-dependent art installations. Students will test principles and practices of traditional collection management with these works, such as appraisal, selection, care and handling, risk/condition assessment, "triage", description, and storage and will be actively involved in developing new strategies for their care and preservation. Case studies will be undertaken in collaboration with artists/producers, museums, libraries, and/or archives.

4 points
CINE-GT.1805

Spring 2024 - Spring 2023 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2013 - Spring 2012 - Spring 2011 - Spring 2010 - Spring 2008 - Fall 2006 - Fall 2005

This class gives students practical experience with the process of film preservation including understanding and recognizing film elements, making inspection reports, repairing film, making preservation plans, understanding laboratory processes and procedures for making new film preservation elements, and writing preservation histories. The course will teach students how to work with vendors, increase knowledge of archival standards, introduce problems of decision–making, technical requirements, preparation and workflow, and overall project management. The class will undertake and complete an actual film preservation project and follow the steps from start to finish.

2 points
CINE-GT.3402

Spring 2024 - Spring 2023 - Spring 2022 - Spring 2021 - Spring 2020 - Spring 2019 - Spring 2018 - Spring 2017 - Spring 2016 - Spring 2015 - Spring 2013 - Spring 2008 - Spring 2006

Examines the background, context, and history of radio, television, video, and sound. Topics include: politics and economics of media institutions, audiences and reception, cultural and broadcast policy, aesthetic modes and movements. A required course in NYU's existing MA Degree in Cinema Studies.

4 points
CINE-GT.1026

* Students are no longer required to take both CINE-GT 1026 Television: History and Culture and CINE-GT 1015 Film History/Historiography in their second year. They must complete at least one of these courses (Film History in the third semester or TV History in the fourth), unless they successfully petition for exemption from one of these requirements based on prior coursework.

* An advisor-approved four-credit elective or independent study can be taken in either the third or fourth semester. If a student takes CINE-GT 1015 Film History/Historiography in the third semester, then the elective/independent study would move to the fourth. If a student takes CINE-GT 1026 Television: History and Culture in the fourth semester, then the elective/independent study would be move to the third.

All students are required to take one elective or independent study in order to explore more fully a topic of choice. The elective may be a media course, a course in cultural institutions and practices, a course in preservation, or another course related to your field of study and career goals. The elective course could be taken within the Department of Cinema Studies or in another NYU department within or outside of Tisch. Prior to each registration period, MIAP staff will provide a list of suggested departments and/or specific courses for elective consideration. In all cases, the elective must be approved by the student's academic advisor and enrollment approved by the course’s host department. Additional electives or independent studies will be substituted if a student is waived out of course requirements due to prior learning, as assessed by the student’s academic advisor (in consultation with other faculty and staff  if needed).

semester 3 or 4, 4 points

MIAP Independent Study

For Fall
CINE-GT.2920, CINE-GT.2922, CINE-GT.2924
For Spring
CINE-GT.2921, CINE-GT.2923, CINE-GT.2925

Independent Study (Other)

For Fall
CINE-GT.2900, CINE-GT.2902, CINE-GT.2904
For Spring
CINE-GT.2901, CINE-GT.2903, CINE-GT.2905

In the spring semester of the first year, and the fall semester of the second year, each student completes 182 fieldwork hours at an internship site (generally 13 hours per week for 14 weeks). The internship provides hands-on experience with moving image material, as well as deep exposure to the various types of institutions that handle this material. Internships may be paid or unpaid. Students meet bi-weekly as a group with an instructor to contextualize the internship experience.

The MIAP Internship Guide

In the summer between the first and second year, each student must complete 280 fieldwork hours at an internship site (generally 35 hours per week for 8 weeks). Though summer interns may specialize in one particular department/project area within a larger organization, over the course of the summer they are expected to obtain a broad knowledge of how the various departments of that institution work together. Work done during the summer internship may include a variety of different tasks. At times, the internship or a project related to it may serve as the core research and preparation for the student’s final thesis project. Summer internships are typically placed outside of New York City in order to view how repositories operate differently around the country and abroad.

The MIAP thesis is a capstone project in the form of an academic research project, a documented preservation project, or a professional portfolio.

• An research project must demonstrate substantial research and analysis addressing an aspect of the history, theory, or practice of moving image archiving and preservation.  The paper should contribute to the field and have the potential to be published.
• A preservation project is done in partnership with an organization for which the student performs tasks such as collection assessment, description, re-housing, preservation planning and/or management, development of access forms, and/or fundraising. The project’s written component typically contains two parts: (1) a report with supporting documents, deliverable to the organization, and (2) an analysis of one or more archival issues raised by the project.
• A professional portfolio that compiles revised versions of three papers completed at MIAP, abstracts for each paper, and a reflective essay. The revised papers must demonstrate refinement of thought, quality and expansion of the work.

Students will begin thinking about a thesis topic and its form during the second semester of the first year and should identify more specific ideas over the summer prior to their second year. Students further develop their thesis plans in a third-semester course, CINE-GT 3490 Advanced Topics in Preservation Studies. Refer to the MIAP Thesis Guidelines document for the academic year for more detailed guidelines, a timeline, and a style and format guide.