What do we mean by “Boot Camp”?
A Boot Camp is an immersive experience that provides hands-on, intensive learning in a short period of time.
Grades 9–12
Join us on the Purchase College campus for an intensive, fun, and creative Acting on Camera Boot Camp! No acting experience necessary. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to act on camera with a professional director, camera operator, and editor. Learn how acting for the camera differs from acting onstage. Gain inside knowledge of the many aspects of the process of acting on camera.
Leave with new skills and new friends in this packed week-long class.
Typical Day
(2023 description. Subject to updating for 2024)
After introductions, we will begin with some brief acting exercises that will cover speech, movement and creative expression which will enhance the students’ understanding of all of the elements involved in the acting process.
We will spend the week, starting with the first day, discussing and working through the acting process and various aspects of acting on camera. We will cover:
- Creating a character
- Television and film roles and scenes
- Commercials
- Vocal and dialect work
- How to prepare for auditions, including self-tapes
- Moment-to-moment work
- Scene works with emphasis on various camera angles (close-ups, medium shots, over-the-shoulder shots, etc.)
- Being word perfect or improvising dialogue (when necessary)
- Posture and movement
As the week progresses, we will rehearse, work on and videotape scenes from commercials, episodic television series, independent films and major motion pictures. We will provide scripts to students and ask them to read scenes with each other and/or with the instructors or teaching assistants. We will rehearse and work with the students to become skilled and gain confidence and experience in acting on camera.
The last half hour of every day will be reserved for a Q&A with the instructors and the students on the acting process and “the business”.
All sessions will be taped. Copies of your work will be edited and sent to you by Purchase after the program has finished. A digital link and/or physical copy will be provided.
Final Day
Our final day will be dedicated to the continuation of work on a new or any of the more challenging scenes we already worked on. Family and friends are invited to watch clips from the scenes we worked on during the final afternoon of the program.
Program Details
YTH 9152 / Acting on Camera Boot Camp
Session III: (1 Week) July 29 – August 2
Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm (5 sessions)
$990 for the first registration
$890 for the second registration in the family, Purchase College employees, alumni, Broadview members and early registrations (paid in full by May 3, 2024)
Instructors / Master Class Instructor(s)
Interested in Undergraduate Acting Programs at Purchase College?
Check out the acting BFA program, the theatre and performance BA program, and the theatre design/technology BFA program in the Conservatory of Theatre Arts.