CSC - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia

The Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (National Film School), which forms part of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre), is dedicated to training students for professions in the cinema. Admission is subject to passing an entrance examination, which is held once a year. The training course last three years and the interdisciplinary teaching programme prepares students in the specific areas of directing, scriptwriting, acting, photography, editing, sound techniques, production, set-design, props and wardrobe.

The number of students admitted to each course is limited and class attendance is obligatory. All courses have a common content of theory as well as their element of specific training. The students do a lot of practical exercises, first using video and then 35mm film, leading up to the production of short films. At the end of their course of study, they produce special projects for their final diplomas. Students from all the disciplines take part in each of these productions, each contributing according to his particular speciality. The mixture of styles, subject-matter and working methods exhibited at the School is evidence of the rich variety of ideas and talents to be found amongst its students. Indeed, these talents are recognized and awarded prizes both within Italy and abroad. In recent years, some of the films made at the School have been co-produced with important collaborators such as RAI Cinema, Medusa Films and the LUCE Institute.
During the course of their training, from initial creation to set organization and finally to the promotion of their finished works, the students are given support by CSC Production, a dexterous production unit established specifically for this purpose.
 

The school employs the services of internationally famous teachers, many of them involved in the best of Italian film-making. Some of these well-known figures include: Franco Bernini (Script-writing), Andrea Crisanti (Set-Design), Roberto Faenza (Direction), Giancarlo Giannini (Acting), Domenico Maselli (Production), Roberto Perpignani (Editing), Giuseppe Rotunno (Photography), Federico Savina (Sound Techniques) and Piero Tosi (Costume Design).

In addition to ordinary classes, the students also take part in seminars, meetings and workshops with leading figures from the world of art and entertainment. In recent years, they have had the chance to meet, amongst others: Bruno Amalfitano, Gianni Amelio, Gianluca Arcopinto, Nino Bizzarri, Francesco Bruni, Nicolò Ammaniti, Carmine Amoroso, Theo Anghelopoulos, Francesca Archibugi, Marco Bellocchio, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Ascanio Celestini, Michel Chion, Cristina Comencini, Francis Ford Coppola, Alessandro D'Alatri, Flavio De Bernardinis, Vittorio De Seta, Luigi Di Gianni, Arnoldo Foà, Enrico Ghezzi, Tullio Kezich, Beppe Lanci, Spike Lee, Emilio Loffredo, Daniele Luchetti, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Tullio Mattone, Andrea Molaioli, Giuliano Montaldo, Jeanne Moreau, Nanni Moretti, Ennio Morricone, Gabriele Muccino, Maurizio Nichetti, Ferzen Ozpetek, Angelo Pasquini, Sandro Petraglia, Giuseppe Piccioni, Nicola Piovani, Eros Puglielli, Bruno Pupparo, Marco Risi, Sergio Rubini, Stefano Rulli, Gabriele Salvatores, Salvatore Samperi, Daniele Segre, Mario Sesti, Martin Scorsese, Todd Solondz, Paolo Sorrentino, Giuseppe Tornatore, Riccardo Tozzi, Paolo Virzì, Monica Vitti, David Warren, Wim Wenders and Lina Wertmuller.

A Casting Service for Artists (SCA) has recently been set up, in order to help place students from the School into the world of work. This acts like an agency, providing casting directors, film production houses and publicity companies with the services of some high-quality artists.
 

The School is equipped with its own special facilities, including a cinema hall, which can accommodate seminars and cinematographic events; a computer lab; three film studios; a mixing room; three gymnasiums, and many other workrooms and classrooms. The School, which is at the cutting edge with regards to its technological equipment, has recently added yet another element, with the opening of the "Telecom Italia" Digital Cinema Department. This is one of the primary examples in Europe of a technologically advanced lab set-up dedicated to study and experimentation in this field. Some of the best-known and most highly qualified experts in the sector are on hand to teach and supervise the students, who are able to make use of extremely advanced systems, such as virtual sets and content creation labs. In this way, they can gain a thorough knowledge of the role and applications of digital technology in the context of film-making and learn about the whole spectrum of digital production.
 

On the teaching side, provisions have also been made for students on work experience programmes to take part in both Italian and international film productions.

The students at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema (National Film School) can also make use of all the facilities at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre), ranging from the Trevi Cinema to the "Luigi Chiarini" Library. The Cinema offers a full cultural programme, including retrospectives and round table discussions and meetings with directors, while the Library is the most important of its type in Italy, specializing in books on cinematographic subjects, and also containing a unique collection of original screenplays and other important artistic material such as drawings, sketches and press-books.
 

The Scuola Nazionale di Cinema ( National Film School) of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) also has three separate regional centres:

THE LOMBARDY CENTRE - for Corso di cinematografia d'impresa documentario e pubblicità e Corso di creazione e produzione fiction (Course in Industrial Cinema: Documentary and Advertising and Television Drama Creation and Production)