Collection of Master's Theses from the Beijing Film Academy

Author: Cui Junyan et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-03-01
Features: The Graduate School of Beijing Film Academy was established in 1984. Its main objective is to cultivate senior professionals in film and television art creation, theoretical research, engineering technology, and career management. It aims to train senior researchers for the film industry and art research institutions, as well as faculty for film education in universities nationwide. It also seeks to develop high-level artistic creators and theoretical researchers who can engage in both film and television art creation and independent academic research.
Currently, the Academy has two master's programs: Film History and Theory, and Film Art and Technology, which are distributed across eight departments and research institutes, covering a total of 23 specialized research directions: Film Directing, Cinematography, Screenwriting, Film Aesthetics, History of Chinese Cinema, Film Art Theory, Image Quality Evaluation, Cinematography and Creation, Film Psychology Analysis, Film Criticism and Review, Film Sound Engineering, Film Sound Art, History of Foreign Cinema, Sound Technology, Film Performance, Film Art Creation, Fine Arts, Film Narrative Theory, Reception Aesthetics, Film and Television Communication Theory, Comparative Study of Chinese and Japanese Cinema, Traditional Chinese Art Theory and Film Creation, and Visual Representation in Film and Television Basic Research.
Over the 12 years from 1984 to 1996, the Academy has enrolled 150 master's degree students, with 91 having graduated. Many of them have become key figures and backbone professionals in film production companies, provincial and municipal television stations, film art research institutions, and career management units across the country. Some graduates have also stayed to strengthen the faculty of the Academy.
According to incomplete statistics, in the past decade, graduates from the Academy have created over 60 film and television works, with more than 10 winning international and national awards. They have also published five theoretical monographs and over 2 million words of professional creative and theoretical articles.
The high quality of graduate education requires a dedicated faculty team with strong academic backgrounds, extensive expertise, a commitment to research, rich experience, and rigorous academic standards. The Academy has 49 master's degree supervisors, forming a balanced team of experienced professors, mid-career scholars, and young educators. They include internationally and domestically renowned professors, experts, and scholars, as well as leading figures in theoretical research. The faculty consists of both seasoned professors with flexible teaching methods and experienced guidance, and active mid-career and young teachers with comprehensive knowledge structures. They engage in both teaching and film and television art creation and theoretical research, combining systematic theoretical expertise with rich artistic creation experience.
Through continuous exploration in art creation and academic research, teachers summarize their experiences, enrich and update their knowledge structures, teaching methods, and approaches, gradually forming theories that are then passed on to students. This enables students to acquire fresh, comprehensive theoretical knowledge and artistic skills, fostering systematic film art creation and theoretical research.
In graduate teaching, teachers emphasize both foundational theoretical instruction to ensure students have solid theoretical knowledge, and highly practical art training. On one hand, they focus on classroom lectures while providing hands-on guidance in practice. On the other hand, they fully respect students' artistic imagination and creativity, cultivating their ability to think independently and encouraging them to develop their individuality in theoretical research and creative learning. This enhances students' abilities to independently research, analyze, and solve problems, while also guiding them to apply theory to explore and deepen issues in film art creation.
Over the past decade, the Graduate School of Beijing Film Academy has developed its unique "Ten Emphasis" teaching features:
1. Emphasis on practical teaching
2. Emphasis on linking theory with practice
3. Emphasis on classroom lectures
4. Emphasis on systematic scientific analysis
5. Emphasis on research into artistic methods and principles
6. Emphasis on exploring theory through related disciplines
7. Emphasis on quantitative evaluation of artistic techniques
8. Emphasis on the value orientation of individual style
9. Emphasis on the operability of techniques
10. Emphasis on cultivating theoretical research abilities
The goal is to train independent, high-level talents capable of conducting university-level film and television teaching, artistic creation, and academic research, as well as innovative creators with both artistic and theoretical expertise. These individuals are to become well-rounded scholars dedicated to the film industry.
In the past decade, scholars and film professionals from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Egypt, and the regions of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan have been invited to teach at the Academy. The Academy has also sent 21 supervisors and graduate students abroad for further studies, visits, lectures, and exchanges, gradually aligning its graduate education with that of internationally renowned film and television universities.
Over the years, young people from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, overseas Chinese youth, and international students have increasingly applied for graduate programs at the Academy. To date, 16 students from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries have been admitted, with three having already graduated with master's degrees.
With the continuous development of the film industry, the discipline construction of film studies and the in-depth research of film theory have become urgent priorities. To maintain Beijing Film Academy's leading position in film art creation and theoretical research both domestically and internationally, and to keep pace with global film education, the Academy plans to add two master's degree programs and apply for a doctoral program in Film Studies (with four research directions: Film Directing Studies, Eastern Film Aesthetics, History and Theory of Chinese Cinema, and Cinematography).
This will further diversify the Academy's high-level talent cultivation programs and expand its professional coverage, facilitating theoretical research in film studies, discipline construction, film art creation, and the popularization of higher film education. The Academy aims to become a world-class institution for film art education, cultivating multi-level talents and conducting research across various disciplines.