The Brooklyn Navy Yard will soon be home to the country’s first graduate film school to ever be incorporated into a working film lot.
Brooklyn College is planning to open a new Graduate School of Cinema on Steiner Studios’ production lot at the Navy Yard in time for the Sept. 2013 semester, officials said today. The school is expected to hold up to 275 students in nine degree programs.
Douglas Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios, said the partnership would allow students the “invaluable experience” of being able to work part-time at the largest soundstage and productions facilities along the East Coast — and “potentially make industry connections” there for future jobs.
At private institutions, the cost of a graduate degree in film can reach up of $150,000, compared to about $35,000 through Brooklyn College.
“This new graduate school of cinema will be the only public school on the Eastern Seaboard providing an affordable graduate education in all aspects of mainstream cinema production and post-production,” said Karen Gould, president of Brooklyn College.
The graduate program will be housed on two floors at 25 Washington Avenue, a historic seven-story building at the Navy Yard. Steiner is overseeing a $90.5 million gut renovation of the building to expand its lot from 310,000 to 590,000 square feet and its number soundstages from five to 16.
Steiner will build the school for the college and then rent it the space.
Mayor Bloomberg briefly announced the formation of the school Wednesday at his 2011 State of the City address.