Career-orientated course puts film, TV graduates in the picture

The School of Film and Television at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts was established in 1996 under the leadership of Richard Woolley. Prior to joining the academy, Mr Woolley worked with the Dutch Film and TV Academy in Amsterdam.

As the first dean of the school, his focus has been on building practical specialist education programmes for the industry.

The curriculum is very different to a general communications course at other universities.

'Using the European National Film School as a model, we aim to build a career-orientated programme. One of our key objectives is not to flood the market with generalists. We only admit 24 students into our bachelor of fine arts in film and television course a year, so there will only be 24 graduates a year. In the small class, we have only a handful of editors, screenwriters or production specialists, and so on. It is very important that we keep a limited number to ensure we do not provide more than the market needs,' said Mr Woolley.

Students enrolled in the course can specialise in producing/production management, screenwriting, directing, camera/lighting, editing and visual effects, and sound.

'Not everyone wants to be a director. Most are happy to work in the supporting roles within the industry. It really depends on their personality,' Mr Woolley said.