This program explores the many ways in which the cinematographer participates in the collaborative process of translating screenplays and treatments into meaningful and stimulating motion pictures. Through technical classes, workshops, exercises, project work and review, students will acquire a solid foundation in the art and craft of cinematography. A program curriculum includes courses in the technical aspects of cinematography, production projects, camera workshops and video editing.

The motion picture and video production industries require skilled, experienced, well-trained and talented people to continue attracting and supporting high levels of production. In that way, a cinematographer is responsible for planning every shot in a movie or television show, considering camera angles, lighting, and editing. As the movie industry continues to expand, the demand for cinematographers and film producers increases.

The training in new media technology is incorporated throughout the curriculum, the pre-visualization as well as advanced image manipulation and control; Students develop their storytelling skills by photographing narrative projects on digital video. The second year they will learn to shoot films, which usually last 10-15 minutes as final productions, which may be photographed in a variety of formats.

The ASC defines cinematography as

"A creative and interpretive process that culminates in the authorship of an original work of art rather than the simple recording of a physical event. Cinematography is not a subcategory of photography. Rather, photography is but one craft that the cinematographer uses in addition to other physical, organizational, managerial, interpretive and image-manipulating techniques to effect one coherent process."

In the film industry, the cinematographer is responsible for the technical aspects of the images (lighting, lens choices, composition, exposure, filtration, film selection), but works closely with the director to ensure that the artistic aesthetics are supporting the director's vision of the story being told.

The cinematographers are the heads of the camera, grip and lighting crew on a set, and for this reason they are often called directors of photography or DPs. Directors of photography make many creative and interpretive decisions during the course of their work, from pre-production to post-production, all of which affect the overall feel and look of the motion picture. Many of these decisions are similar to what a photographer needs to note when taking a picture: the cinematographer controls the film choice itself (from a range of available stocks with varying sensitivities to light and colour), the selection of lens focal lengths, aperture exposure and focus.