Teaching Philosophy

I want you making real work, starting now.

As a teacher, my goal is to help you tap into your own talents and perspectives, and give you a foundation in style, form, and function strong enough to find your own voice. Every course I teach runs the same way: you pitch ideas, learn professional preproduction practice, get creative and technical training using industry standard tools, produce real work with my personalized mentorship, and revise your work against a rubric that tells you exactly what makes great imagery — before you ever start. I prepare your for the realities of today's industry where you will need to be a consummate collaborator, a dynamic set leader, and original artist and storyteller.

In-class lighting demonstration with student

Student-Centered

I'll give you personalized, rubric-based advice — live in class, one-on-one, and through detailed notes on your shooting plans and frame-accurate feedback on your cuts.

Hands-On & Collaborative

Expect about 20% lecture. The rest of class time is is for collaboratove exploration — shooting, lighting, pitching, and crewing for your classmates.

Technology-Forward

You'll work with cutting edge tech: Cameras from Sony, Canon, Arri, and Black Magic. Learn virtual production platforms like Unreal Engine and the latest in generative AI for speeding up your workflow

Featured Courses

What we build together

The Newhouse Cinematography Track gives you the foundational skills you need to make memorable images that elevate visual storytelling. Some of the courses include:

Students in my Cinematic Lighting and Lens course

CIN 303 / 603

Nonfiction Video Storytelling

You'll conceive, shoot, and edit a short documentary from first pitch to final export — no shortcuts. This course includes the Alexia Fall Workshop, a 48-hour sprint I coach personally, and it's produced national winners: Piloting the Past Into the Future took the 2026 BEA Chairman's Award, the top prize among more than 2,000 student entries at the BEA Festival of Media Arts.

CIN 323 / 623

Cinematic Light and Lens

This is where you learn to see like a cinematographer. We go deep on lighting design and lens theory until you can previsualize a scene in your head and then actually build it on set. We use the latest LED technology and even explore anamorphic lensing.

CIN 433 / 633

Cinematography 2 — Cinematic Storytelling

The most advanced course I teach. You'll break down scripts for subtext, then design visual plans that carry the emotion underneath the dialogue — working alongside capstone crews the way you would with a real client.

VIS 502

AI for Creative Professionals

I built Newhouse's first generative-AI course from scratch. In this curse, you'll use AI tools for real production work — concept trailers, campaign pitches — while we talk honestly about where the technology helps and where it doesn't.

Program I Direct

Advanced Military Visual Journalism

I direct a partnership between the Department of War and the Newhouse School that dates back to 1963, training active-duty service members in professional visual storytelling. Since taking over in 2023, I've added a program capstone course, brought AI into the curriculum, and started benchmark trips to New York, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas — all while managing half of the program's $4 million Department of War contract.

"Under Professor Santiago's visionary leadership, the AMVJ curriculum has evolved rapidly to meet modern Naval requirements."

Holly Boynton Gray, U.S. Navy Chief of Information Senior Enlisted Advisor

Recognition

Teaching Awards

A few of the honors that mean the most to me:

Newhouse School Teaching Excellence for Early Performance (2023) — Given to a faculty member within their first five years who's shown real excellence with students and curriculum. I was one of two inaugural recipients, so my selection helped set the bar the award is still measured against.
Syracuse University Meredith Teaching Recognition, Early Performance (2023–24) — The highest teaching honor a junior faculty member can receive at Syracuse University.
AEJMC Visual Communications Division, Innovations in Teaching Award (2023) — AEJMC is the largest international association for journalism and mass communication scholars, with over 3,800 members. This juried award recognizes only a handful of teaching techniques from across the whole division each year — mine was a case study on using Canon's AMLOS technology in the classroom.
University Film & Video Association, Teaching Excellence Award for Junior Faculty (2025) — An international award from an organization representing 300+ film schools worldwide.
AEJMC Best Practices in Teaching, 2nd Place (2025) — Open to AEJMC's entire membership, this competition puts class-tested teaching assignments through anonymous peer review and publishes only the top three each year. Mine placed second, for an AI political-campaign assignment I co-designed with Professor Adam Peruta.
Broadcast Education Association, Innovation in Teaching Award (2026) — Given to exactly one faculty member nationally each year, within their first ten years of teaching. I'm only the third person to receive it since BEA created the award in 2024.