Teaching cinematography the way it's practiced — on real sets, under real deadlines, for real audiences.
Every course below runs on the same premise: students learn fastest when the work is real. Here's what that looks like — the featured courses, the military journalism program Milton directs, and the recognition that's followed.
Teaching Philosophy
Student-centered. Project-based. Built for the industry students are entering.
The goal has never been to get students to fit a prescribed idea of what a storyteller should be. It's to help them tap into their own talents and perspectives, and equip them with a knowledge base in style, form, and function strong enough to mature their own voice.
Every course runs on project-based assessment: students form ideas, pitch them to peers, produce, and revise against a detailed rubric that makes every technical and creative expectation transparent before work begins. Assignments start as team projects and evolve into self-directed productions — the same arc professionals move through, from crew to author.
Student-Centered
Personalized mentoring and rubric-based feedback delivered in real time — live in class, in one-on-one sessions, and through frame-accurate Frame.io notes.
Hands-On & Collaborative
About 20% lecture — the rest spent shooting, lighting, and pitching. A Key Crew requirement has cinematography-track students crewing each other's productions.
Technology-Forward
Unreal Engine and virtual production, generative AI, and Canon's AMLOS platform — taught as extensions of cinematographic craft, not shortcuts around it.
Featured Courses
What students build in the classroom
Four courses spanning the cinematography track and AI-integrated production.
Nonfiction Video Storytelling
Short-form documentary craft from first pitch to final export — subject research, interview technique, image capture, and editing, each phase building on the last. This course anchors the annual Alexia Fall Workshop and produced Piloting the Past Into the Future, winner of the 2026 BEA Chairman's Award — top honor among more than 2,000 student entries nationwide.
AI for Creative Professionals
Newhouse's first generative-AI course, now required for Advertising majors and an elective in the school's forthcoming AI Minor. Students generate and curate text, image, video, and sound for real deliverables while examining the ethics behind the tools — developed alongside a forthcoming Routledge book, Generative AI for Film, TV, and Commercial Production: From Concept to Delivery.
Cinematic Light and Lens
The anchor course of the cinematography track. Students take a deep dive into lighting design and lens theory, learning to previsualize and execute intentional visual design before they ever reach set.
Cinematography 2 — Cinematic Storytelling
The most advanced course in the track. Students analyze scripts for subtext, then design visual plans to support the underlying emotion — collaborating with capstone crews the way a working cinematographer collaborates with a client.
Program I Direct
Advanced Military Visual Journalism
A partnership between the Department of War and the Newhouse School tracing back to 1963, when the Navy first sent photojournalists to Newhouse for advanced training. Today it's an intensive 10-month, 30-credit program spanning photojournalism, motion media, and graphic design — training about 18 active-duty, non-commissioned officers a year alongside civilian students.
Milton has directed the program since 2023, managing half of its $4 million Department of War contract. Under his direction, AMVJ has added a program capstone course, an AI-integrated curriculum, and benchmark trips to New York, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas. Its newest capstone project: a full redesign of the AMVJ website, built entirely by students to showcase their own work.
"Under Professor Santiago's visionary leadership, the AMVJ curriculum has evolved rapidly to meet modern Naval requirements. He has pioneered the integration of emerging technologies — such as generative AI for creatives — while maintaining rigorous journalistic standards."
Holly Boynton Gray U.S. Navy Chief of Information Senior Enlisted AdvisorRecognition
Six teaching awards, three levels: school, university, and international
Teaching Excellence for Early Performance
One of two faculty members selected for this inaugural award, which now sets the school's standard for early-career teaching excellence.
Meredith Teaching Recognition, Early Performance
The highest teaching honor a junior faculty member can receive at Syracuse University; one of five awarded university-wide.
Innovations in Teaching Award
Recognized a case study on classroom use of Canon's AMLOS technology; one of five entries selected in a juried national competition.
Teaching Excellence Award, Junior Faculty
A competitively adjudicated international award from an organization representing over 300 institutions worldwide.
Best Practices in Teaching, 2nd Place
Co-designed with Professor Adam Peruta; selected from the full 3,800+ member AEJMC association after anonymous peer review.
Innovation in Teaching Award
Presented to one faculty member nationally within their first ten years of teaching. Milton is only the third BEA member to receive it.
Beyond the Classroom
Where the learning doesn't stop at the classroom door
Every course starts from the same question: what does the story actually need from you?