Film Studies majors learn to see film as an artistic medium, a cultural expression, a rhetorical device, a technical production, and a commercial enterprise. The major develops students' analytical, research and writing skills, as well as their creative and technical abilities. Drawing upon the expertise of department faculty, filmmaking professionals, and scholars and filmmakers in other departments in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Cameron School of Business, the Film Studies Department offers a variety of courses in the art, history, production and business of film.
Courses in the film studies major teach students to meet the following learning objectives:
1. to communicate story, mood, character, and ideas cinematically;
2. to understand the pre-production, production, and post-production filmmaking process by conceiving, planning, writing, scheduling, budgeting, shooting, and editing motion pictures;
3. to have a basic knowledge of how motion pictures are marketed, promoted, and distributed;
4. to develop research and writing skills in order to compose cogent, persuasive, and valid essays about film;
5. to have a broad knowledge of film styles, genres, and various national cinemas;
6. to analyze closely the formal aspects of film, including narrative, cinematography, sound, script, genre, performance, editing, and other stylistic components;
7. to understand the history of film, film criticism, film theory, and the relationship between film style and the modes of film production;
8. to develop knowledge and skills applicable to work in the film industry and related fields and to graduate study in filmmaking and cinema studies.
For a detailed description of admission and degree requirements, go to Degree Requirements.