Creative Media and Film, Bachelor of Science

In addition to University Requirements:

• 48 units of major requirements including 24 units of emphases requirements.

• Up to 9 units of major prefix courses may be used to satisfy Liberal Studies requirements; these same courses may also be used to satisfy major requirements.

• Elective courses, if needed, to reach an overall total of at least 120 units.

Please note that students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

Purpose Statement

Creative Media & Film (CMF) teaches students to create and critique stories made with moving images and audio. Students will engage in a shared core that will teach them the fundamentals of production and criticism. This program blends analytical thinking, creative expression, and professional experience to develop students’ skills in all aspects of digital filmmaking and critique.
 
CMF’s foundation rests on the critical view that our students should be empowered to tell their own distinctive, idiosyncratic, and regional stories, rather than have those stories told for them. Our program focuses on narrative and storytelling theories, skills, and application. As moving image/audio storytellers, our students learn about and are trained within the domains of both cultural and aesthetic values.
 
The program begins with an exploration of the theoretical, social, historical, and industry standards within which all media are grounded.  Through this foundation, students develop strong aesthetic sensibilities, storytelling skills, and a deep appreciation of the impact of audience, culture, time and place upon stylistic choices made during the creative process. 
 
Intensive, hands-on experience drives student learning as they write, plan, produce, cast, budget, finance, shoot, edit, and promote their own work.  Specific attention is paid to developing critical skills to formulate original ideas, persuasively articulate these ideas, and then combine film tools with storytelling skills to transform their ideas into engaging media.  Developing students’ skills in visual storytelling, audio production, and effective editing is accomplished by creating a variety of professional-quality projects. 

The CMF major prepares students to work in the industry whether at a production house, working their way up in the Hollywood system, start their own client-based business, or developing their own personal projects after they graduate. At the very least, students will develop creative and critical thinking skills, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving traits needed to be successful in nearly every career. Furthermore, this major provides a strong foundation for graduate school in filmmaking, digital storytelling, cinema studies, and media studies.
 
Documentary Storytelling emphasis. This emphasis is for students interested in producing documentary projects and nonfiction stories with a variety of media, including audio, photography, and digital filmmaking.
 
Independent Filmmaking emphasis: This emphasis is for students who want to make fiction films from an independent filmmaking approach. Students will become versed in all aspects of production and postproduction.
 
Media Studies emphasis: This emphasis is for students who want to observe, think about, and write about media from a strong intellectual standpoint. Students not only learn about media criticism, but they also engage in some aspects of media production from a critical standpoint, including advocacy, cultural work, and professional applications.
 
Student Learning Outcomes

Core Creative Media & Film Outcomes

• Students ­­will apply critical and professional standards to the creation and critique of creative media and film.
• Apply professional standards to the creation of stories through basic techniques of screenwriting and filmmaking.
• Analyze, write, critique, and discuss the cultural, historical, and theoretical forces shaping regional, national, and international media, including works of creative media, client work, documentaries, and film.
• Develop and revise their work based on faculty and peer critiques and audience responses, culminating in final projects that may include fiction, documentary, or client-based films.

• Students ­­will apply critical and professional standards to the creation and critique of documentary.
• Refine their skills in shooting, sound recording, editing, photography, and sound design in a variety of projects.
• Research, plan, produce, budget, finance, shoot, edit, and promote documentary projects.
• Apply skills of reporting—interviewing, gathering information, researching people and ideas for potential documentary stories.
• Read, write, and discuss the traditions and history of a variety of documentary stories.
• Integrate other areas of knowledge, such as from anthropology, women and gender studies, history, and humanities, in order to help students research potential documentary story topics. 

• Students ­­will apply critical and professional standards to the creation and critique of film.
• Refine their skills in shooting, sound recording, lighting, directing, editing, and sound design in a variety of projects.
• Research, plan, produce, budget, finance, cast, and promote fiction film projects.
• Create medium and long form fiction scripts.
• Examine a variety of foreign and independent film traditions that they can apply to their own film projects. 

• Students ­­will apply critical and professional standards to analysis of film and media.
• Survey a variety of regional, national, and international media forms.
• Acquire and apply media literacy skills while analyzing a variety of film and other media projects.
• Examine the various forms of media creation, circulation, and consumption both locally and global.
• Investigate media consumption through an increased understanding of regional, national, and global media practice.
• Interpret their own production, circulation, and consumption of media both as a reflection of their own culture and in conversation with media users in other cultures.
• Engage in meaningful and productive discussion, debate, and open intellectual exchange with others about regional, national, and global media practice.