Although my field of study is computer science, I am brand new to this major and haven't even taken any Computer Science courses yet. Because of that, I've decided to write on my two other previous degrees, which were in video production.
What do students in your program learn how to do?
It really depends exactly what it is they want to do. There are a lot of jobs that can be done on a production set, so someone could learn directing, editing, writing, camera operation, etc. I always focused on editing and post-production.
There are basics that every student would need to know how to do. Everyone would need to know how to frame a shot, how to light a scene, where to place the microphone and the basics of writing a script. Obviously, depending on what you wanted to specialize on, you would get more in depth training than "point the microphone at their face".
For editing (what I would specialize in) you need to pick a non-linear editor to specialize in. There are three big ones being used in the industry right now, which are Apple's Final Cut Pro, Avid's Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere. Specializing in any one of them can help further your career, but I'm a personal fan of Premiere. A good editor would learn all three.
What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?
If you're me, you don't get work but rather a bunch of emerging entrepreneurs who can't afford to pay you now but will gladly pay up "once this thing gets rolling". It never does. Or an aspiring director who will gladly give you a share of the profits once a major studio finally picks up his zombie film he shot on his iPhone.
If you're really good, maybe you'll get signed on to a major production company working on a multi-million dollar film. You could also get signed on at a TV station for more regular work. If you can't get an actual studio to hire you, you may be able to do projects like weddings on the side. Be careful though, weddings are a miserable pit of agony and pain.
What drew you to this field?
I would always make short films with classmates back in high school and really wanted that to take off into a career. I went to school, studied and felt I got really good at it. It's a hard field to break into though, which is why I'm returning for a different degree to hopefully expand my options.
Who are the leaders/most exciting people involved in your field right now? Why? These could be individual people or specific companies, organizations, businesses or non-profits.
There are obviously the multi-millionaire filmmakers out there, such as James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. For editors, there's Michael Kahn, who edited a lot of Spielberg's films, Paul Hirsch, who did The Empire Strikes Back, or Walter Murch, who did The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
Editors usually don't get a lot of fame or recognition for their work. Typically, if you notice the editing, you did it wrong.
What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3. (HINT: If you have no idea what the answer to this question is, try Googling “What are the top journals in [insert field of study]?” and peruse the results). Make the titles of each journal into a working hyperlink to the website for that publication. (NOTE: if your links aren’t included or don’t work or if the page it directs us to is blocked from public view, I will not be able to assign you full credit for this exercise).
Screen Published on behalf of the University of Glasgow
What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?
If you're me, you don't get work but rather a bunch of emerging entrepreneurs who can't afford to pay you now but will gladly pay up "once this thing gets rolling". It never does. Or an aspiring director who will gladly give you a share of the profits once a major studio finally picks up his zombie film he shot on his iPhone.
If you're really good, maybe you'll get signed on to a major production company working on a multi-million dollar film. You could also get signed on at a TV station for more regular work. If you can't get an actual studio to hire you, you may be able to do projects like weddings on the side. Be careful though, weddings are a miserable pit of agony and pain.
What drew you to this field?
I would always make short films with classmates back in high school and really wanted that to take off into a career. I went to school, studied and felt I got really good at it. It's a hard field to break into though, which is why I'm returning for a different degree to hopefully expand my options.
Who are the leaders/most exciting people involved in your field right now? Why? These could be individual people or specific companies, organizations, businesses or non-profits.
There are obviously the multi-millionaire filmmakers out there, such as James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. For editors, there's Michael Kahn, who edited a lot of Spielberg's films, Paul Hirsch, who did The Empire Strikes Back, or Walter Murch, who did The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
Editors usually don't get a lot of fame or recognition for their work. Typically, if you notice the editing, you did it wrong.
What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3. (HINT: If you have no idea what the answer to this question is, try Googling “What are the top journals in [insert field of study]?” and peruse the results). Make the titles of each journal into a working hyperlink to the website for that publication. (NOTE: if your links aren’t included or don’t work or if the page it directs us to is blocked from public view, I will not be able to assign you full credit for this exercise).
Screen Published on behalf of the University of Glasgow
"Screen is the leading international journal of academic film and television studies. From video art to popular television, from Hollywood to Hong Kong, from art cinema to British film finance, Screen authors cover a wide range of issues, both contemporary and historical, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Each quarterly issue combines substantial scholarly essays with reports and debates on conferences and current research, along with book reviews." - http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/ quote taken 09/05/15 via Oxford JournalsFilm Criticism Published on behalf of Allegheny College, Meadville, PA
"Film Criticism recently completed its thirty-seventh year of continuous publication, making it the third oldest academic film journal in the United States. FC has published work by such international scholars as Dudley Andrew, David Bordwell, David Cook, Robin Wood, Janet Staiger, Ann Kaplan, Andrew Horton, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Marcia Landy, and Peter Lehman. Equally important, we continue to present work from a new generation of film scholars representing multiple critical, cultural and theoretical perspectives." - http://filmcriticism.allegheny.edu/ quote taken 09/05/15 via Film CriticismAlphaville Published on behalf of University College Cork, Ireland
"Alphaville is a fully peer-reviewed online journal edited and published by staff, PhD and postdoctoral researchers in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork, Ireland. Alphaville offers a dynamic international forum open to the discussion of all aspects of film and screen media history, theory and criticism through multiple research methodologies and perspectives. It cultivates inspiring, cutting-edge research, and seeks work that displays a clear engagement with current debates and with methodological issues. The journal is open access to make a full contribution to international debates in film and screen studies and beyond, and considers articles, book reviews and festival, exhibition and conference reports. We are interested in the interfaces between cinema and all new media, and aim to utilise the online platform to its full capacity. Alphaville is published twice a year, in Summer and Winter, with both themed and open issues. It currently only accepts submissions in response to specific calls for papers that are advertised via the journal website and subject lists." - http://www.alphavillejournal.com/AboutAlphaville.html quote taken 09/05/15 via AlphavilleEDIT: I read Felicia's blog and Oscar's blog. Oscar is in a similar field to what I'll be going into, even though I didn't write on it. Felicia's major is in the news a lot recently and I'm interested in what she has to say on it.
I was a music major specializing in piano performance and after working a couple of years in "the business" while still going to school I knew I had to change majors. There are so many job markets that are near impossible to break into with any tangible success.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that you'll still try to be involved video production after you get your CS degree? Is there any overlap between the two fields?
My dad is a lighting director for movies and i am currently studying the same major in film and make short films all the time, the business is tuff but very interesting and worth the hours of work.
ReplyDeleteI am more interested in the programming side of computers but what you're doing can be very cool as well. It takes talent and hard work to really get done what you accomplish within that field. Good luck.
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