Film and Media Arts
Mission
LaGrange College’s Bachelor of Arts degree in Film & Media Arts develops students into independent, multi-hyphenate creators, and prepares them for entry level positions within the film, television, media, entertainment, and broadcast industries. The foundational curriculum provides students with a comprehensive proficiency in conventional and emerging film technology, theory, and practice. As students progress through the program, they receive personal faculty advisement to create a custom elective course progression, geared toward their specific area(s) of focus. In our tutorial-based, advanced F&MA courses, students are able to hone their voice and craft in the authorship of their own creative works.
The faculty in the Film & Media Arts program represent a wide array of applied knowledge in both image and audio-based technologies, as well as relevant theoretical approaches. Our in-house production collective, West Side Productions, provides consistent experiential learning opportunities, where students can work alongside faculty and staff participating in production projects with campus and community partners, using industry standard equipment, facilities, and procedures. As a committed faculty of teaching artists, we strive to create a dynamic, collaborative, and multi-modal production environment in our West Side Production Facility, and truly embrace LaGrange College’s liberal arts tradition.
Program Objectives
The program of Film & Media Arts
- provides opportunities college-wide for all students to develop an appreciation of and critically engage in the visual arts through offerings in film and media production and theoretical and critical cinematic approaches;
- provides a strong film and media production curriculum for majors;
- provides opportunities for student research, internships, and other forms of experiential learning;
- provides an active, studio-based, creative learning environment, supported by industry standard equipment and facilities and tutorial from experienced professionals.
Student Learning Objectives
Upon completion of a degree in Film & Media Arts, the student should:
- demonstrate growth in creativity, self-expression, and technical skills through the realization of a body of work/record of technical application;
- demonstrate a broad familiarity with the traditions, modalities, disciplines, phases, and technologies associated with standard film and media production;
- demonstrate the ability to communicate knowledge of the cinematic and media arts, both orally and in writing.
Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
Sophomore Review—F&MA faculty will evaluate sophomore portfolios according to a standard rubric. Evaluation will include an assessment of students’ oral skills based on statements and critiques as well as an evaluation of creativity, self-expression and technical skills as evidenced in their body of work-in-progress.
Senior Exit Review—F&MA faculty (which may include an outside reviewer) will evaluate the short film, or alternative, faculty-approved, creative project, produced in the senior capstone course according to a rubric containing course objectives. Evaluation will include an assessment of students’ writing and oral skills based on statements and critiques as well as demonstrating growth in creativity, self-expression, and technical skills as evidenced in their body of work/record of technical application.
Facilities and Resources
The LaGrange College West Side Film and Recording building includes a modern 150-seat recital hall, a suite of mixing and editing rooms, acoustically treated studios, spacious smart classrooms, dedicated ensemble rehearsal rooms and a live recording studio and control room. This facility also features video staging and shooting rooms with grid lighting, a Chroma key wall and a dedicated project workroom for stop-motion animation and detailed videography.
Majors and Minors
Major Minor
B.A. in Film and Media Arts Minor in Film and Media ArtsCourses
This course will survey the cinema from the perspective of film history and theory, cinematic aesthetics, film industry and technology, and film production modes and genres. Emphasis will be placed on developing and refining active viewership skills and articulating thoughtful film analysis, as well an understanding of the development of film as a medium.
This course will survey animated cinema from the perspective of film history and theory, cinematic aesthetics, film industry and technology, film production models, and animation techniques. Emphasis will be placed on developing and refining active viewership skills and articulating thoughtful film analysis, as well an understanding of the development of animation as a medium in global social, cultural, and political contexts
This foundational Film & Media Arts course provides a survey of the roles, departments, and processes in all phases of film and video production, and hands-on production experience, developing skills relevant to the creation of short films, art films, music videos, industrial and corporate presentations, video documentation, and basic digital media management.
In this course, students will explore oral storytelling traditions, essay film and documentary production modalities, and author a socially or personally significant digital story, a 3-7 minute video project that will serve as their final creative work. Students will develop these videos, first through process of authoring the story, then, through the process of digitizing the story.
Students delve into camera-less, direct animation, super 8mm film, and digital video filmmaking techniques and installation art practices. They explore significant works, engage in collaborative tutorials, workshops, group critiques, and individual creative assignments. Through this immersive experience, students unleash their creativity, dissecting and creating boundary-pushing cinematic experiences
(1-6 Hours) An opportunity for students to gain added early applied experience and insight in approved off-campus settings. Internships consist of at least 40 working hours per credit hour in areas related to the discipline. Assignments may include selected readings, public presentation, and a final portfolio containing essays, weekly journal, and supporting material. Advisors, program coordinators, department chairs, and the internship coordinator (or designee) must approve the internship before a student begins their work. Internships will be taken as pass/no credit.
This advanced Film & Media Arts course focuses on production and postproduction techniques for audio as used in film and video production, TV, and in various digital media. These techniques include sound design, Foley, SFX, NAT sound, A.D.R., music layback, environmental synthesis, and digital encoding.
This advanced Film & Media Arts course is designed to give the student a broad and functional appreciation of the cinematic image. Image capture techniques and practical applications of professional image production in the studio, as well as in the field, presented in a theoretical context, using industry standard equipment and facilities.
This advanced Film & Media Arts course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of writing for visual media. Students will concentrate on developing scripts for a variety of specific audiences and formats including film, television, online, advertising, and educational media.
In this course students will explore Film/Video editing theory, techniques, and concepts, contemporary post-production workflows, and NLE operations for use in creative moving image and audio-based content development and manipulation. Intermediate work with video editing techniques, video effects processing, and video presentation.
Designed for students to gain practical experience in and outside of their areas of focus. Students will engage in production assignments each semester to earn credit for this course. May be repeated for credit. Course may be taken for 1-3 credit hours.
This course explores the creation of compelling moving images for digital platforms, social media, websites, and live events. Students master multi-format storytelling, developing unified campaigns across various aspect ratios, exhibition platforms, and time constraints. The course culminates in a comprehensive content package featuring brand documentary, commercial, and social media video campaign in a client-facing context.
The course challenges conventional approaches to non-fiction filmmaking while maintaining a strong foundation in traditional documentary methods. Through analysis, hands-on production, and an LC community-based short documentary project, students develop technical skills while exploring how creative choices shape our understanding of reality in documentary film, emerging from the course as critical consumers of non-fiction media
This studio course examines directing methodologies for performance for the moving image, with special emphasis on actor-director relationships and scene analysis. Through hands-on exercises, workshops, and scene studies, students develop their directorial voice while learning to adapt techniques for microbudget film and video content production.
This Production Project course will be taken in the senior year and will result in the completion and presentation of an independent work in the documentary mode. Students will also lead a collaborative documentary production team formed from the concurrently enrolled junior cohort of students, and may also include collaborators, production assistants, and talent from outside the enrolled class. Students will study, critically analyze, and lead class discussions on the documentary form.
The Capstone course progression in Film & Media Arts is an intensive studio course in which students author a 4-10 minute short film within the modality of their choosing, or alternative, faculty approved creative work, and will result in a public screening of the final project from the enrolled student that will be accompanied by a production and written defense. In the first semester of Capstone, students will conduct the pre-production phase, including concept development, budgeting, casting and crewing, scheduling, and locking all scripted production elements and requisite equipment, as well as the Production Phase, including principal photography (video capture), and the capture of any additional assets including location sound, gathering archival materials, etc.
A supervised, practical “real world” experience in a professional off-campus environment. May be repeated for credit. Course may be taken for 1-3 credits.
