Reviews of professor Derek Helwig

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
We had 6 group projects, almost weekly writing assignments, and no quizzes. He is very easy to talk to, and he cares a lot about his students. I had a lot of fun!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Loved taking his class! He gives great feedback without being too critical and doing a number on your grade. He's quick at replying too if you have any questions outside of class. All the projects are group projects and there's a lot of screenings.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Helwig is my favorite Chapman Professor so far. It's very clear that he cares deeply about documentary filmmaking and he is very knowledgeable in his field. He is a tough grader but his feedback is detailed and extremely helpful and he genuinely wants every student to succeed. He is such an awesome professor, definitely take him!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Helwig is funny and has great insight from his experience. He randomly assigns project partners and makes production groups create production books, which sounds annoying but is actually so great because you get to know the ppl in ur major and get great experience getting releases and thinking more about pre-production. Highly recommend.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Helwig is truly one of the best professors you will get if you study Documentary. He is so attentive to what every student wants to pursue, and offers the best feedback.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
I took Doc 116 & FTV130D w/ Helwig. Thought he was great each time, but he did have some repeat lectures and clips. Would've appreciated different lectures in each class. The project prompts were fun and he gives great feedback. I never received below 90 on any assignment, even on the ones that weren't the best. He gives lots of room to improve.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Derek really makes class entertaining and lively with his personal anecdotes and casual teaching style. You do 4 group projects over the course of the semester and he really pushes you to try new things with your filmmaking. He gives positive feedback on projects as well as constructive criticism and he genuinely cares about you as a student.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Professor Helwig was genuinely one of the best professors I've ever had. He truly cares about his students and seeing them succeed. The style of this class is very organized and efficient. I enjoy getting feedback from the entire class both good and bad, and also hearing what he has to say. His feedback is timecode specific and extremely useful.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Helwig did a great job of tailoring the lectures to help students with different majors and interests. He has incredible job experiences which he shared lots of advice from, and included important visual storytelling techniques in the lessons. All projects were random partners, which was difficult at times, but overall very solid class.