Often a guest director, screenwriter, cinematographer or other industry professional will screen a film and then participate in an informal discussion following the screening. These lively discussions offer you an up-close and personal look at a wide range of viewpoints on what it takes to get into the industry and why and how people continue and succeed with their work. These working artists offer firsthand experience and highly stimulating ideas on everything from tricks of the trade to their individual aesthetics. Guests in recent semesters have included Alison Anders, award-winning director of Gas, Food, Lodging and Mi Vida Loca, internationally known film critic Sheila Benson, and Christopher Munch, director of the acclaimed film The Hours and the Times. Although the Entertainment Arts Forum is offered as a class for credit, all School of Film and Television students are encouraged to attend these outstanding events.
Guests are also welcome.
The culminating experience for production classes consists of a screening during the final exam week of works produced in class. This is an open screening and a good opportunity for those who have worked on your project, as well as family and friends, to view your final film. Faculty attend these screenings to offer constructive criticism to the filmmaker. The importance of this experience to the filmmaking process is underlined by the fact that if you do not screen your project during the scheduled time, you fail the course. This is an opportunity for you to see how well your project communicates with an audience, and for your fellow filmmakers who have watched your film take form to see how you solved the various production problems that inevitably arise.