CTVA

CTVA is a major at the California State University of Northridge. The acronym stands for Cinematic and Television Arts. It is a major entirely focused on understanding and making motion pictures whether they be for films, TV shows, webseries, and documentaries. It is made up of five separate "options" which are paths you can take within the major to further focus your studies. These options are as follows;
**Options**

1. Film Production : You must be accepted into the Film Production Program via a Portfolio system
2. TV Production : You must be accepted into the Television Production Program via a Portfolio system.
3. Emerging Media
4. Entertainment Media Management
5. Film Theory

Under no circumstances should any sane person choose any of the above options, or even this major, but if you are really interested and have been clinically diagnosed as insane; please visit #manzanita to ask all related CTVA questions.

## Film Program

The Film Program is headed by Professor Nate Thomas. In order to enter the program, one must complete the lower division requirements of CTVA 100, 210 220, and ART 250 with a "C" grade or better, and CTVA 250 with a grade of "B-" or better THEN be accepted via a portfolio application system of which one can find the details here [1]. When you are accepted into the program and enroll in your first classes, you are put into a "cohort" which is a group of fellow students you will be sharing classes with and doing THESIS with.

The Film Program is made up of four skill paths which you will be placed in upon acceptance.

1. SOUND - Classes CTVA 358 and 359
2. EDITING - Classes CTVA 352 and 356
3. CINEMATOGRAPHY - Class CTVA 357 and ONE extra 3 unit CTVA class
4. PRODUCING - Class CTVA 455 and ONE extra 3 unit CTVA class.

The common strategy for Cinematography and Producing students is to take one of the other's required skill class. So after taking 455, a producing student would choose to take 358, 352, 356, or 357 to fill their unit requirement. This is known as "double dipping" for some reason even though the practice has nothing to do with food.

Regardless of which skill path you are accepted for, you will have to take the classes CTVA 355, 351, 350, 329A, 452A/B, and 453.
CTVA 355: is the intermediate film production class in which you will group up and make a 7-10 minute short film. Depending on your group, this can either be chill and fun or a God damn eternal nightmare that will give you PTSD.
CTVA 351: is a class in which Professor Nate Thomas tells stories and his experiences working in the industry. He also brings in guests.
CTVA 350: is the directing class in which everyone will do some acting and work on 8 short films made inside the classroom (MZ170) during class time.
CTVA 329A: is a class in which you work a minimum of 48 hours on Film Production Thesis sets, as a TA for a class you have already passed, doing something in the Script Library (nobody knows what the fuck people do in the Script Library), as a helper at the ARRI Equipment Room, or possibly at the KSUN radio station. It used to be you'd have to take 329C and you'd have to work 140+ hours, but since literally nobody could do that they changed the requirement.
CTVA 452 A/B: commonly referred to as just ***"THESIS"***. It shall have it's own section below since it's just that big of a project.
CTVA 453: is literally a fake class to help anyone in the Film Program who needs three extra units for any reason.

### THESIS

THESIS is the name given to the four final big project each cohort in the Film Program must complete before graduating. They are **BIG** projects, typically costing about $25k-$50k with the money coming from a $1500 per student contribution, and the rest from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and CSUN itself. The Thesis projects generally takes up the entire final year of a Film Production Student's career at CSUN: It is now split into 452A and 452B to give students more units while working on the films and so they don't have to bog themselves down in extra classes for units while working on the films.

It starts the semester before your cohort actually even enrolls in the class. At the end of your second semester in the program, should you choose to do so, you along with anyone else in your cohort will submit a script to the Department. That script will be sent to an independent panel, if it passes that panel it will be read and debated over by the Film Program Professors. Then, those scripts will be used to have the students make further production plans that they will pitch to the professors. If the professors like the script, the plans, and perhaps most important of all; the person wishing to direct the project, then the project will be selected among three others to be produced. Once the four films are picked, they must form a group of at least ten or more. Each group member will donate $1500 to the film's budget.

Most of your second semester in the program should be finding out who will be good to work with for thesis. Having a bad dysfunctional group is a great way to blow thirty thousand dollars. No matter what, there is always one of the four groups that will be the bad dysfunctional group as that group tends to get made up of the people who were divas, idiots, or assholes in CTVA 355.

The end goal of THESIS is to make a film that is at least up to Industry standards. Something that the group members could at least be happy showing on their reel. The best five of the eight thesis projects produced in the program will be screened at the annual Film Production Showcase.

## Major Controversies

### March 10th 2020

On March 10th, or the 69th day of every year, CTVA students gather on the steps of the Oviatt Library to march for the addition of a "Pornography" option to the major.

March 10th, 2020 was no different until Former CSUN President Dianne Harrison decided she didn't like seeing or smelling the protests from her gold plated mansion decided to order her private evangelical nazi militia to act as unidentifiable federal agents to provoke a riot at the protests. This caused dozens of injuries, and some students were reported to be shoved in unmarked vans and haven't been seen since. Quoting Film Option head Nathaniel Thomas, "those motherfuckers got fucked like damn bro that's crazy I was eating my hot wings when I heard the news".