film studies?

<p>Anyone in this program at wesleyan? I heard it's great and concentrates a lot on the history/criticism.. i haven't heard much else.. any info?</p>

<p>I don't know much either (not planning on doing film), but I know it has a lot of ties to Hollywood (there are a group of Wes alums in Hollywood called the "Wesleyan mafia" haha) and, like drama and study of the other arts at Wes, they do come at it from a liberal-arts angle, whatever that means in this context.</p>

<p>My tourguide said, this summer, "If you are a film major at Wes, you're basically guaranteed to be famous and successful" haha. I'm sure it was an exaggeration but it stuck in my mind and I thought I'd share.</p>

<p>haha well i know that joss whedon came out of wes' film program. interesting that they have the hollywood ties though.</p>

<p>I'm majoring in film studies at wes. it does focus largely on history and analysis. in your freshman/sophomore years you have to take "intro to film analysis" and "history of world cinema" and get a b+ or better in both to be automatically accepted into the major (if you don't get the grade and still want to major, you have to talk to the department chair about your situation). you don't do any production until junior year, when you take "sight and sound" (mandatory for film majors). there are a few other production classes, as well as a screen writing class, but only a couple of these can count towards the major. on top of these you take about 6 electives. This semester some examples are New German Cinema, Cinema of Adventure and Action, Early Cinema and the Silent Feature, Postwar American Independent Cinema, and Classical American Comedy. this all culminates with an optional senior thesis. not everyone does a thesis, but last year for example there were three written theses (including one screenplay) and about 12 short films (digital & 16mm). </p>

<p>the approach to film studies here is really wonderful and eye-opening. i'll never look at movies the same way again, and i'm constantly learning more about cinema. it's a fantastic program full of brilliant & approachable professors.</p>

<p>What eurydiced said is basically 100% how I feel as a major.</p>

<p>A couple of additions: you can take digital filmaking instead of "Sight and Sound" for the production credit, and you also have to have an overall GPA average of a B to get into the major automatically. Also, I believe in the future more of the production classes are going to count towards the major, but you can only overall count two production credits. So yeah, it definitely focuses on analysis and history.</p>