MFA Film, Second Year Students, Chair Update 10-16-2020
Dear 2nd year MFA Film Students.
I’m glad we could connect with many of you in meetings last week. A few updates:
Communication: We hear you on needing more time and interface and are in discussion on it. Please keep in mind that in response to COVID Faculty and Staff have already increased our workloads with regard to curriculum & operational planning, and programming as well as to our time spent in governance and communication. We can’t de-prioritize any of this going forward, but are looking for more efficiencies and ways and times to connect. We will report back as we advance our thinking on this as a Faculty.
Dodge Hall Film Hangout Zoom Space. Hopefully for FALL B for students of all years to stop by before/after classes. More info to come.
Chair Updates to come weekly. Some weeks I’ll have more to share than others, but I’ll keep updating what I can. I tend to keep these updates as short and sweet as I can as you have a lot to read already. Phase 2 seminars upcoming. This is our first priority in terms of making time for in depth communication with you. We think the discussion and thinking connected to PHASE 2 will be foundational to conversations and planning to come this year.
Some of you have have asked where our language around Thesis Completion. It is here:
https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/hub/thesis-completion-policy-statement/
Directing 3. You will be receiving some asynchronous training from Peter soon for SMASHCUT, a platform we will run for Directing Classes. We believe it will better support the work of these classes than zoom.
Mini Tech Seminars to support Directing exercises planned for early Fall B.
Directing the Actors 3 (from June Stein): The first half of the semester will be focused on doing challenging published scene work with live actors on Zoom deploying both learned strategies and new techniques. We are also compiling a database of "Zoom friendly" scenes and it would be productive if you started to think about that too! -The second half of the semester (post Winter Break) will focus on integrating the feature writing that students are doing in Screenwriting 3 into your DA 3 class. This will consist of improvisational work using your evolving feature's main characters, circumstances etc. (and dialogue pages if students have begun that yet) of the scripts, treatments, outlines etc. We will use live actors Zoomed in (and occasionally each other standing in as actors when that is preferred) in DA feature exploration.
Additionally, the 8-12 that wasn't shot over the summer can also serve as developmental material for script exploration with actors after the Winter Break.-There will also be an Advanced Casting Workshop focusing on D4 (and thesis) casting challenges and strategies taught by a wonderful and highly accomplished Casting Director at the semester's end, or at the beginning of Spring semester, exact dates TBD....
***NOTE TO ALL STUDENTS: We have an exceptional team of DA 1 & DA 3 Adjunct Professors who are highly accomplished teachers and experienced Zoom enthusiasts. Actors and directors have been rehearsing & auditioning online for years. We very much want to make the experience of Directing Actors a creative & collaborative force in your work. There are many wonderful actors eager to work with you! June Stein, Head, Directing Actors.
Wishing you all a restful weekend.
Hilary Brougher