About Film and Media Arts

Our Program and Courses

Film and Media Arts is a major and minor at F&M. Our program artfully combines scholarly work with creative practice, empowering you to gain a broad historical and theoretical understanding of motion pictures while developing skills in creating your own projects. You’ll study motion picture history, writing for the screen, storytelling and its varying styles, motion picture production, and how films act as social commentary in their particular historical and political contexts. You’ll use that knowledge and experience to do original scholarly work and make films of your own. 

By the time you graduate, you will have:
  • Become familiar with a range of global film movements, genres, histories, and styles
  • Developed skills in media analysis, historical research, and theoretical application
  • Practiced and improved skills in the effective communication of ideas, arguments, and stories — in writing, orally, and especially visually, using moving image media
  • Made creative works in a range of modes and media — from storytelling with digital video to experimental forms on film
  • Developed a creative practice that understands and activates concepts and techniques from the realms of fiction, nonfiction, and alternative media
Eager to explore Film and Media Arts courses? Take a look at our course catalog to see the exciting classes you can expect to find at F&M.

Our Faculty and Staff

Meet the faculty and staff who bring Film and Media Arts at F&M to life. Our professors are established and internationally recognized professionals in their fields of filmmaking and film scholarship. They have experience within the film industry, having created documentaries, feature films, short films and more. They have published books and their films have been exhibited widely at national and international film festivals.

Julissa Aguilar

Film & Video Technical Manager

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Kevin Brady

Visiting Scholar of Art

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Michael R Clapper

Associate Professor of Art History

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Zachary Clifford

Adjunct Instructor

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Dirk W Eitzen

Professor of Film and Media

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Carol L Hickey

Senior Adjunct Instructor of Architecture

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James C Hollenbaugh

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Matthew Johnson

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film

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Megan Keller

Academic Department Coordinator

Theatre & Dance

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Richard K Kent

Professor of Art History

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Kostis Kourelis

Associate Professor of Art History

International Studies

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Magnolia W Laurie

Associate Professor of Art

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Jun-Cheng Liu

Arthur & Katherine Shadek Professor of Art

International Studies

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Gloria E Mast

Adjunct Instructor of Art & Art History & Film

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Ashley Moog Bowlsbey

Adjunct Instructor

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Jeremy S Moss

Associate Professor of Film, Film & Media Program Director, Department Chair of Art, Art History & Film

International Studies

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Amelia F Rauser

Charles A. Dana Professor of Art History

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Jason Thompson

Winter Visual Art Center Studio Manager/Sculpture Shop Technician

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Jeremy Waak

Adjunct Instructor

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Rebecca D Zinner

Adjunct Instructor

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Learning Outside the Classroom

Research Opportunities and Independent Studies

Do you want to write and produce a short film? Or maybe you want to explore how moving images function? You’ll find extraordinary opportunities to engage in independent or faculty-led research. Film and Media Arts students also have the opportunity to apply for the Nolt Film Award, a grant that offers $1,000 to support a student project. The award can help fund the production of your short film or video, the fee to submit your creative work to a festival, or your travel funds to attend a film event. 
Explore research at F&M

Fall Film Showcase

Each September, we curate a program of exceptional films created in film classes from the previous year. 

Senior Film Showcase

Your senior year, you’ll have the opportunity to see your work come to life on screen. As part of the Senior Film Showcase, you will create a short film and present your work to the campus community in the cinema of our recently constructed visual arts center. 

Off-Campus Study and Film Festival Trips

You’re encouraged to take advantage of F&M’s rich international study program, which will broaden your horizons, expose you to new cultures, and feed your creativity. Film and Media Arts students have studied abroad in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, Czech Republic. 

For shorter extracurricular experiences, we regularly provide students with opportunities to attend film festivals and screenings off campus. We also bring filmmakers to campus and organize special film screenings and series, including the Gleaners Film Festival.
Explore off-campus study at F&M

F&M Films Club

Meet and connect with others who love movies as much as you. F&M Films is an organization on campus just for aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles. F&M Films has hosted filmmaking workshops, film screenings, and field trips to Zoetropolis, a Lancaster venue and community for those who love independent films.

Our Facilities and Resources

Winter Visual Arts Center

Winter Visual Arts Center

The Susan and Benjamin Winter Visual Arts Center (WVAC) provides a magnificent environment for the making and study of visual arts. The WVAC is the home of the art, art history and film departments, as well as several art studios, a digital lab, an art gallery, a cinema, and more. This building is unlike any other on campus. It earned The Architect’s Newspaper 2020 Best of Design Award in the institutional / higher education category.

Sound studio in the Winter Visual Arts Center

Film & Media Studies Digital Lab

Learn about video editing, sound recording, how to process photos in a dark room, and more in the Jonathan E. Babkow ’88 & Maia Rubin Film & Media Studies Digital Lab, located in the WVAC.

The Weis-Laiks Cinema

The Weis-Laiks Cinema

The Colleen Ross Weis ’85 and Martin Laiks Cinema is a state-of-the-art cinema spanning two stories in the WVAC. Seating 70, the cinema is a space perfect for film classes, film festivals, and other special events.

Film students

Film Equipment

When studying Film and Media Arts, you’ll have access to professional production equipment, including Sony, Canon, and Black Magic video cameras; a collaborative video editing lab; a sound studio; an advanced video editing studio; and 16mm film production workflow, including an optical printer, Steenbeck film editor, film processing lab, and film-to-digital scanner.

Success Beyond F&M

What happens after you graduate with a degree in film & media studies? Our graduates are immediately prepared to pursue advanced degrees or begin their chosen careers.

Graduate School

Many Film and Media Arts majors go on to study in graduate programs in the U.S. and abroad. Graduates have pursued advanced degrees in cinema and media studies, film production, and more. They’ve attended institutions such as: 
  • California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
  • Chapman University
  • Columbia University
  • New York University
  • Stanford University
  • Stony Brook University
  • Temple University
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Colorado Boulder

Career Paths

Film and Media Arts graduates often go directly to work in the film industry. Others apply the technical and production skills they learned at F&M to work in fields like television production, video marketing, communications, digital marketing, social media, academia, and more. They hold titles such as: 
  • Writer
  • Producer
  • Video Editor
  • Director
  • Videographer
  • Cinematographer
  • Lighting Technician
  • Production Designer
  • Art Director 
  • Sound Recordist 
  • Sound Editor
  • Foley Artist 
  • Production Assistant 
  • Media Coordinator
  • Project Manager
  • Programming Coordinator
  • Artist Relations Coordinator
  • Marketing and Advertising Coordinator
  • Account Executive

Alumni Spotlight

Randy Wilkins ’01 Directs and Produces “The Captain,” an ESPN Docuseries

In fall 2002, Randy Wilkins ’01 — then a senior at F&M — found himself sitting next to Spike Lee at dinner prior to the filmmaker’s Mueller lecture. But rather than talk cinema, America’s greatest pastime was on the agenda. More than 20 years later, Lee asked Wilkins to direct and produce “The Captain” – an ESPN docuseries focused on baseball hall-of-famer Derek Jeter. “It’s a love for baseball. It's a love for the sport. It's a respect for the sport,” said Wilkins, a former centerfielder for the Diplomats. Wilkins said the basis of how he approaches his film work is rooted in his F&M experiences. “In my work, I have to challenge myself and challenge the viewer. It’s all rooted in critical thinking at F&M. When you see my work, you see F&M.”

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Student Spotlight

“My lens has become more than a mere tool for capturing images; it’s a medium for me to navigate the multifaceted aspects of who I am.”

Film and Media Arts major Brandon Webb ’25 was one of seven students featured in the Phillips Museum of Art exhibit, “Spectra: Exploring Neurodiverse Art in Franklin & Marshall College.” The exhibition celebrates the artwork of students on campus who identify as neurodivergent. “My journey as a photographer has been woven with the intricate tapestry of identity, and my personal struggle with ADHD has been a significant thread in this narrative,” he said. “My lens has become more than a mere tool for capturing images; it’s a medium for me to navigate the multifaceted aspects of who I am.”

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Alumni Spotlight

“I never had an opportunity before to work on films collaboratively, so it was a new experience.”

Three F&M students spent two weeks mentoring local high school students in filmmaking. While they brought their experiences making films or working on technical aspects of films, they focused their lens on helping the three McCaskey High School students make documentaries. “I never had an opportunity before to work on films collaboratively, so it was a new experience," said Idris Mansaray '23.

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Related Fields of Study

American Studies

Engage with the oldest multifaceted major at F&M. As a student of American Studies, you’ll enjoy a true liberal arts experience, exploring several disciplines to develop analytical skills and critical judgment and to examine the range and diversity of American experiences, identities and communities.

Arts for Social Change (Certificate)

This certificate will help you deepen your understanding of the arts as mediums for impacting culture, community, politics, education, and more. Arts for Social Change spans F&M’s dynamic arts disciplines, uniting the ethos of community-building with artistic practice that foregrounds innovation and action.

English

Read the past. Write the future. Whether you are drawn to the latest graphic novels, medieval tales, Jane Austen’s marriage plots, experimental poetry, or texts you have yet to discover, the English major offers wide-ranging explorations of language and ideas.

In the Spotlight

July 1, 2024

Captain Of His Own Story: Randy Wilkins '01

What does baseball hall-of-famer Derek Jeter have to say about F&M grad Randy Wilkins? Spike Lee personally chose Wilkins to direct and produce “The Captain,” an ESPN docuseries focused on Jeter’s career with the Yankees.

January 31, 2024

F&M Biologists Contribute to Award-Winning Documentary

“Losing Blue,” a collaborative effort between the filmmaker, her writer and two F&M biologists, Professors Janet Fischer and Mark Olson, a wife-and-husband scientific team.

November 21, 2023

60 Years After JFK’s Death, Alumni Author Finds Missing Link

Was the star of NASA’s first female astronaut program linked to the assassination of JFK? “A Woman I Know,” by filmmaker turned author Mary Haverstick ’82, searches for the truth.