Film and Media
About Film and Media
Our Program and Courses
Film and Media 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 courses? Take a look at our course catalog to see the exciting classes you can expect to find at F&M.
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 students also have the opportunity t o 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, Film and Media curates 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 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
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.
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 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 Equipment
When studying film and media, 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 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 studies 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.”Read More »
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 studies 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.”Read More »
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.Read More »
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.
July 1, 2024 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 “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 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.In the Spotlight
Captain Of His Own Story: Randy Wilkins '01
F&M Biologists Contribute to Award-Winning Documentary
60 Years After JFK’s Death, Alumni Author Finds Missing Link