After years of student demand, ASU will soon be accepting applications for a film production program slated to begin next fall.
Starting in fall 2006, the Department of Theatre will offer a concentration in Film and Media Production as part of a multidisciplinary Bachelor of Arts film degree. This comes after the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences made a Film and Media Studies concentration available for the degree this semester.
About 40 students could be admitted for the program's first year, ASU theatre professor Miguel Valenti said.
Valenti, who will head the school's film production unit, said its size would be limited by an initial lack of available faculty and production equipment.
Theatre Department Chairwoman Linda Essig said the school would build the program over a four-year period.
Film classes will teach students the necessary skills for multiple careers in the industry, including acting, directing and cinematography, Valenti said.
"[Students] will come out of here knowing how to make a movie," he added.
For their capstone project, students would create their own short films as a director, editor, screenwriter or cinematographer, Essig said in an e-mail.
Valenti added this project distinguishes ASU from film schools elsewhere, where students often aren't required to make movies.
ASU will also invest heavily in high-end digital equipment, similar to what Hollywood uses, Valenti said.
Valenti said ASU's film curriculum will differ through its focus on "concepts of ethical decision making." Students will be taught how to conscientiously portray sex, drugs and violence, especially so these issues don't negatively influence young people.
But the school doesn't want to restrict creativity, he said.
"We're not looking for nice films, feel-good material," he added.
Jared Mercier, president of the ASU Filmmaker's Association, said once the club learned the University planned on implementing a film degree, club members rallied behind it. They wrote letters to ASU administration requesting a film major and advertised student films in The State Press.
"We hoped it would show administration there are students making films on campus," he said.
The ASU Filmmaker's Association, Mercier said, has grown from seven founders in spring 2004 to a current membership of more than 300.
Mercier said he hopes the new degree will spur further student movie production on a campus where shoots occur only about once a month.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
