LSU offers two programs for students interested in pursuing film: the screen arts program housed in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the film and television program housed in the College of Music and Dramatic Arts.
According to screenwriting professor Jason Buch, the screen arts program provides a broader view of film, providing students with three tracks to focus on depending on what their aspirations in the film industry are. He said that of the three tracks—production, screenwriting and film theory—production is the most popular.
Regardless of the track chosen, Buch said students still take classes related to the other tracks. He said that even if a student is only interested in becoming a screenwriter, for instance, it’s still important to understand production.
“Our goal is that the students get a broad view of what encompasses screen arts and film,” Buch said. “We certainly do everything we can to create production opportunities for students.”
As a result of screen arts’ multidisciplinary focus, Buch said that most students in the program will have the opportunity to make several short films.
There’s no one central film school at LSU, so classes are spread out around campus, Buch said. He said this is because many different disciplines can relate to a film education, such as digital art, theatre and mass communications.
Buch said there’s advantages and disadvantages to film studies not having its own dedicated department, rather split across two programs and several departments.
According to Buch, one of the advantages is that screen arts has the opportunity to pull from a wide variety of faculty from various different disciplines to support the program, instead of just being confined to one department.
Kalling Heck, a screen arts professor primarily teaching in the film theory track, said that the screen arts program tries to tie together both production and film theory.
He said students interested in going into academia as film professors and researchers benefit from the production side of the program, as well as students who are only interested in production benefiting from an understanding of film theory.
“I think thinking about and understanding movies in historical, theoretical, and conceptual terms is extremely important for thinking about what it is you want to make,” Heck said.
While the screen arts program offers production alongside the other tracks, screen arts senior Ben Caplan said there’s very little focus on production in the program. He said that there’s not a whole lot of opportunities to collaborate with other students to make films.
Caplan said that film not having its own department is a big drawback for the program. He said it makes the program unfocused.
“I think everyone just has a different idea of what they want and they need someone to really guide it to this real, focused film school,” said Caplan.
Heck said in his experience, a major drawback to film not having its own department is that faculty from other departments who want to teach in the screen arts program can’t because of commitments to their own department, whereas if film had its own department the faculty would be completely committed to film.
Although, he said that this disadvantage is outweighed by being able to pull a variety of faculty from all over campus.
Connor McLaughlin, an LSU alumnus who graduated with a screen arts degree, said that, with some distance, he sees the screen arts program excelling at giving students a general understanding of film as a whole.
“It gives you a lot of great tools to excel at the pre-production level of working in the film industry,” said McLaughlin, who is currently studying film at the University of New Orleans’ graduate school.
McLaughlin said screen arts excels when focusing on screenwriting and theory, adding that they offer a wide array of interesting classes related to film theory. He said that the faculty in the program are excellent and very passionate about film making.
Although he appreciated his time with the program, McLaughlin said there weren’t as many opportunities to make films he felt he could submit to a job. He said that one reason for this was that COVID-19 limited opportunities for students to learn production.
Screen arts junior Rajan Awasthi said screen arts has a lot of analytical classes related to film, such as film theory and film history. He said the amount of production opportunities students have depends on the classes they take.
“I feel like it would be more fun and helpful if every class had at least one project,” Awasthi said. “That would help reinforce the things that you learn.”
Virtual production professor James Jamerson said the College of Music and Dramatic Arts’ film and television program places more of an emphasis on production, adding that it teaches students how to produce, act in and distribute films.
Still, Jamerson said that the two programs do a lot of collaborating, specifically in the XR studio, a virtual production stage funded through a $1.25 million grant to LSU.
“I think what’s coming down the road is more collaboration, more interweaving of these departments in really positive ways to create new, better things,” Jamerson said.
Jamerson said students that study in the film and television program will have the opportunity to make dozens of short films. He also said they also get to participate in a Geaux Film, where students apply to make a collaborative film. He said the student whose pitch gets chosen gets to direct the film, adding that the other students still participate in the production of the film.
“Having a funded film, that is your film, isn’t found anywhere else, so I think that it’s something that really makes LSU’s film program stand out,” Jamerson said.
Jamerson also said students are able to check out film equipment from the department at no cost, provided that they know how to use the equipment.
Despite the program’s focus on production, Jamerson said that the curriculum doesn’t provide students with many classes on screenwriting or film theory, unlike the screen arts program that has tracks specifically for these fields.
Film and television junior Mateo Fernandez said the film and television degree is still relatively new. Before the degree students would major in theatre with a concentration in film.
Hoping to focus more on the other tracks offered by screen arts, Fernandez said he would ideally like to see both film programs merge together.
“There’s a lot of classes in screen arts that we don’t usually see in our [Bachelor of Fine Arts] so merging those two would be like the ultimate goal,” Fernandez said.
One thing missing from both programs is a focus on how to break into the film industry, Awasthi said. Teachers may give advice on how to break in, but beyond that he said there isn’t a lot of focus on it, adding that he would like to see more classes about the film industry from the business side of things.
Despite this, Awasthi said that because his program is smaller, many of his classes feel more tight knit, adding that screen arts majors tend to share similar interests.
“There’s a sense of community that comes in any class, any screen arts class, eventually, I think sooner rather than later you become good friends with everybody,” Awasthi said.