Designing YOUR Degree

Designed for flexibility, Trinity’s film studies major allows you to customize your degree to reflect your interests and meet your educational goals. What story will your degree tell?

Core Courses

The core courses lay a foundation in Production and Studies, consisting of FILM 201 Basic Filmmaking, FILM 265 Introduction to Film Studies, and FILM 470 Film Theory.

Distribution Electives

Your degree and educational experience will be shaped by the distribution electives you choose. The distribution electives are available from sixteen different departments and programs and provide a breadth of learning experiences across three categories: National Cinemas and Topics in Film History, Film Theory, and Topics in Criticism, Film Production and Related Arts. You will create a degree that reflects your interests by the classes you choose to take and the distribution areas you choose to emphasize. Example choices you may make based on your interests include:

	Directing.  Include Theater and Dance classes to better understand the acting process and communicate with the actors you direct.
	Cinematography. Add photography courses from Studio Arts to further develop your visual storytelling skills.
	Screenwriting. Include writing classes from English or Theater and Dance to sharpen your skills, as well as Film Studies classes that focus on classic genres.
	Exploring the Impact and Influence of Film and Media. Design your degree with an emphasis on National Cinemas and Film History.

Senior Capstone

There are two options for fulfilling the senior capstone requirement. First, you can choose to enroll in a 2-semester senior project, in which you will work under the guidance of an advisor to create an original work. As an alternative, you can enroll in a 1-semester senior seminar, which is a 400-level course designated yearly as the senior seminar.

Double Major

The major’s flexibility in terms of course selection and scheduling makes film studies an ideal double major. Students have paired Film Studies with a wide variety of second majors, including Psychology, Anthropology, English, Theater and Dance, and Computer Science.

I feel as though the psychology major has aided me in the Film Studies major through my knowledge about what motivates people’s actions or how to write really nuanced characters.  I have gotten great suggestions from each of my professors as to how I can use one major to influence work in the other. —Brooke A.