StudyQA — Bachelor: Film and Media Studies

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Film and Media Studies at Yale University is an interdisciplinary, liberal arts program that focuses on the history, theory, criticism, and artistic creation of cinema and other moving image media. Courses examine cinema's role as a unique art form that now spans three centuries as well as the contributions of moving image media as practices of enduring cultural and social significance. As an interdisciplinary program centered in the humanities, Film and Media Studies offers students latitude in defining their course of study, as they can develop concentrations ranging in focus from world cinema to screenwriting, from documentary to contemporary stardom. The program draws on courses from a number of disciplines and departments including American Studies, Anthropology, Art, Comparative Literature, EALL, English, French, German, History of Art, Italian, Slavic, Theater Studies, and WGSS.

Film and Media Studies majors not only explore the multiple dimensions of cinema and media, but also individually work out a specialization within the field. From the 14 credits required to complete the major, students compile a concentration composed of 6 credits. The concentration is essentially the courses a student, in conjunction with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, chooses as a curriculum that leads up to and includes the senior requirement. A student specializing in screenwriting, for instance, could build a concentration starting with Screenwriting, continuing with Intermediate Screenwriting, Language of Film Workshop, and a playwriting course, and culminating with Advanced Screenwriting. Since the concentration can also have an interdisciplinary dimension, students in the major are allowed to bring in two non-film courses if they are deemed necessary to complete the senior requirement. Someone doing a concentration on Russian film, for instance, could count a Russian literature or history course towards the major.

Film and Media Studies aims to develop critical and creative minds that can astutely view, analyze, and conceptually think about cinema within history and society. Majors who make films do not simply learn vocational skills, but come to understand the relation of their own work to the medium as a whole, its rich history, and the larger human legacy of arts and ideas. To foster this, the major first requires completion of three core courses covering the history of cinema, its genres and the methodologies for studying them; the close analysis of cinematic works; and theoretical approaches to film (students take one of two courses).