Courses

student produced

Director & Editor - Jacob Samuels
Producer - Dan Fite Jr.
AD - Mary Ganser
DP - Luke Sacksteder, Caroline Pabst, Jacob Samuels, & Dan Fite Jr.
Sound - Davie Marchant

Bachelor of Arts in Motion Pictures

The BA is a classic college degree, with a major, minor and General Education (GenEd / Bell Core) courses.  When you get into the work world, it will come up in meetings why Anna Karenina jumped in front of the train and whether a story about Harriet Tubman or "The Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny" might make awesome films. A filmmaker needs tons of knowledge in many areas.

In the Motion Pictures major, all BA students take required classes, including the key production courses:  Cinematic Storytelling, Production I and Senior Capstone Production. Along with required classes, you choose electives. You also have a minor, which is six courses in an arena that interests you.

There are three approaches to a minor. You can pursue something much like Motion Pictures, such as Creative Writing in the English department or Photography in the Art department. The second option would be a minor that relates (loosely) to Motion Pictures, like Psychology or Business, six courses that would be used in a filmmaking career but could be helpful if you head in another direction. The third option for a minor is a completely different choice, like Dance or Chemistry... a subject you're dying to learn about that's not remotely similar to your major... something to just clear your head. 

Your gut will tell you which kind of minor is right.

So, in the BA you have required courses, electives, a minor and GenEd classes like Math, Science, French, History and Sociology, etc. You can also take general free electives, which are not part of your major, minor  or GenEd. A BA gives you a well-rounded education, which our faculty believes is hugely important.

If you want to come out of Belmont knowing a lot about a lot of things via a wide-ranging education (useful in film and television!), then a lot of General Education classes is a very, very good idea.

However, if filmmaking is all you want to do, the BFA is the road to go down, as it's "all in" filmmaking.  

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Motion Pictures

Like the BA, in the Motion Pictures BFA you take required classes and electives, but, in the BFA you also have an emphasis:   four courses in your area of interest, like Producing, Post Production, Directing, Film Studies, Cinematography, etc..

The BFA has a very cool requirement, The Crafts, a series of three (1) credit hour courses, spread over your whole time at Belmont -- subjects important to filmmakers, but not in-depth enough to require an entire semester to teach... like Camera Operating, Electrics, Color Correction, Script Supervision, Motion Capture, Pitching, etc.. 

There are GenEd courses in the BFA, but fewer, and there's no minor. There’s also no foreign language requirement. 

A BFA student takes the same required classes as a BA student, plus three: Production II, Motion Picture and Television Industry Practices and History of Television & Digital Media.

BA students are welcome to take Production II, but it's required for BFAs.

For their Senior Capstone project, allstudents, BA and BFA, will have the option to make a movie or write a screenplay. If, for instance, you’re a BFA with a Screenwriting emphasis, and you don’t want to direct, for your Capstone project, you'll write a television pilot or feature script.