Bachelor of Arts in Film, Television and Interactive Media
No doubt you are an avid consumer of movies and television shows. As a film, television and interactive media student, you’ll also become an expert in how they’re made — and how they fit into a larger historical and cultural context.
Our program is inherently interdisciplinary, with diverse faculty from the humanities, social sciences, creative arts, and computer science bringing a wide range of perspectives to an understanding of the moving image. Through this interdepartmental, multicultural lens, you’ll learn to analyze film style and content, film history, and film production.
You’ll study cinema as both a form of storytelling and as an art, one that has its own “language” and conventions. You’ll gain exposure to the creative aspects of film production, including screenwriting, editing, interactive media, 3D animation, sound design, and digital-media capture. You’ll master the theory and the practice of film and related media — and how they relate to the culture in which they’re produced.
Why Brandeis?
Rooted in an academically rigorous liberal arts environment, our flexible program makes room for your creativity and your area of interest while ensuring your digital and cinematic literacy. You’ll get hands-on experience using the best and latest equipment, including three-chip high-definition cameras. Brandeis is also home to state-of-the-art facilities such as the Wasserman Cinematheque and Getz Multimedia Lab, which has 20 editing stations with professional-level editing software.
Academics
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In addition to Introduction to the Moving Image, required of all Film, Television and Interactive Media majors and minors, you'll choose from a dizzying array of other courses dealing with the history, theory, cultural significance and actual craft of film, TV and media. While not every elective is offered every year, you’re sure to find the right courses for you.
Here are just a few examples of the many electives we offer:
- Acting for the Camera
- Bollywood: Popular Film, Genre and Society
- Cinematography
- Classic Hollywood Cinema
- Film Noir
- Introduction to 3-D Animation
- Italian Films, Italian Histories
- Motion Picture Editing
Beyond the Classroom
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You can deeply enrich your experience of a film or television show by attending our Meet the Artist events, which bring actors and directors to Brandeis to discuss their work. Recent events in this series include a conversation with “Pose” star Dominique Jackson, a talk with the lead female actors from the series “Shtisel,” a visit from Tony Shalhoub of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and a conversation with Kerry Washington and Anita Hill.
As an Film, Television and Interactive Media major or minor, you may study abroad in any approved Brandeis program. You may also enroll in courses at FAMU, the renowned film and television school in Prague, Czech Republic.
We encourage you to pursue an internship. Our students have worked at MTV, the Mark Gordon Co., Bedford Falls Productions, Focus Features, and elsewhere.
Faculty and Student Excellence
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If you are a highly motivated Film, Television and Interactive Media major, you may elect to pursue an honors thesis, which entails a two-semester-long research or creative project under the supervision of a member of our program’s executive committee.
Graduate Study, Careers and Alumni
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With an Film, Television and Interactive Media degree from Brandeis, you’ll be well prepared to pursue graduate study in the cinematic arts as well as in any number of complementary fields, such as English and American literature, fine arts, creative writing, foreign languages and cultures, history, politics, sociology, or theater arts. Film, Television and Interactive Media graduates have gone on to graduate study in film at the University of Southern California, the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and the London Film School.
Film, Television and Interactive Media alumni have gone on to exciting positions in the entertainment industry as filmmakers, producers, digital media content producers, and even a media lab developer. Others have gone on to pursue research in law, English, and business.
Many successful Brandeis graduates are working in the entertainment industry, including:
- David Crane ’79 and Marta Kauffman ’78, co-creators, “Friends”
- Loretta Devine, MFA’76, Emmy Award-winning actor (“Dreamgirls,” “Grey’s Anatomy”)
- Tony Goldwyn ’82, film and TV actor and director (“Scandal,” “Ghost”)
- Debra Granik ’85, film director and screenwriter (“Winter's Bone,” “Down to the Bone”)
- Marshall Herskovitz ’73, director, producer and screenwriter (“The Last Samurai,” “Traffic,” “Thirtysomething”)
- Debra Messing ’90, Emmy Award-winning actor (“Will & Grace,” “Mysteries of Laura,” “Smash”)
- Anand Patwardhan ’72, documentary filmmaker
- Rosemary Rodriguez ’83, TV director (“Law & Order,” “The Good Wife”)
- Michael Sugar ’95, movie producer (“Spotlight,” “Collateral Beauty,” “The Fifth Estate”)
