• Media Arts & Culture
• Student Resources
• Production Handbook
• Class-Specific Information

Class-Specific Information

Overview: This page is designed to provide guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions about media productions in ArtF 355 Advanced Projects and ArtF 490 Senior Production Comprehensives.

Mission Statement: The aim of production courses in the Media Arts and Culture program at Occidental is to combine media history, theory, and practice with perspectives on visual culture afforded by our location within an Art History and Visual Arts department. We keep our equipment, facilities, and courses current with trends in the field, but we are not a trade school, nor are we seeking to blankly emulate mainstream models of production. Occidental offers the chance to pursue Media Arts and Culture in a liberal arts environment. Approaching theory and practice simultaneously in one of the major metropolitan centers of the world, informed by study abroad opportunities and interdisciplinary learning, is a rare and unique opportunity. Your production work must therefore be characterized by resourceful and creative use of the materials at hand, rather than falling prey to the myth that producing groundbreaking media requires access to more money or more specialized equipment.

Form and Content: You may choose to work in documentary, fiction, animation, experimental modes, and Web-based forms, while seeking ways to challenge the traditional boundaries between such categories. Exhibition need not be restricted to single-channel video. You are encouraged to explore installation environments, interventions into public space, and interactive, nonlinear approaches afforded by Web-based contexts. Your media projects should seek to push narrative and aesthetic forms, engage cultural questions, explore notions of performance, and investigate exhibition strategies and questions of audience afforded by developments in new media. We are making digital videos, not films. We have an increasing fleet of HD cameras able to shoot in progressive formats, and there is no cause for camera rentals from outside the College.

Student Filming Policies: Familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations listed in the Student Production Handbook (SPH). Ignorance is not a defense. Your course professor, Diana Keeler (Manager of Digital Production; dkeeler@oxy.edu), and the Student Production Coordinator (Lee Rosch; rosch@oxy.edu) all have office hours to clarify any questions or concerns you have.

Hazardous or Restricted Shooting Conditions: It is strongly advised to avoid writing projects that involve weapons, stunts, minors, special effects, moving vehicles, multiple locations, large numbers of extras, or excessive costuming and production design. The aforementioned come with safety, logistical, and monetary restrictions outside the means and time constraints of Occidental projects and have historically distracted students from the core explorations of innovative form, content, and exhibition, with poor result.

Budget Caps: These figures set absolute ceiling caps on student project expenses to curtail rampant spending. Students should by no means feel that a production must cost anything close to these amounts. Todd Haynes’ Superstar (1987) was made with Barbie dolls and launched his international career. Many of our best projects have been made for well under these limits. Be smart! Think within the means and materials you have at your disposal from the very start in crafting and realizing your concept. Don’t write an impractical project and then purport to be the victim of your own writing or lack of forethought. Ingenuity and creative use of resources will be evaluated as a part of project grading. ASP grants ($50-$400) are available each semester through the College. Depending on your project’s central questions, Values & Vocations funding can also be applied for through the College’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (up to $2,000). All granting processes require advanced planning and consultation with your faculty member and cannot be left until the last minute.