Profiles in Film
Description:This major explores the intersection of several disciplines: the analysis of people, the motivation behind their behavior, and creative story telling. The stories that it aims to tell are about people in their environments, and the way the stories will be told is through the use of various media.
Story telling is a natural outgrowth of an interest in people. A variety of writing courses at Gettysburg College has allowed this student to tell his own story, and those of others, using prose and poetry. As a visual learner himself, however, the student feels that digital photography and multimedia digital video can more fully capture and portray the ideas he wishes to investigate and share. He has developed a respect for the power of a camera to reach inside a person and tell his or her story. Digital multi-media video is an extremely powerful medium through which others can get a snapshot of the lives of those outside their sphere of experience, and can help give a voice to those who might not otherwise have one.
By designing this individual major, the student aimed to pursue the sociological study of interpersonal relationships, which develop in a given environmental context, using multi-media.
An appropriate capstone could be a portfolio of three or more character portraits. Each portrait would be a short documentary film, running approximately ten minutes. These portraits would introduce a character and "tell their story" to the audience. In developing these portraits, this major will have provided the theoretical, sociological background to understand how to reach each portrait subject, as well as how to reach the intended audience to get them to connect with the message. The lens of sociology would be in place through the interview process and postproduction of each film.
Related Courses:| SOC 237 Power, Politics, & New Media | |
| ENG 205 Intro to Creative Writing | |
| SOC 204 Sociology of Mass Media and Pop Culture | |
| FILM 220 Video Production | |
| VAS 265 Intro to Photography | |
| FILM 272 Intro to Documentary Film Studies | |
| SOC 302 Research Methods | |
| ANTH 215 Ethnographic Film | |
| SOC 205 Sociology of Religion | |
| SOC 306 Intro to Sociological Theory | |
| ISP SIT Field Project | |
| IDS 464 Individualized Study |