What Office Hours are like
Welcome fellow Jumbo! You are probably wondering what it feels like to go for office hours in Tufts. After all, office hours didn’t really exist…
One of my favourite parts of being a college student is that you toe the line between two different roles at the same time. In multiple ways you’re still a student, learning and taking in every experience you possibly can. But, in many others, you are also a working professional, in whatever field you choose. My chosen field is Film & Media Studies.
Being a part of the Film department on Tufts means a lot of different things - for one you’re a part of a tight knit community of professional and aspiring filmmakers, published film and media theorists and analysts, and some of the most accomplished people that I have ever had the opportunity to interact with - I kid you not, the other day I sat down with a friend and pondered over whether I will ever be half as successful as these folks when I am their ages… of course, I am as old as my peers, and well… that ship sailed, so let’s move swiftly onward.
However, this post is specifically to talk about a class that has been so instrumental in shaping my semester - Film & Media Production II - the follow up class to Film & Media Production I, the class has us making our own short film, in pairs, of ~15 to 20 minutes (I’ll get back to you about how that’s going when I have to cut down my footage from 45 minutes to 20). The class is taught by the ExCollege director Howard Woolf, Professor of the Practice Don Schechter, the FMS tech assistant Natalie Minik, and we’ve had a ton of guest speakers from the field. They’ve had us create our own fundraising campaign, hold auditions (I’m still super proud that we had over 35 people in total, for three roles), find locations (we chanced upon an airbnb) and really work like independent filmmakers in the field. This class has been as real world as it gets. I’ve joked around with multiple people that taking this class is like having a part time job.
It’s time consuming and it’s hard work. I’ve spent my last two weekends with my arms above my head holding a boom pole getting sound for our film. If I’m not doing other homework, I’m coordinating something or the other for this class, and now that we’re wrapping up filming, I’m probably going to disappear off the face of the Earth editing around 6-7 hours of footage (and that’s the hopeful estimate). And I love it. I love every minute of it, because I’ve had the chance to explore almost every aspect of being a filmmaker. I’ve had the chance to listen to, and learn from experts, and then use their tips in my own film.
Despite how much work this class has been, I would highly recommend anyone with an interest take the previous class Film & Media Production I, and then this!
Welcome fellow Jumbo! You are probably wondering what it feels like to go for office hours in Tufts. After all, office hours didn’t really exist…
Creating a schedule for the first time can be a daunting task, especially for a first year engineering student. There are so many aspects to consider…
Choosing courses is tricky, and trying to get all of the classes you want, while balancing your schedule and making sure that no classes overlap…