Master's Portfolio Capstone
COMM 702
Prof. John Douglass
email: jdougla@american.edu
MGC 322
Office Hours: Office Hours: Mon. & Thurs. 9:30-11:30, and Wed by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is open to all graduate candidates in the Film &
Media Arts Division. Monthly Schedule of classes will be posted on Blackboard.
Communication
I will communicate with this class via email and will send all communication to your personal
email address if I know it or your AU email address. Make sure you have properly forwarded
your AU email is if you use another email service, and check it regularly.
Class Objectives:
The purpose of this class time is to support you and help you organize your semester to
accomplish your Master Capstone Project. The objectives for this class are to:
• Support you as you develop and produce your Masters Capstone Project project
• Provide feedback and critical review of your work at the pitch, proposal, and rough
cut/draft stage by faculty as well as your colleagues in this class
• Expose you to a range of professionals presenting master classes in areas relevant to your
current production work as well as your future as you transition into the professional
arena.
Class Meetings:
The faculty have designed this class provide you with opportunities to review your project and
workshop it as appropriate to give you regular peer feedback. Faculty comment and review
outside this class will be a component of the process as well. It is critical that you participate and
commit to the process. This presentation and feedback loop is valuable at all stages of
production.
The class will also present a series of Master Classes by faculty and professionals on a variety of
subjects exposing you to material that does not normally fit into the regular curriculum. Some
topics we have had in the past include:
• Hybrid models of financing,
• Taking a film from pitch to post (what the pitch was, what rushes looked like, decisions
that the filmmaker had to make to shape the project, etc.),
• Documentary editing workshop that looked at early and late versions of scenes, and
talked about narrative compression and the prices you pay for speeding up (often
necessarily) your story.
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Video for Change: Developing your strategy: making socially themed films entertaining.
How to take a good idea for a television documentary (intended for PBS) and make it a
reality, soup to nuts.
International production partnerships/producing overseas
Making the most out of film marts and festivals
Distribution models
Editing decisions: an advanced workshop
Legal issues facing the independent producer: permissions, insurance, clearances and
working with the film office:
Screening of Student Academy Awards and CILECT student award nominees.
I will provide you a monthly schedule of class meetings on blackboard and send regular
announcements of Master Classes to all graduate students. Since it is impossible to schedule all
the Master Classes prior to the first meeting of this class, the schedules are somewhat tentative
but I will post them throughout the semester as they firm up. Please pay attention to your emails
from me regarding schedule changes and the additions of opportunities we are able to bring to
you. All graduate students are welcome to join the class for Master Classes.
Faculty will also come to class to discuss various stages of production and answer questions and
concerns that you may have with your project as you go from preproduction to post. I arrange
these sessions over the course of the two semesters during which you will be enrolled to help you
with your projects. They may include pitching, casting, developing strip boards and storyboards
(production and visualization techniques), field sound recording, cinematography and lighting,
production design, music, sound design, editing and finishing, outreach and engagement.
Reaction papers.
These should be one-page comments (single space is fine) on Master Classes held during the
seminar. For each paper, offer at least one insight you garnered. This is not an essay but your
observations tied to the specific presentation. What have you learned because of the class? How
did it help you deal with the challenges you face in your capstone project preparation, or as you
launch your professional career? If the Master Class failed to provide any new information of
enlightenment, you should note that as well and what you feel might be more relevant in a future
workshop. These papers should be submitted with your capstone project to me at the end of your
final semester.
Grading
You will receive an In Progress (IP) grade until all work has been completed and delivered to me
or as otherwise specified. The grades for this class represent the stages of your progress toward
completion of a quality capstone project.
25% of your grade is the grade you receive for your proposal
15% of your grade will be based on your reaction papers for the Master Classes
60% of your grade will be the grade received on the final project.
Your grade for this class must be a B or better for you to graduate. I will be an adviser for each
of you in this class, monitoring your progress and submitting the final grade. In many cases,
candidates will select another professor as a lead professor whose field of expertise is relevant to
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the project and who will lead you through your project. In grading your work, I will be taking
into account the comments of your lead professor and other faculty members’ evaluations to
arrive at your final grade.
Enrolling in the Master’s Portfolio Capstone Class
Most students in the M.A. in Film and Video program are required to do a creative, Master
Capstone Project by enrolling in a total of three hours of portfolio credit, while students in the
MFA in Film and Electronic Media program are required to enroll in a total of six hours of
portfolio credit. You may enroll in the capstone class for 1-6 credits. MA candidates will need
to take a total of 3 credits of capstone and MFA candidates 6. You will see six sections of
COMM 702 with variable credit for which a 50.00 per credit lab fee is assessed and six sections
of COMM 702 for which there is no lab fee assessed. The lab fee covers your use of university
facilities and equipment and if you are planning on producing a project using university gear,
you should enroll in the sections bearing a lab fee from the beginning, not just during the
semester(s) in which you are in production. If you are doing screenplays, or have access to other
equipment and facilities so that you will not require the use those of the university, you should
enroll in the sections of this course that do not have a lab fee attached.
If you have registered for all of your capstone credit hours and yet have not completed the
project you may maintain full time status and carry an In Progress grade for one final semester
by registering for SOCG-777. There is no tuition charged for SOCG-777 and during the
semester in which you are registered for this, you will be considered a full time student (except
for graduate financial awards). This is a one-time option. If you fail to complete at the end of
that semester, you will have to pay the one-credit tuition fee to maintain matriculation each
semester (except summer) until the project has been accepted. From the time you first register
until you graduate, you must maintain continuous matriculation.
Generally, we recommend MA students should take one credit in the first semester. The
following semester the student would then enroll in the portfolio class for the remaining two
credits. MFA students should take two credits in the first semester of the portfolio class and take
the remaining four credits the following semester or over two semesters depending on the nature
of the project. Students planning on completing in a given spring semester who have not
completed their project by the spring deadline do not need to enroll for additional credits during
the summer so long as they submit their work before the end of the first week in August.
In some special cases, a student in the MA program may satisfy the University’s thesis
requirement by taking academic courses and not do a project. For instance, an internship where
the student produces a portfolio might be an alternative to a capstone project, or there may be
appropriate courses outside the Film & Media Arts division such as in the business school,
perhaps something to support the area of marketing or distribution, or perhaps a class in CAS
that might be appropriate for a candidate interested in Wildlife or environmental filmmaking or a
class in SIS for a candidate involved with international communication or production outside the
US. However, taking the class alone is not sufficient and you must supplement the class with
additional work that could include a reflection essay, academic paper, or research report. You
should develop the additional work requirement in consultation with the division director and
usually a faculty adviser. (If this option is appropriate for your situation, you should have
discussed this option by now with me and not have registered for this course. If you have
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already registered, you should drop the course IMMEDIATELY.
Introduction to the MA and MFA Capstone Project:
To complete the MA in Film and Video and the MFA in Film and Electronic Media, most
students produce an original creative work or portfolio of work in the areas of film or video
producing or directing, scriptwriting, digital imaging, multimedia, or motion graphics/animation.
Other students may focus their work in demonstrating their artistic talents that contribute to
productions such as cinematography, or editing.
The capstone project that you create in the Master’s Portfolio Seminar should clearly reflect the
growth of your artistic, scholarly, and professional abilities during your time with us, and you
should consider it your capstone project. Before starting your production, you should have taken
the advanced coursework offered in the particular area in which you plan to produce your
capstone project. You will propose to the faculty an original creative project and once approved,
will then produce this work in careful consultation with your capstone project adviser and
myself. It should be of such depth and quality as to present your talent and abilities in the best
possible way. We want it to reflect your artistic vision and voice, as well as meeting
professional standards.
The work will be not only the culmination of your tenure with us in SOC, but it will also be your
calling-card, one that will open doors for a successful career in the film and media arts
professions, in academia, or in the field of your choice. It should be one of the most challenging
and creative projects you have undertaken.
Academically, the university considers your project an “in-lieu-of-thesis” option and satisfies the
University’s thesis requirement for the M.A. and M.F.A. degrees. (In-lieu-of-thesis or nonthesis
project are terms relating to University requirements; we will call it a capstone project from now
on.)
We expect MA students involved in production work to develop and execute their work over two
semesters, and certainly, within one full academic year, including summer as noted above. MFA
students usually complete in one year as well, but occasionally take three semesters to achieve
completion of their project. The university requires continuous matriculation from when you
enter to when you graduate. If you have registered for all three or six hours of capstone project
credit needed to satisfy your degree requirement, but have not finished your project by the end of
the term, (or summer session) you may have one additional semester in which the university will
certify you as full a full time student for loan or health care (not financial aid) purposes. This
final semester is without a tuition charge and you will need to see the Academic Adviser in the
Graduate Office to register for this special semester. You should be aware you can only do this
one time for one semester. If you haven’t completed after that, you will have to pay a
maintaining matriculation fee that is equivalent to one graduate credit hour in the next regular
academic term. (You will not have to maintain matriculation over the summer; unless you have
run out of the access you need to SOC equipment and facilities--more on this later). You should
discuss with me, or the Academic Adviser the best strategy to meet your schedule for completion
and financial needs.
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The capstone project resulting in portfolio quality work is a sizable undertaking. The actual
length of the final product varies, but the quantity, as well as the quality of work involved clearly
must be significant and equal in effort to the course credit for which you have registered: three
for MA and six for MFA.
The length of the project should be appropriate to the genre, the topic, storytelling choices, and
its proposed distribution and impact. Obviously, there is a trade-off in length for efforts that
improve quality or complexity of the project. Sometimes several short pieces may be
appropriate for the intended end-use(s). Quality, clear authorial decision-making,
articulation of intent, and production values are of paramount importance. Your primary
project adviser will discuss and determine the appropriate nature and length of the project during
the initial development of the proposal for the project.
Students generally work in groups to create documentary, fiction, instructional and information
films and occasionally on multimedia or web-based projects. In the past, we have had
partnerships where two students will both wish have a single project meet their capstone project
requirement. We expect partnerships to undertake more complicated or longer projects. When
working in a partnership, each person must be able to make clear his or her role as a key
contributor to the capstone project. There should be clear and compelling evidence or his or her
authorial control as proposed by the partnership during the proposal stage. Partners will need to
draft a memorandum of agreement stating the role of each partner, ownership of the project and
final credits. You should submit this memorandum with the proposal to your primary project
adviser and me. (The primary capstone project adviser for each member of the partnership is
generally the same faculty member.)
Often, outside organizations have sponsored projects and have paid part or all the expenses
associated with the productions. You may choose to produce work for a client or sponsor so
long as authorship of the piece is clearly yours. We encourage this, and many students have
supported their capstone project work this way in the past. However, it is critically important
that you be able to convince us that you are the primary author of the project. Discuss the
relationship you expect to have with your client/sponsor with your primary adviser and me and
make sure you explain the relationship in your proposal. Sometimes satisfying a client makes for
a difficult situation for the capstone project student. Occasionally this has led to the student
creating his or her own “director’s cut” of the project, rather than the deliverable to the client.
Some students write screenplays for their capstone projects. Depending on your career goal, you
might wish to do a screenplay and a production, a production and a web-based project, or some
other combination.
Here is a summary of general guidelines, based upon prior student work, to give you some idea
of the scope of a project you may want to undertake:
Documentary. Typically, this would be about half an hour for the M.A. and up to an hour or
you might want to consider two shorter projects for the MFA, but length is not an essential
guideline. Complexity of the project and appropriate end-use may suggest a different length; the
project is normally suitable for television or cable programming.
Fiction. You could produce this on 16mm film, on Beta-SP or three-chip mini-DV; depending
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on the complexity of the piece, it could normally run between 8 to 12 minutes for the MA, and
15 to 30 minutes or longer for the MFA. You might want to consider two shorter projects, but
length is not an essential guideline. MFA students, working in partnerships, have produced
feature length (90 minutes) films. Some have produced a series of short films. The ideal
approach is to consider this the capstone piece for your portfolio and prepare a project suitable
for festivals, cable networks, mobile distribution, and/or Internet film channels.
Script. You may write a feature length script that must include at least one rewrite, and final
polish, two shorter television scripts, or scripts for a webisode. The number of scripts often is
not indicative of the effort, care, and talent needed to produce them. Of far greater importance is
the challenge posed to the writer by the project, the degree of originality demonstrated, the depth
of the work, the effort put in to re-writes and the skill with which you execute it.
Digital Image. Your work should be achievable on a CD-ROM, or be about 650 megabytes.
Multimedia. You might do a Website involving multiple pages of text and graphics,
photography and film.
Animation.
In film or video, this could be between 3 and 10 minutes.
A portfolio of work in one of the craft areas, such as: cinematography, editing, sound
production, emerging media, or game production, etc. A portfolio of this nature is
usually more appropriate for MA candidates seeking a pre-professional degree.
The candidate should create a reel (1) demonstrating techniques appropriate to the
candidate’s professional goals. Working with the advice of faculty, the candidate
may also arrange for a public exhibition of their work or be asked to submit a
paper relating their work to the field.
The Process
There are a number of important steps required to successfully prepare, produce, and present a
Capstone Project. We encourage candidates to take the following steps prior to enrolling in the
Master Capstone class.
1. Decide on the nature of the project. Is it going to be a fiction film, a documentary, a
multimedia or web-based project, a script, or a combination of several elements? If you are
considering a specialty area other than directing or writing, such as cinematography, editing, or
sound, then you must be able to support your authorial control within that field.
2. What is the underlying idea, subject matter or property for the project? A one to two-page
(1) Candidates
who specialize and complete reels, must also complete a website to graduate. If
the candidate hasn’t had experience with web development he or she can
use http://www.wix.com/ or wordpress.com
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treatment or outline is helpful. Backup ideas are also very helpful.
3. I will serve as your capstone project adviser. In many cases, candidates will also have
another member of the division faculty who I refer to in this document as your primary adviser.
Your primary faculty adviser must be a full-time faculty member, Artist or Adjunct in Residence
in the Film & Media Arts division. Normally, your primary faculty adviser is someone you
know from a previous course with whom you think you can work with and who will be the most
helpful to you based on the nature of the project. (All faculty members are available to you and
you should feel free to seek out members of the faculty who can assist you in specific areas in
which you have questions or are experiencing difficulty.) Your primary adviser should meet
with you on a regular basis to review your progress, review rough cuts, and final projects, before
rough-cut review or final review by all faculty members.
Once you and I and your primary faculty adviser agree you have a viable idea for your
capstone project, you should register for this class.
4. Develop your pitch. (You may pitch your project at one of the scheduled pitching sessions
before enrolling in the Capstone Project Class.) Working with your primary faculty adviser,
develop a 5-7-page outline or preliminary treatment for the project. It should give your primary
faculty adviser a clear sense of what the project is and how you plan to structure it, explaining
who the key participants are, and their role in the story. It should indicate what resources and
experts you will be drawing upon, if appropriate, and what research have you undertaken into the
topic. You should also discuss your plan for outreach and engagement; what is the market for
your production, and who is your intended audience. It should define your treatment of the
subject, the way you plan to tell your story. It should reveal the significance, and context of your
work to the profession/art. You should have the key target dates of your production timeline and
some indication of your real budget and how you plan to meet it. You should also include an
artist’s statement of intent, why you are compelled to make this film. In addition your statement
should include a brief explanatory statement that expresses your goals for the project as they
relate the theory of film or other visual media (including photography, video, motion graphics,
and emerging media), and the historical, genre, or other field of study that helps contextualize the
capstone project
Once your primary faculty adviser has approved the preliminary project treatment, you will
present the project in an oral pitch to me in the Capstone Project class and the other F&MA
faculty for additional advice and guidance. You should also develop a one-pager to hand out
with your pitch. I schedule pitch sessions near the beginning of the semester and again we can
schedule a few pitches during the rough-cut screening session prior to the end of the semester.
However, we encourage you to pitch early to allow you the balance of the semester to develop
your proposal. When you pitch, you will have 3-5 minutes to present your idea to the class and
faculty and another 5 minutes or so to receive comments and feedback. This is not an
automatic “green light” session. In some cases, the division faculty has recommended the
project not go forward without serious revision.
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5. Once the faculty approves the pitch, develop a proposal for the capstone project. The
proposal should be prepared during the first semester in which you enroll in the Capstone Class.
Throughout the semester, the you should works with the capstone Class and meet with your
adviser(s) on an on-going basis to discuss the capstone project and develop a proposal. One
week prior to the end of the semester or before that if complete, you should submit the proposal
to me, and your adviser to be circulated to the senior Film & Media Arts division faculty. This
will contain a project description, complete budget, detailed timeline, your qualifications for
producing the project, and script/expanded treatment for the capstone project. There are specific
guidelines for proposal for narrative and documentary projects on Blackboard. Please be guided
by them.
6. Submit the proposal for the project to your primary faculty adviser and me. This should be
done electronically with the words “CAPSTONE PROJECT PROPOSAL” in the subject line.
Once your primary adviser approves the proposal, he or she should submit it to me but I
encourage you to make sure you have sent me a copy. I will submit it to the Faculty Review
Committee, a committee of senior faculty for review and approval. They will review it and give
feedback, if appropriate to me, which I will pass along to you and your adviser. If the senior
faculty have points that need clarification or revising before they approve it this may necessitate
some re-writing that could cause some lapse of time between when you submit the proposal and
when it is approved, so it is prudent not to schedule production starting dates too close to the date
your submit the proposal.
7. Once the faculty approves your proposal, I will notify you and your faculty adviser, and take
the administrative steps necessary to provide you with access to the necessary equipment and
facilities, as described in the production plan in the proposal.
NOTE THAT STUDENTS DOING PRODUCTIONS WILL NOT RECEIVE SECURITY
ACCESS TO FIELD EQUIPMENT AND EDITING FACILITIES UNTIL THE
FACULTY COMMITTEE HAS APPROVED A PROPOSAL AND A COPY OF THE
PROPOSAL, APPROVED BY THE FACULTY ADVISER, IS GIVEN TO THE
SEMINAR PROFESSOR.
8. The proposal and the analysis and review process you undertake in producing it constitute
your Comprehensive Examination for the division. Upon approval of the proposal, I will have
the University Registrar notified of your successful completion of your Comprehensive
Examination.
9. Produce the Capstone Project. During this period, you should maintain regular contact with
your primary faculty adviser as well as me for regular progress reports and critique. Remember
to up-date your schedule with your primary faculty adviser as appropriate and with me.
Establishing a timeline for regular meetings is highly recommended to ensure your adviser will
be available and progress on the project will be maintained. In the past, we have found that some
students fail to utilize the knowledge and expertise of the faculty adviser to the detriment of their
final project.
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10. Present rough-cuts of the project to your primary faculty adviser, myself, and other faculty
members as appropriate for comments and suggestions as scheduled in your proposal. When
submitting rough cuts and on through picture lock submit the project with burn-in timecode on
the visual and in the script (a third column for two-column doc scripts and in dialogue and/or
narrative description in standard scripts.) This will help the faculty give you better and more
specific feedback.
11. Present your final rough-cut screening during this seminar for faculty and other graduate
candidates. There will be some opportunities through out the semester, and a scheduled
screening is usually held a week to 10 days before the final deadline for Capstone Project
submission and you should considerer this screening mandatory.
12. Revise and prepare a final version of the project. The final project should credit The
American University School of Communication Film & Media Arts Division and include the
name of your faculty primary and other faculty members who helped you in the process.
Generally, you would state it:
Produced in partial fulfillment of Master of Fine Arts degree, (or Master of Arts degree)
The American University School of Communication, Film & Media Arts Division
(date)
13. Present the final version of the project to your primary faculty adviser, myself, and
appropriate members of the faculty. Following their approval, you should plan to screen the
project before the F&MA division faculty and other graduate students at a special screening
arranged for that purpose at the end of the semester. The faculty will provide critique and
sometimes suggestions for ultimate end use of the project. The primary faculty adviser will, on
behalf of the committee and division faculty, and often in coordination with them recommend a
grade for the project to me. I will submit the final grade to the Registrar. I will have to submit
the grade for the project no later than the last day of the final exam period.
Deliverables:
Proposal (see hand-out):
Final Project (Media Projects):
Submit to me:
• Two Copies of project, one in QuickTime at highest resolution for the project on a DVD
and also playable DVD (or Blu-ray) for all HD projects.
• Transcript for Closed Captioning (may be a word file)
• Release form for AU Library
Submit to your faculty adviser as required (discuss this with the faculty member):
• Copy of project
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Final Budget with actuals
Student bio
Student CV/Resume
URL for student’s project or general work
Logline
One-pager PR (quick synopsis of the film, also a short bio perhaps of the
director/filmmaker. Include the URL for the film or Facebook, etc. sites, a trailer for sure,
and best post-grad email or contact.)
Five production/publicity stills with captions (electronic versions)
Trailer or clip from the film
Releases
Visual arts cue sheet (if appropriate)
Music cue sheet (if appropriate)
Note: you must receive a “B” or better for the project for it to satisfy degree requirements
Although you hold title to the final project, by enrolling in this course, you grant the University
permission to have your work, which you create in conjunction with this course, copied and
distributed (in print, electronic, and/or any digital medium) and to incorporate your work, in
whole or in part, into derivative works for educational, research, archival, promotional, and other
purposes consistent with the mission of American University.
You should submit two copies of the completed work on DVD or the appropriate format for the
project to me. The University Library will maintain these as a record of your achievement. One
copy may be an authored DVD (standard or BLU-RAY). We can use this one to show at the
faculty screening. The second should be a high quality QuickTime movie stored as a file on a
DVD. This file should be a direct export from your editing application (Final Cut Pro, Avid
Media Composer, Premiere, and whatever). It should be exported using the best quality possible
and still keep the file size small enough to store on a DVD. We suggest using the H.264 codec
for video (29.97 fps, sized at 720x480). The aspect ratio of HD material will be different
depending on the specific format, (1920x1080, for example) but it should be full screen.
Likewise, you should also export the audio at the highest quality settings (16-bit stereo, 48
kHz/sec, encoded with AAC or Apple Lossless). These high-quality QuickTime movies will
allow us not only to preserve the quality of your work, but it will allow us to migrate the file to
another format down the road and/or derive any lesser-quality version (for web streaming) as
required. The film in an HD format that is in an "HVDVD_TS" folder is unusable by the
library. This format does not play in DVD players, only on Mac computers. The Library is
unable to convert it to a playable format.
If you have questions, please contact our Technical Services or the Visual Media Collections
Coordinator, American University Library,
If you are not finished with your project by the end of this semester or any semester in which you
registered for the Seminar, but are making satisfactory progress towards its completion, I will
submit a grade of “IP” (In-Progress) to the Office of the Registrar. I will change this grade to a
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standard A-F letter grade when your work is completed and evaluated. If you have not
completed your work at the end of the two semesters (and a summer), and have completed all
other course-work, you will have to maintain matriculation. Please see me, or the Graduate
Advising Office for details.
Facility and Equipment Access and Account System
When you enroll in this course and we have approved your proposal for your project, we allocate
to you a specific amount of access to SOC equipment and facilities, based on the number of
hours for which you have registered and paid the appropriate lab fee.
We use this system for two reasons:
1. The School of Communication and the Film & Media Arts Division provides MA and MFA
students with the best equipment possible for capstone projects. In this effort, the School tries to
assure that each student working on a project has equal access to professional quality equipment
in good working order. 2
2. The Capstone Project is the last step that graduate students take before graduating and making
their way in the professional world. In that world, everyone lives under the restrictions of
schedules and budgets. The theoretical aspects of this are examined the Producing Film and
Video course. To provide a practical application of this process, the Equipment and Facilities
Account system puts students on a budget for the use of the production equipment and facilities.
In addition, this system reminds students of the dollar value of the equipment and facilities they
are using.
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Each credit hour in this course, for example, provides you with editing time on the Final
Cut Pro or Avid Composer editing systems at the modest rate of $150/hr.
M.A. students doing a Capstone Project and registered for three credit hours has access to
a high-end field equipment package for a total of 8 days. At a minimum of $1000/day,
this is an $8,000 value.
M.F.A. students doing a six credit-hour capstone project has 16 days of field equipment
access, $16,000 worth of field equipment rental3.
As you use the equipment and facilities, you draw down the number of hours of access allocated
to you. If you run out of hours before you finish your project, you will have to register for more
credit hours. Students partnering on projects may pool their hours of access. Obviously,
planning and budgeting your use of equipment and facilities, so that you can use the hours
2 Although we make every attempt to provide equipment in good working order, as with any equipment supply facility, the responsibility for
making sure the equipment is functional when checking it out is yours and we expect you to return all equipment in functioning order or report
problems immediately to the staff of the Equipment Room.
3 We will try to accommodate you in the event of extenuating circumstances beyond your control. However if your
production plans necessitate exceeding the allocated amount of time, with my permission you may pay for additional days
at the rate of $20.00 per day or $150.00 for an additional 8 days including weekends.
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allotted to you effectively and not run out, is very important. Of course, access requires that
you adhere to the rules and regulations associated with equipment and facility usage. In
addition, you only are authorized access to the equipment and facilities that you have already
learned to operate in prior courses and practicae. For example, you can use the Avids only after
taking an Avid Practicum course or its equivalent in another course. If you have learned the
Avid in a professional setting or at another school, we will ask you to demonstrate your expertise
to a faculty member or to the MPC lab manager. Occasionally, situations arise where candidates
need to extend their use of the equipment. Often this is when there is a particularly complex
project or when shooting overseas. In these cases, you should make a request for additional
usage to your primary adviser and the Division Director who will review your request. If
approved, you may be asked to pay additional lab fees to cover the additional usage and
depending on project equipment usage during that period, you may be asked to use one of the
cameras we have I greater supply at that time. You should be aware of this since it could affect
the overall look of the project and plan accordingly. Naturally, when taking cameras overseas as
when using them in the U.S., you are totally responsible for the gear. We recommend you have
it covered by your insurance. If you have questions about this, contact the equipment room staff
or your primary adviser for suggestions.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FOR DISRUPTION OF CLASSES
In the event of an emergency, American University will implement a plan for meeting the needs
of all members of the university community. Should the university be required to close for a
period of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our educational programs will be
delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the duration of the
traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or use of
distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on
the format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate classspecific information to students via AU e-mail and Blackboard, while students must inform their
faculty immediately of any absence. Students are responsible for checking their AU e-mail
regularly and keeping themselves informed of emergencies. In the event of an emergency,
students should refer to the AU Student Portal, the AU Web site (www. prepared. american.edu)
and the AU information line at (202) 885-1100 for general university-wide information, as well
as contact their faculty and/or respective dean’s office for course and school/ college-specific
information.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and University policies
If you believe you have a learning disability of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder please
contact the Academic Support Center at asc@american.edu or call 202.885.3360. Students that
have a physical, medical, or psychological disability should contact Disability Support Services
for further information at dss@american.edu or call 202.885.3315. The offices are located on
the second floor of the Mary Graydon Center. These offices are the campus offices responsible
for reviewing documentation provided by students with disabilities and for determining
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reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
and university policies.
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Capstone Project Information Sheet
(Email to jdougla@american.edu)
Name: ________________________________________________________________
Email address: ______________________ telephone No.: _____________________
Degree: __________ Anticipated Date of Graduation: ________________________
Capstone Project Title: ____________________________________________________
Format/Genre: ___________________________
Role in Project: ___________________________________________________
Faculty Adviser: ____________________________________
Brief Project Description:
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Library Submission:
In submitting your final project, if it is a film or video, we needs two copies to be
submitted to the library for archive purposes
Check List:
• Is your project in DVD cases?
• Are the individual cases labeled with your name and title?
• Are the labels on the DVDs and the cases? The library would prefer to have labels on
both if possible.
• Have you filled in consent form below?
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American University
School of Communication
Master’s Capstone Project Submission Form
By submitting your capstone project to American University Library, you grant the University permission
to have your work, which you created in conjunction with completing your Masters degree, copied and
distributed (in print, electronic, and/or any digital medium) and to incorporate your work, in whole or in
part, into derivative works for educational, research, archival, promotional, and other purposes consistent
with the mission of American University.
Name: __________________________________________________________________
Project Title: ____________________________________________________________
Format and Length: _______________________________________________________
Faculty adviser(s): ________________________________________________________
Summary:
Major key words ______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Other key words:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Technical Key Words, e.g. style of documentary, underwater photography, special visual or sound effects:
_______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Key Production Personnel: _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Signature: __________________________________________Date: ________________