ASSESSMENT REPORT
July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Program Assessed: Department of Theatre Arts, Motion Pictures BA, BFA Degrees
Submitted by Motion Pictures Coordinator: J. Russell Johnson
1. Assessment Measures Employed
What was done?
a) Senior exit interviews
b) Department alumni surveys
c) Regular Faculty E-mail contacts with alumni
d) Evaluations of students at the end of the first and second years
e) Evaluations of the junior and senior projects
f) Critical presentation of film and digital video projects to the community at large at the
“Big Lens Festival” and at “Documentary Night.”
g) Tracking of student and alumni successes in film festivals and the professional
filmmaking industry.
Who participated in the process?
All motion pictures faculty and staff participated in various of these activities.
Specifically, a) and b) were done by the Chair; c), d), e), f), and g) were done by all
faculty and staff, with Julia Reichert particularly taking primary responsibility for c); and
g) was carried out by Julia Reichert and J. Russell Johnson.
What challenges were encountered?
Eastman Kodak announced this year they would discontinue another of their black and
white reversal 16mm film stocks, leaving only one. This is a compelling impetuous for
the Motion Pictures BFA program to hasten its change over to digital technology,
particularly in the freshman and sophomore years. The BFA program continues to
operate without a regular budget for equipment purchases and maintenance and we
continue to fall behind on current practices and technology. The condition of the
production equipment, computers, software, and facilities that students use deteriorates
because we don’t have funds to perform simple maintenance and upgrades. The size of
the tiny classroom where instruction in production technique takes place continues to be
an issue, as it has been for the past 20 years.
2. Assessment Findings
Virtually all of our students go on to great opportunities and jobs in the motion pictures
industry; and a significant number of our current or recently graduated students received
film festival showings and/or prizes in major international festivals. Our alumni in the
New York City and Los Angeles markets had a number of success stories. Here are a
select few: one worked as a key production assistant on both Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street:
Money Never Sleeps” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” one was just hired as an
assistant editor at Turquoise Films, another graduated from Columbia University’s MFA
program in screenwriting and directing. In Los Angeles our graduates worked on the set
of James Cameron’s “Avatar,” as well as a new Cameron project, two are directors of
photography on network television shows, and another a camera operator on an HBO
series. Others are working in various capacities such as camera operators, editors, film
distributors, producers’ assistants, location supervisors, and as writers of television
shows. Many chose to live and work in Ohio or elsewhere in the Midwest as free-lance
lighting technicians, multimedia producers, corporate communications producers, and
some in local television.
3. Program Improvements
Discussions regarding various incarnations of a “studio” space for the Motion Pictures
program were productive in so far as they galvanized what would be actually appropriate
and beneficial for our students.
President Hopkins attended this year’s Big Lens Festival and we are told that Stuart
McDowell was able to work with the President and his office to earmark funds to
upgrade and replace some of the program’s equipment. Assuming these funds
materialize, this will help alleviate a situation that is becoming critical. Dr. Nicole
Richter is reviving the long dormant student film journal, “Filament” and some
equipment and software will be purchased in support of that initiative.
Increased cooperation between alumni and current students has allowed for increased
alumni integration in the current program and additional student opportunities. Alumnus
Adam White, a director of photography who works throughout the Midwest, returned to
serve as the cinematographer for the annual 3-day “Cinematography Weekend” and
Nichol Simmons returned to conduct a similar all-day workshop in directing for the BFA
junior class.
We continue to address inadequacies in the Motion Pictures DVD library and specific
needs have been filled with significant films in the area of contemporary Japanese cinema
and classics in the area of American video art. Since Dr. Nicole Richter has recently
joined the faculty we are also concentrating on films that will support her courses and
research pursuits. The catalogue for the DVD library is currently being updated and we
will soon be able to distribute this electronically to our student population as an easily
searchable PDF file.
This year we converted our program design and curriculum for the transition from
quarters to semesters. This was a difficult process, but we believe it has effectively been
implemented. With all the forethought that went into the process, we anticipate that
needs for other changes will present themselves with the actual advent of semesters, and
additionally, in response to our rapidly evolving field.
4/5. Assessment Plan Compliance/ New Assessment Developments
None.