TFM PRODUCTION EMPHASIS APPLICATION
D. W.Griffith
dwg@gmail.com
Name: _________________________________________ E-mail:
14560 Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills CA 90210
Address:______________________________________________________________________________
213 555 1212
000 847 0000
Phone: ________________________________ RED ID #______________________________________
Is this your 1st or 2nd time petitioning (check one)? 1st
TFM Courses Taken:
2nd
TFM160, TFM100, TFM559, TFM350
Total College Credits (Min. 15):
147
3.0001
Cumulative GPA (Min. 3.0): ________________
In order to apply for the TFM Production Emphasis you must meet the following minimum requirements.
-Complete TFM 160 and THEA 100 with a grade of B or higher.
-Complete a minimum of 15 transferable semester units.
-Have a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or higher.
Students who meet these requirements will submit a Request to Apply Form (available on the TFM webpage) to
Angie Parkhurst, who will send the student an invitation to the Blackboard site www.coursesites.com where your
application area will show up in the Groups tab on the left side of the page.
The following material must be submitted.
- A personal statement. Included in this application
- A creative story treatment for a 1-3 min production (fiction or nonfiction). Included in this application
- Samples of visual creative work. Linked in this application, uploaded to Blackboard, or submitted separately.
- Transcripts (may be unofficial) from all colleges attended. Uploaded to Blackboard.
- Two letters of recommendation (must be signed and dated). Emailed directly to tfmproduction@mail.sdsu.edu
Submitting Your Petition Portfolio
Digital submission is preferred. If you wish you can hand deliver or mail a hard copy of your petition or
selected elements, such as a usb drive, printed artwork, or letters of recommendation. Be sure to note on the
Blackboard site any materials you will be submitting directly to the TTF office.
Hand deliver or mail any hard copy elements to the School of Theatre, Television, and Film.
Send to:
TFM Petitioning Committee
School of Theatre, Television, and Film
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-7601
Hand deliver to:
Theatre, Television and Film Office: DA 201
Deadlines:
Spring Entrance: Second Monday in October, 3:30 PM
Fall Entrance: Second Monday in April, 3:30 PM
TFM PRODUCTION EMPHASIS APPLICATION
Late or incomplete portfolios will not be reviewed nor will they count as a petitioning attempt
Personal Statement: Your statement should be typed and approximately two pages in length.
Include your career goals, interests, talents, achievements, and any work experience in the field of
TV, film, or new media. Write about what makes you stand out, what your passion is, what you
hope to accomplish. Give it a personal voice. Write well, persuasively, and personally.
I was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former
Confederate Army colonel and Civil War hero. I grew up with his father's
romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that
were to eventually mold his black-and-white view of human existence and
history. In 1897 I set out to pursue a career both acting and writing for the
theater, but for the most part was unsuccessful. Reluctantly, I agreed to act
in the new motion picture medium for Edwin S. Porter at the Edison
Company. I was eventually offered a job at the financially struggling
American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., where I directed over four hundred
and fifty short films, experimenting with the story-telling techniques I would
later perfect in my epic The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Along with my personal cinematographer G.W. Bitzer collaborated to
create and perfect such cinematic devices as the flash-back, the iris shot,
the mask and cross-cutting. In the years following "Birth", I never again
saw the same monumental success as my signature film and, in 1931, my
increasing failures forced my retirement. Though hailed for my vision in
narrative film-making, I was similarly criticized for my blatant racism. I died
in Los Angeles in 1948, one of the most dichotomous figures in film history.
Much more information about me can be learned from can be found on my
Bio.com page
Synopsis
Born on January 22, 1875, in Floydsfork, Kentucky, D.W. Griffith worked as
an actor and playwright before turning to cinema, creating highly innovative
filmmaking techniques. He directed the 1915 feature-length work Birth of a
Nation, which was a blockbuster but was also highly racist in content. Later
work included Intolerance, Broken Blossoms and Orphans of the Storm.
Griffith died on July 23, 1948.
Background
David Wark Griffith was born in Floydsfork, Kentucky, on January 22, 1875.
He grew up on a farm, the son of an ex-Confederate colonel who died
when Griffith was 10. An avid reader, the young Griffith eventually worked
TFM PRODUCTION EMPHASIS APPLICATION
Treatment: Submit a treatment for a 1-3 min production (fiction or nonfiction). We are looking for
visual storytelling, a script for a visual sequence.
Birth of a Nation.
Part 1: Civil War of United States[edit]
The film follows two juxtaposed families: the Northern Stonemans—
abolitionist Congressman Austin Stoneman, based on the
Reconstruction-era Congressman Thaddeus Stevens,[14][15] his two sons
and his daughter Elsie—and the Southern Camerons, a family including
two daughters, Margaret and Flora, and three sons, most notably Ben.
The Stoneman brothers visit the Camerons at their South Carolina estate,
representing the Old South. Phil, the elder Stoneman son, falls in love with
Margaret Cameron, while young Ben Cameron idolizes a picture of Elsie
Stoneman. When the Civil War begins, these young men enlist in their
respective armies.
A black militia acting under a white leader ransacks the Cameron house;
the Cameron women are rescued by Confederate soldiers who rout the
militia. Meanwhile, the younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers
are killed in the war. Ben Cameron is wounded after a heroic charge at the
Siege of Petersburg; as a result, he earns the nickname "the Little Colonel."
He is taken to a Northern hospital in Washington, D.C., where he at last
meets the Elsie Stoneman of the picture he has been carrying; she is
working there as a nurse. While recovering, Cameron is told that he will be
hanged for being a Confederate guerrilla. Elsie takes Cameron's mother,
who had traveled to Washington to tend her son, to see Abraham Lincoln,
and the mother persuades the president to issue a pardon to Ben
Cameron.
When Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater, his conciliatory postwar
policy expires with him. In the wake of the president's death, and with a
power vacuum having opened up, Austin Stoneman and his fellow radical
congressmen are determined to carry out their desire to punish the South,
employing harsh measures that Griffith depicts as having been typical of
the Reconstruction era.[16]
Part 2: Reconstruction[edit]
Battle scene from The Birth of a Nation
Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a mulatto exhibiting psychopathic
TFM PRODUCTION EMPHASIS APPLICATION
Visual Creative Materials: Submit evidence of your visual creative work Examples may include film
clips, scripts, computer animation clips, photographs, design renderings, etc., for which you have had
primary responsibility. Please clearly indicate your role on each production. Video samples may be
linked in the box below. (Vimeo and YouTube are both good choices.) be sure to provide passwords if
needed. Documents and pdfs. may be uploaded to File Exchange area of the Blackboard site. The
creative materials can also be sent directly to the school on a USB flash drive. These may be sent to
Angie Parkhurst, School of Theatre, Television and Film, San Diego State University 5500 Campanile
Drive San Diego, CA 92182-7601 DA 201 Phone: (619) 594-5091 aparkhur@mail.sdsu.edu. Make sure
they are clearly labeled, and name the drive after yourself.
#1 - Title of Work/Script/Film
Abraham Lincoln.
Your Role (ex. Director, Writer, etc.)
Link and Password
Director, Writer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kmVgQHIEY
#2 - Title of Work/Script/Film
Isn't Life Wonderful
Your Role (ex. Director, Writer, etc.) :
Link and Password
Director.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kmVgQHIEY
Letters of Recommendation: A minimum of two letters of recommendation are required, additional
letters are welcome. Letters should come from teachers, counselors, work supervisors, and personal or
professional associates who can assess your abilities and potential to work in this field. Letters of
recommendation become property of the School of Theatre, Television and Film office and cannot be
released. Letters must be on letterhead stationary and include the name, address, and phone number of
your recommender. They must be signed and dated. Letters may be addressed “To the TFM Screening
Committee,” or “To Whom It May Concern.” Letters should be sent directly to the school at:
tfmproduction@mail.sdsu.edu . They can be sent as an email or an attachment, all letters must be signed and
dated.
Recommendation #1
jford@mail.sdsu.edu
John Ford
Name: ____________________________________________E-mail: _________________________________
Recommendation #2:)
kvidor@mail.sdsu.edu
King Vidor
Name: ____________________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________
Transcripts: Unofficial copies of all college transcripts, including your most recently completed semester are
required. Highlight all TFM and Theatre classes. High school transcripts are required of all students with
freshman standing. The SDSU Admissions Office will not release transcripts from other schools. Notify each
school or college you have attended to send you unofficial transcripts. Transcripts should be uploaded to the File
Exchange area of the Blackboard site.