I haven't focused my interests with any certainty yet, so a school with a good range might be the best fit for me. However, I do know that I'm not interested in focusing on a specific national cinema, or a specific era in cinema, or a specific cultural or ideological approach to cinema (feminist, Marxist, black cinema, etc.). I come from a screenwriting background, and mostly I'm interested in studying narrative, the way a script shapes the viewing experience and meaning of a film. I'm also interested in the history of cinematic technique. How have musical scores evolved, for instance, or how do filmmakers view the close-up, and what industrial factors have shaped these evolutions? If I had a better grasp of the terms used to designate various fields in cinema studies, I could articulate my interests better, but I'm a newcomer to the subject. Right now, I'm trying to decide between Emory, USC, and UCLA.