How should I prepare for graduate school (film studies)

[Deej]

Hi guys, I'm currently a freshmen at Penn State and I'm going to major in English and minor in film studies. I really want to obtain my masters in film studies and (hopefully) pursue my phd/mfa so I can teach. I decided to major in English because I want a flexible degree if I didn't get into any programs. I know grad school admissions work way differently than undergrad, so how do I go about it? I know gre is important. What's an ideal gre score? I'm aiming for 1300 but I think I will probably get around 1200 ish. As for "extracurriculars" I plan on writing film reviews for The Daily Collegian (my school's newspaper), get some internships, get some publishments, and probably more activities with writing. I used to write film reviews in high school and I won some awards, but is that even useful here? I don't know what else I can do. Any suggestions? I know letters of rec are important, too; one my English prof went to Yale (which has the program i'm looking for), so I'm probably going to ask him when the time comes around. I know i'm only a freshmen and it's early, but I really want to just jump right on it and prepare asap. Here are the schools that i'm interested in:

USC

Harvard

Yale

Columbia

Brown

NYU

UW-Madison

Most of these schools seem super hard so I'm going to maintain my gpa around 3.8+. Would that be a competitive gpa for grad school? What are some professional experiences I can get? Like teaching? Writing and publishing, getting awards, etc.? I guess a better way to ask this question is: How can I prepare myself to get into these specific competitive programs?

Edited July 13, 2011 by Deej

[Swagato]

If you are looking for programs in the critical study of cinema and media, you absolutely must consider the University of Chicago, University of Iowa, and Northwestern University. Iowa is where film studies exploded, and many leading scholars today trace their roots back to Iowa (Dudley Andrew of Yale, for example). You need to begin familiarising yourself with the past work done by scholars at all these places, what they are working on now, and generally get a sense of the cross-currents in conversation upon the topic. Acquire knowledge of canonical moments in the history of cinema and its study: Arnheim, Bazin, Metz, Merleau-Ponty, Sarris, Mulvey, Gunning/Gaudreault, Tsivian, Rodowick, Hansen, et. al. Know the topology of the field as much as you can. Not details, but make yourself capable of mapping out the general landscape. Details will come later. Evaluate your own interests in relation to this map of the field. Are you interested in the history of cinema and visual media? 'New media'? Projection? Sound? Modernity? So-called "High Theory?" Then observe how your places of interest narrow accordingly.

WashU offers (perhaps the only in USA) a fully funded Master's program in film studies/film and media studies. Gaylyn Studler left Michigan and Emory to go to there. Gary Wihl left Emory and Rice to go there.  Henry Schvey is also at WashU/WUSTL. Pittsburgh, I think, also has an MA program. Wisconsin had David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, but I am not sure either of them teach regularly anymore. Columbia? As far as I know they don't have a PhD program in cinema studies. You missed out Berkeley, too. USC has traditionally cared more about film technique and production rather than critical studies.

Getting a move on what I outlined here would be a good start.

[ZeeMore21]

I attended Pittsburgh, and there is the possibility of doing an M.A. Film is very strong at Pitt, so I would include this program in your list.

[dj02bothell]

Hey guys, I forgot my password so I just made a new account (oops me).

@Swagato,

Thanks for your insightful response! I'll definitely add in UChicago, Iowa, NU, WUSTL and Pitt. Wow. I never imagined that you would have to know that much in the field, but it makes sense. I mean, after all, it is film studies. I know this is kind of stupid, and I really do feel dumb for asking this, but how do you go about learning these things? lol I mean, apart from taking classes, reading, researching, writing about it, etc. Is there more to it? I definitely have some knowledge of the film world, but I would love to learn more. I'm already pretty certain what specific areas interests me; I'm mainly looking into how cinematography effects the overall film, colors, camera angles, directing of photography, sound mixing, and all the good stuff. I'm definitely more interested in the critique of the technical aspect of film, but other aspects like the storyline, dialogue, acting, interests me, as well.

@ZeeMore21,

Thanks for your suggestion! It's nice to hear that Pitt has what I'm looking for.

Thank you guys so much!

[Swagato]

I would recommend, perhaps counter-intuitively, that you begin by reading one of the most recent and forward-looking books in the area of film and visual studies: David Rodowick (Harvard)'s "The Virtual Life of Film." Follow that up by reading his paper, "An Elegy for Theory." In these two texts, Rodowick, who founded 3-4 film studies programs (Yale, Harvard, King's College London, and I think Rochester), both casts a brief eye over the history of "film studies" as it developed, and looks to the future of cinema studies as a discipline in a constant state of flux. The "cultural" turn in humanities (proliferation of race/gender/related issues) aside, perhaps the greatest concern in cinema studies has been the photographic ontology of film. Every discipline takes some object as its kernel: literary studies <-> text, art history <-> paintings/sculpture/other artworks..but what about film studies? How does cinema deal with the disappearance of film itself? Or is film not at all about film but more about the experience? In which case you open up onto a huge array of philosophical inquiries. Anyway, you can see how interesting and diverse it gets. Rodowick's two texts will give you a place to start. Get a hold of Andre Bazin's "What is Cinema" vols 1 and 2. By that time you should at least be able to navigate.