The VPA senior film class and faculty are discussing a new, collaborative option for the senior project.

Up until now, film students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts must become writer-directors and manage all creative, as well as production, aspects of a film during the two semesters encompassing the senior thesis, said Eliot Grigo, a senior in the VPA film program.

Grigo and other students have been advocating for another option, where they would be able to use their respective focuses to become a “chief role” in a project, such as director of photography or producer. Students are meeting with faculty on Wednesday to discuss an agreement for the project.

“If you divide and conquer, and really specialize roles, you can make higher quality films with more focus on aesthetic, on direction, on writing, on story and do it faster,” Grigo said.

Nearly every student in the senior film class of 2017, as well as a handful in the junior class of 2018, has signed the letter to faculty outlining this new option, Grigo said. There are about 25-30 seniors in the film program this year.

The proposal came from observations from past senior projects. Not all students are prepared to be writer-directors, Grigo said. Oftentimes, these students grow less passionate about the work they produce, and consequently some projects don’t reach the festival-ready quality students and faculty strive for.

“It’s been something the faculty and the students have always kind of talked about,” Grigo said. “It’s been the white elephant in the room.”

So far, faculty have seemed excited that students are coming together with them to improve the film program, Grigo said.

Alex Mendez, an assistant professor of film, and Owen Shapiro, the film program coordinator, have both declined to comment until after meeting with students.

One concern professors have expressed, Grigo said, is that some students might slack off since they don’t have to manage their own project. However, Grigo said a student’s work ethic probably won’t change regardless of the requirements of a project. With this new option, students will hopefully be able to find more passion in working on a specific role, he said.

Grigo added that having the faculty’s 100 percent support behind their plan is the No. 1 priority for the students, and they only want to better achieve the goals of the gradebook.

“Our proposal would not completely dissolve the ways of the past. It gives you the option of doing something new, something more specialized,” Grigo said. “Students will always be able to revert back to ‘I want to be a writer-director.’”

The proposal is a delicate issue, Grigo said. He added that talks have mostly been an internal school issue. Nothing has been officially agreed on yet, but he said he hopes the dialogue students and faculty have been having inspires other students.

“If people see that, you know, VPA identified some very specific small issues that they want to tackle … any department in the school can look at this and say ‘Hey! Maybe we can also come together with the faculty and the administration and make our program better from the inside,’” Grigo said.

Published on August 30, 2016 at 10:00 pm

Contact Haley: hykim100@syr.edu