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MONTHLY NEWSLETTERAUGUST 2023
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Welcome Back!Welcome back to school and to Film at Mason's ever-evolving community. As we make our way through this year’s changes and new opportunities, we appreciate everyone’s commitment – to making art, helping everyone feel safe and welcome, and supporting each other in our many experiences.
We’re offering a mix of courses, new and established, fundamental and exploratory. We welcome our new faculty member, Justin Reifert, who is teaching FAVS 400: Career Development. And we also want to re-welcome – officially – our Academic Advisor and Recruitment Coordinator, Maddie Portnoy. No doubt, you’ve already met her since she started partway through last semester.
We look forward to seeing everyone soon.
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Check Out New Spaces and Participate in Film at Mason’s Scavenger Hunt
We invite all new and returning students to College Hall to check out newly designed student spaces. Our post-production suites, previously located in the deLaski Performing Arts Building, have moved to College Hall C100, the former Film Office. The new Film Office is right down the hall in C113, along with all full-time faculty members’ offices.
We hope you enjoy some improvements to the post-production suite:
- Separate sound and color suites;
- Archival and editing suite where you can bring in old VHS and other media to digitize and use for your projects;
- Lounge space for students to gather and watch movies and projects;
- Small open lab space with 5 iMacs.
We’re also furnishing a Film at Mason Capstone/APEX classroom in C119. Future 497, 498, and 499 classes will be scheduled in this room. As well, students will be able to reserve this space for production meetings.
To help you get situated in these new student spaces, we are holding a Film at Mason Scavenger Hunt on Friday, August 25th. Visit the Film at Mason office for a printed checklist. You can also get copies from your instructors or print one out from the emails that have been sent out.
Stop by on Friday, August 25th as early as 9am to get a space checked off. The first 5 to complete the hunt will get a prize basket. Everyone else will receive a small prize. Turn in your completed checklists to the Film at Mason Office on Friday by 4pm.
Tip: You can start checking off some of the items now! For example "Take a selfie with a Film at Mason Professor" can be done in class!
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Ice Cream Social and Production Fair
Film at Mason’s Welcome Back Ice Cream Social and Production Fair is scheduled for Friday, September 1st at 2:00pm in Dewberry Hall. Join us for some free ice cream from Scoops2U and sign up to work on student films this semester. Following the event, we will have our Best of Film at Mason Showcase screening in the Johnson Center Cinema from 4:30pm-6:30pm.
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Best of Film at Mason
Best of Film at Mason is a traveling showcase of recent notable and award-winning student films. This year’s program features work including documentaries, narrative shorts, and senior thesis films. The screenings are followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
This year, the showcase has three screenings. For more information, visit film.gmu.edu.
Friday, September 1
4:30pm-6:30pm
Johnson Center Cinema (George Mason University, Fairfax Campus)
Register on Mason 360
Wednesday, October 4 - NEW DATE
6:00pm-8:00pm
Mason Exhibitions Arlington (3601 Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22201)
Saturday, October 14
11:00am-1:00pm
Washington West Film Festival (ShowPlace ICON Theatre at 1667 Silver Hill Dr., McLean, VA 22102)
Congratulations to our eight films selected:
Countdown (dir. Jaiden Williams)
Radio Silence (dir. Sujay Khona)
Jazz (dir. Andrew Opitz)
Whirled of an Artist (dir. Bodhi Bryan-Roig)
We're Only Strangers (dir. Jennifer Vu)
Pequeno Gigante (Little Giant) (dir. Mauricio Alarcon)
Sonda (dir. James Bah)
Surrender (dir. Tiffany Vu)
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Fall 2023 Spotlighted Courses Seats Still Available! LAST DAY TO ADD IS AUGUST 28
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FAVS 399 Podcasting: Audio Storytelling with Professor Amanda Kraus
Are you looking for a fun class to take in the Fall? Consider FAVS 399: Podcasting: Audio Storytelling with Professor Amanda Kraus. Students will learn how to develop and produce a podcast step by step. From writing and casting to recording and editing, you will be responsible for the concept and completion of two episodes. This course is scheduled on Mondays, 10:30am-1:10pm, in the Art and Design Building AB 1005. To register, enter CRN 83572.
*Open to all majors
*FAVS Authoring elective
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FAVS 366 Video Production for Social Change with Professor Rebekah Wingert-Jabi
This course reflects a professional production environment where student teams, under the instructor’s supervision, produce effective pieces for local community based non-profit organizations. Students will work with a real-world client and develop storytelling skills that advance the client’s mission. Students will develop a creative concept and strategy, a budget, and a statement of work and contract. Small teams will then produce their client projects, with a focus on connecting with an audience. This course is scheduled on Mondays, 10:30am-1:10pm in the Art and Design Building AB 1007. To register, enter CRN 78532.
*Open to all majors
*Authoring elective
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FAVS 225 Introduction to World Cinema (Multiple Sections and Instructors)
This course explores examples of many kinds of films from around the world, including documentary, fiction, and experimental. Students will learn to analyze film language and structures, with attention to cinema's many contexts, including economic institutions, historical events, political and social issues that shape and are shaped by movies. Multiple sections of this course are offered. View the times and dates on Patriot Web. Search for CRNs 77425, 82786, or 79954.
*Open to all majors
*Mason Core Arts
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FAVS 260 Video Editing for Film with Professor Rebekah Wingert-Jabi
This course will instruct on the theories and technical expertise pertaining to video editing by utilizing various video editing software. The course will combine lectures, discussions, and demonstrations with hands-on projects. This course is scheduled on Thursdays, 10:30am-1:10pm in Innovation Hall 233. Search for CRN 82871.
*Open to all majors
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Calling All Young Alumni!
Applications for the Young Alumni Commissioning Project are due Friday, September 8, 2023 at 11:59pm EST and should be completed via the Google Form application. A PDF copy is available at the application link, as well. Vic Adebusola, CVPA Programming and Engagement Manager (vadebuso@gmu.edu), is also happy to answer any questions you might have.
For more information on the program and application process, please visit this website.
Several FAVS alumni have received grants in the past, so be sure to apply!
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Alum and Faculty Accomplishment
Erblin Nushi’s (‘18) debut feature film I Love You More premiered at Vancouver Queer Film Festival in Canada on August 12. Shot in Kosovo, with Professor Lisa Thrasher as the Creative Producer, I Love You More follows Ben, a Kosovar teen who is forced to put his family and dreams on the line for a boy he never met. The film will make its theatrical premiere in Kosovo on August 24, to qualify for Kosovo's submission to the 2024 Academy Award's Oscar for Best International Picture.
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Faculty Achievement
Professor Nikyatu Jusu was featured on President Washington’s latest episode of the Access to Excellence Podcast. She talks about her feature film Nanny, the horror genre, AI, among other things.
Nanny is being released by The Criterion Collection on October 31, 2023.
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Professor Amanda Kraus led a Filmmaking Workshop this month for Mason’s Quill Camp. Quill Camp is an extended orientation experience for incoming students that jumpstarts their college experience. During the Quill Camp, students explore various art forms through hands-on activities. In the Filmmaking Workshop, students work in small groups to make a short film on their phones.
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Professor Kraus also participated in the Mason Community Arts Academy Summer Camps, as did Professor Lucy Gebre-Egziabher, and Professor Lisa Thrasher, along with TAs Leonard Collins and Riley Alter. During the camps, middle school and high school students work in teams to write screenplays and create short films.
In addition, Professor Thrasher just received tenure. Congratulations to our newest Associate Professor!
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Professor Tommy Britt recently graduated with a PhD degree from the School of Art & Media at the University of Brighton in Brighton, England.
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Professor Samirah Alkassim’s chapter, "Found Footage as Counter-ethnography in Scenes from the Occupation of Gaza and the Films of Basma Alsharif" is published in the anthology, Gaza on Screen, edited by Nadia Yaqub (Duke University Press).
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Film Opportunities and Resources
Festival Submissions:
Job Opportunity:
- The CVPA Arts Support Umbrella — in partnership with the School of Music and CVPA Digital Programming team — is seeking (2) videographers to primarily cover degree recitals for the 2023 - 2024 school year.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Set up and run livestreams for Dewberry School of Music recitals;
Edit the Recitals in post as necessary;
Support the School of Music content archive in uploading Recitals;
Record other School of Music events as identified.
SKILLS: Experience with videography, Adobe Premiere / DaVinci Resolve, livestreaming via Vmix and is preferred but not required. Training will be provided.
HOURS: Vary per week, but will average approximately 90 hours in Fall Semester, 150 hours in Spring Semester (roughly 0-12 hrs/week, increasing over the course of the semester). Schedule will include evening and weekend work.
PAY: $15-$25/hr, commensurate with experience.
If interested, please email cvpadgtl@gmu.edu with your resume or any questions.
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Did you miss our last newsletter?
Check out the archives here.
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We want to hear from you! If you have news you would like to contribute, please send it to film@gmu.edu. We are looking for regional film events and updates from Film at Mason alumni. Keep up-to-date on all the current Film at Mason news at film.gmu.edu.
Film and Video Studies
College of Visual and Performing Arts
4400 University Dr. MSN 5D8
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-3287 | film@gmu.edu
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