Cinema Studies

Engaged Cinema Studies

Engaged Cinema Studies takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for cinema studies majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways Cinema Studies Majors Rise

Research

  • Saving Face and Losing It: Melodrama and its Others in Twin Peaks: The Return
  • Bonnie and Clyde: Celebrity, Violence, and Boredom in New Hollywood
  • Rubber Capital, documentary
  • Last Fall, short film

Internships

  • Younger Production Office, TVLand Series, Los Angeles: assisting with TV show production
  • Technicolor, Los Angeles: working on post-production sound editing
  • Marc Platt Productions, Los Angeles: scout, pitch, develop, and produce projects
  • Story department intern, Paramount Pictures
  • Creative affairs coordinator, A&E Television
  • Advertising intern, Eleven Inc., San Francisco
  • Assistant video editor, the Greenhorns, New York City
  • Production intern, Arise Media, New York City

Study Away

  • The Prague Film School, Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Programa de Estudios Hispánicos en Córdoba (PRESHCO), Spain
  • Bologna Consortial Studies Program, Italy

Experiential Learning

  • Oberlin’s Cinema Studies Program is one of the first of its kind established at a liberal arts college and one of few programs where students don’t just study films and filmmaking, they produce them.
  • Cinema studies is a diverse and integrated program of study. Students learn by making film, and students make films to understand the process, techniques, genres, and significance of film in society. Students view and examine a range of film genres, the role of cinema in society, and its relationship to other art forms such as music, painting, literature, and dance.
  • The major offers a great angle into many fields, requiring exemplary skills in reading, writing, editing, critical thinking, and being well-versed in new media and technology.

First Destinations of Recent Cinema Studies Majors

  • Positions:
    • Production coordinator at POV films
    • Assistant editor at The Mary Sue
    • Contributing writer for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, Ohio
    • Museum curator at Isle of Shoals, N.H.
    • Set production assistant in NYC
    • TV/film literary assistant in Calif.
    • Independent filmmaker in Ohio
    • Media manager at McGaw YMCA, Ill.
    • Peace Corps in Ecuador
    • Archival researcher at PBS
    • Editor for Night Shift at Comedy Central, NYC
    • Production assistant at Delirio Films, Calif.
    • Filmmaker/producer for Oxfam Great Britain
  • Graduate Schools:
    • MA at UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
    • MA in elementary education at DePaul University
    • MFA in writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University
    • MFA in screenwriting at Chapman University
    • MA in digital musics at Dartmouth College