By CONOR SHEA
Features Editor
Like many other schools, The College of Saint Rose has a number of majors that dabble in, and briefly touch on, aspects of film. For instance the communications major has an entire concentration devoted to film and new media.
Under this cap students will find themselves taking courses like Film History and Film Arts, as well as practical application courses like New Media and Basic Production.
The English department offers similar classes like Film Theory and Practice, and other courses that include video media projects as part of the curriculum.
Despite this small palate of film related courses to choose from, Saint Rose does not yet have a unifying film major, and that wasn’t cutting it for Victoria Creary.
Creary, a sophomore Communications major at The College of Saint Rose, earlier this semester made the decision to start a film club on campus to remedy this situation.
“I really wanted to start the club because I think film could really bring a lot of people with different interests together,” said Creary on her motivation to bring more film appreciation and practice to Saint Rose.
“(T)he club is very new and our main purpose is to just have fun and learn about filmmaking together,” she continued.
Saint Rose policy dictates that any student can join a club, regardless of their major, but academic clubs tend to unintentionally self-segregate themselves to members from a related field of study.
This is a trend that Creary knows all too well: “Most clubs on campus might only appeal to those who are a certain major. With the film club I’m hoping to bring together the English majors, Music majors, Art majors, Communications majors…etc. I just thought it would be nice to have a club that everyone could be involved with.”
Ironically the advantage for Creary here lies in the lack of a film major at Saint Rose, allowing for a film club to be ubiquitously interesting and open to all students.
So much goes into the process of making a movie, and that there is easily room for students of all fields and majors.
Creary explained “We’re really trying to get people who are interested in the many aspects involved with filmmaking. So basically people interested in music composition, makeup artistry, screenwriting, directing, producing, acting, and cinematography.”
Unlike many collegiate clubs, the meetings will not be relegated just to discussing the theory and general relevant topics.
Creary says that the club “(W)ill be project based, meaning that we’ll split into groups and work with that group on a certain film project.”
These assignments also mean that the group will not necessarily hold regular weekly meetings like other clubs, instead convening when appropriate for the current group projects.
For students chomping at the bit to start attending meetings unfortunately for now they will have to wait, as Creary says the club’s meetings won’t officially begin until the spring semester.
Any students interested in learning more about Saint Rose’s new Film Club should contact President Victoria Creary at crearyv976@strose.edu.
