Bachelor of Cinema at San Francisco State University

The School of Cinema is committed to a program of cinema studies and production as a common enterprise. For this reason, the 200-level core courses and the 300-level foundation courses are necessary prerequisites to advanced work in the major. Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) courses in cinema are an exception; if the necessary prerequisites have been completed, GWAR courses may be taken concurrently with core or foundation courses, provided the student is an upper-division Cinema major. The School of Cinema enforces the completion of the core courses before enrollment in all other courses. Additional required courses may be taken once 200-level core courses are completed, provided the student is an upper-division cinema major.

Students should be aware that filmmaking is time-consuming and expensive. Although course requirements seldom demand it, students often spend considerable sums of money on their film projects. Production courses require hands-on practice and experience; this necessarily limits the number of students enrolled in such courses.

The B.A. in Cinema strives to enable students to: 

1. Acquire basic skills in the critical analysis of films, focused by the analysis of representative film texts from a range of periods and cultures.
2. Relate cinema to the production, distribution, and exhibition industries, the other arts, and to society.
3. Identify contemporary technological, artistic, and industrial trends in the cinematic arts.
4. Acquire the basic technical skills necessary for cinematic expression (animation, filmmaking, and screenwriting).
5. Locate personal voice in the creation of the cinematic arts.
6. Produce competent and sustained research papers evidencing knowledge of major topics, theories, and methods.