By The Department of Cinematic Arts, formerly Film and Electronic Arts Department, has updated its name and changed its curriculum to enhance the storytelling and production foundation of students before they graduate.
There have also been upgrades and additions to the department’s current facility.
Building renovations and upgrades included movement of an equipment room and additional stages and classrooms.
Adam Moore, the department chair, said the changes to the curriculum are centered around the first two years of students’ scholastic work. The change is focused on giving students a better start for the last two years of their academic journey, he said.
The equipment room was moved to the first floor and Moore said students should have an easier time getting equipment for their student work now. An old TV studio has also been transformed into a 1200 square-foot sound stage.
The audio facilities in the department have been upgraded with a new foley stage, Moore said. These stages are used to create sound effects for productions. The department has additionally gained two new classrooms and a computer lab.
The change in department name also means a change in the degree.
According to Moore, all degrees earned by students going forward will be now be in the Cinematic Arts. He said it was time for an update since the curriculum had not been majorly changed in 15 years.
However, the process of putting together all this new curriculum started about three years ago in 2021, Moore said.
“It really started from the question of, ‘what do our students need to know in order to thrive in their final two years of the program’ and that’s where it all started,” he said.
These changes had to comply with the California State University Office of the Chancellor’s executive order 1071.
A memorandum on EO 1071 details that a program’s degrees “need to reflect more than 50 percent of the required major core. Subprograms (options, concentrations, special emphases, and similar) need to represent less than 50 percent of the major requirements.”
One new course being added is Cinematic Arts 210: Sight, Sound and Story. The course uses short exercises to help students learn how to use the camera to tell stories.
Moore said another new course offered is Cinematic Arts 220 The Visual Story. This course focuses on lighting and composition, and gives students knowledge on how to tell stories with moving pictures.
Pedro Castro, scholarship and curriculum analyst at the College of the Arts (COTA), said getting curriculum approved is a time commitment since the new department name and degree modifications are notable transformations.
The changes to the curriculum were soft launched last year to give students the chance to take the new, beneficial courses.
However, Moore said it hasn’t been easy for every student in the program to adjust, especially students beginning their third year who have had a challenging time.
He said this cohort of students came into the program in their first year under the older curriculum. In their second year they were given the new course work, but some of the courses offered were meant for first-year students.
Moore said he will continue to connect with this cohort of students to see what is working and what is not.
“I’ve had conversations with that cohort, and again these are the ones who are entering their third year, and just explained to them that their final two years in the department are going to be amazing because they are actually going to go through the entire new curriculum in the upper division classes,” Moore said.
Castro said the changes to the department and degree go into effect in the fall of 2024, but it all started at the department level. Castro said advisors and faculty in the cinematic arts department had to take into consideration multiple factors, including graduation timeframes.
The approval process then went through the COTA dean’s office, Academic Senate, the curriculum office at the university level and even to the Chancellor’s office.
Castro said once there was movement and approvals of the change in department name and curriculum, the hard work didn’t end there. The department faculty had to then go back and create standard course outlines (SCO) for the new course work on the curriculum.
“This was the hardest, most tedious process in this whole wave of changes,” Castro said.
This was due to faculty having to create SCOs for new courses being added and courses that underwent major changes as well.
Moore said changes and updates to what is being taught is an ongoing thing in the department and that improvement is key. He said it will take a couple of years before they can measure how the new curriculum is affecting student success.
“I think what we need to see is how the class of 2027 and the class of 2028 do in comparison to the students who are graduating in ‘25 and ‘26,” Moore said.
