In 2017, when I was but a young highschool graduate getting ready to sign up for my first semester of classes, I had everything planned out. I was going to major in writing and minor in film to begin my pursuit of a career behind the camera.
Now, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) was essentially the only college I could feasibly go to, so I didn’t really look at classes offered. So imagine my disappointment when I went to declare a minor and discovered CMU, in fact, didn’t have a film centric minor.
Now I’m in my last semester, too late for me to realistically hang around for an extra minor, and CMU just announced a dedicated film minor.
Of course, CMU does not have a shortage of film related classes. The Mass Communication catalogue offers several video production courses, the English catalogue has a screenwriting and a film studies class, the Art department has a film and animation major, and several of the Theater courses could be applied to a career in film.
With all this, the question must be asked, why did it take so long to get a film minor? Admittedly, screenwriting is a fairly new course and Film Studies was a J-Term course for a while, but even removing those two there was still plenty to make a minor.
I guess my ultimate fear is that this is alluding to a lack of cross department communication within CMU. I’ve heard murmurings from students that there tends to be a bit of interdepartmental rivalry, which I simply feel like, if true, should be set aside for the goals of the student body.
All of this being said, while the minor does look a little slapdash it still looks like a fairly fun minor. I’ve taken Documentary and News Production, Film Studies, and Screenwriting, and they are easily some of the most enjoyable classes I’ve taken during my four years at CMU, and honestly if I knew most of these classes existed back then I would have taken them just for fun.
Ultimately, I’m glad the departments were finally able to get together and make a film minor. I may sound bitter, but I’m excited for future Mavs to be able to take a cross department film minor instead of having to risk it all on a major. Still, a part of me is sad that I won’t be around to experience.
To all future Mavs, all I can say is go for it. You have a chance many of us older Mavs missed out on. So support the new minor and have fun. Take advantage of resources like the Cage and free access to Adobe Premiere on most of the computers, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and put what you learn to the test. Plus, there’s always CMU TV.
