Administered by Marshall’s School of Art & Design (SOAD), the program will be the first of its kind in the state of West Virginia and will include a diverse range of hands-on courses in cinematography, photography, animation, video art, motion design, screenwriting, acting, audio engineering, and post-production.
“As the first Bachelor of Fine Arts in Filmmaking in the state, the program is happening at an exciting time as the West Virginia Film Office, under the direction of Dave Lavender, is working to get more productions to film here in the state,” said Tijah Bumgarner, an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts and Media. “Thanks to the the film production tax credit program, projects produced in the state must hire a certain percentage of West Virginia filmmakers.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts steady growth in the film industry for the next decade.
“When you watch the credits of a film, you see just how many people are needed to make a film and you realize there are many career options,” Bumgarner said.
The curriculum will be led by art faculty members Tijah Bumgarner, Tacie Jones and Danny Kaufmann, complemented by SOAD faculty, as well as faculty in the schools of Music, Theatre and Dance, and Journalism and Mass Communications, and the Department of English.
The program will be available in Fall 2024 and complemented by the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications’ Media Studies/Production major, emphasis in Television and Video Production.
For more information about Marshall’s College of Arts and Media, visit www.marshall.edu/CAM.