An Cnglish dcp~u·oncnl clmnge bc>g<m the push lorn laJ-gc-sc<~r uJ tc rdepm·mlt>r rl.al IJt~!d of study with the SCJiptwriLi.ng fnr n ; lliiCLfilm class. "The class began as a conversation between Dr. John Williams [chair of the department] and myself," Grant Dillion, instructor of the scriptwriting class, said. "We were working together on the second Five Minute Film Festival, and Williams suggested having a film class. I started researching other schools and found they all had a class in writing for film and a class in film production." In the course, students wrote scripts for a TV commercial, a TV episode and a short film. These scripts were presented to the rest of the class workshopstyle for opinions, with students playing the roles of producer and writer. "The class is set up like a production company's creative development team and heavily involves role playing," Dillion said. "They are encouraged to be difficult to help the writers learn to deal with less than ideal working environments in the entertainment industry." Senior Kevin Newton said the class had caused him to consider scriptwriting as a future career option. Working on "Fall Lit Fest Puzzlers," students guess the answers for the word search on Sept. 9 at the annual Fall Literary FestivaL The festival featured refreshments, games, music and speakers in Cone ChapeL Kristi Soto • I "I loved the class," Newton said. "It inspired me to write more and to seek out a job at an ad agency. The class has taught me a lot about channeling creative writing into different formats and styles and opened up a whole new dimension of writing I had not experienced before." The class' follow-up course, Script Production, was offered the following spring semester in the communication department, allowing students to produce several of the scripts written in Dillion's class. ''We agreed that if Harding was to have a film studies initiative, it should have an interdepartmental element to it," Dillion said. "The idea was to create a course that merged the strengths of the two departments not typically associated with each other." Williams believed the course would lead to bigger changes in the future. "I would love to see these two courses be the beginning of a film studies department," Williams said. "Scriptwriting addresses the place of storytelling in our culture as we enter an age of students choosing their own curriculum in interdepartmental courses." Sarah Eason Senior political science major Nolan Carr examines a replica of a Civil War cannon at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center on a history field trip Sept. 19. "My favorite part of the trip was getting to see the actual battlefields and hear the sounds that the soldiers would have heard," Carr said. Courtesy of Daniel Ganus Academics fTf aw:s
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