What classes?

College Majors
1

<p>If I’m interested in documentary filmmaking (as well as regular filmmaking), what kind of classes should I take? Journalism/communications? I also have a love of science and nature, and would love to work on nature films. Would a major in film/journalism/communications (whatever) and a minor in biology sound right?</p>

<p>Five years from now I could be doing something totally different, but I’m just curious–this is what I’m interested in right now. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

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3

<p>A combination of both would be ideal, but a science major would be more helpful in the long run, in my opinion. Filmmaking skills can be picked up later, but a solid background in biology is less easy to come by. You might want to consider Duke, which has strong programs in Biology and Film/Video/Digital Studies (as well as the Center for Documentary Studies). USC and NYU would be excellent choices as well.</p>

<p>This might be of interest, if you are intent on doing nature films.
<a href=“http://naturefilm.montana.edu/index.php[/url]”>http://naturefilm.montana.edu/index.php&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://naturefilm.montana.edu/applicant_info_pages/applicant_requirements.php[/url]”>http://naturefilm.montana.edu/applicant_info_pages/applicant_requirements.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Explore the offerings of each film department carefully, as they may house different things. I think most have a good deal of film studies, or the studying of films and film theory, little writing, and some production, but some have basically only one of these, and others have different combinations. Because production seems to be your main goal (and I think it’s more rare than film studies), you should make sure the schools that you are considering has some production resources available (although it needn’t be many formal classes . . . some great directors go about the path of working on their own while majoring in someone unrelated to film . . . your choice :)).</p>