Summer Quarter 2023

This course will teach students how to write and speak effectively in business and other communication.

This course teaches students to meet and resolve objections and conflicts that result from written and oral proposals and pitches. Emphasis is on resolving customer obstacles before addressing your own. Topics covered include: Wants vs. Needs, Win-Win Strategies, Best Alternatives to Agreement, Schedule vs. Quality vs. Cost, Progress vs. Perfection. The class progresses through carefully structured, progressively more complex negotiation exercises. Students learn how external and internal negotiation has become a way of life for effective managers in a constantly changing business environment.

Students will learn how to effectively communicate visually through a brand to create several compelling and cohesive identities.

This course continues to build students' proficiency in motion picture production using real-time rendering in Unreal Engine through several group projects. Additional topics include motion capture, facial capture, and virtual camera tracking.

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Students conduct research on a primary text and write a lengthy paper, practicing revision and editing skills as they develop their original theses.  This class encourages a “close reading” of a primary text, requires students to build an annotated bibliography to evaluate secondary and tertiary source material, and introduces rhetorical concepts in the effort to help students become stronger readers and writers.

Students conduct research on a primary text and write a lengthy paper, practicing revision and editing skills as they develop their original theses.  This class encourages a “close reading” of a primary text, requires students to build an annotated bibliography to evaluate secondary and tertiary source material, and introduces rhetorical concepts in the effort to help students become stronger readers and writers.

This course introduces the basic principles of economics and their applications to managerial decision making. It begins with an analysis of the decision making of individual consumers and producers and how they interact in a variety of marketing settings. Other topics covered include: decision making in risky situations; the complexity of pricing, production, and market entry and exit; and the relationship between market structure and the strategic choices that are open to the company. The course forces the student to think systematically about achieving competitive advantage through the management of the firm's resources.

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This course is part of the Feature Film Program. Students fulfill the role of editor to create a rough cut, fine cut, and achieve picture lock on a feature length narrative film project under the guidance of a professional editor and in collaboration with the film's director. Each student is responsible for editing a specific portion of the movie and must collaborate to craft a cohesive style that fulfills the director's vision.

This class fosters the skill of creating a character with little or no preparation, as is often the case in television audition situations.

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This class revolves around creation and application of realistic and stylized textures and light schemes to produce depth and meaning in 3D computer generated scenes. Students will explore into various texturing techniques, while generating diffuse, specular, bump, and normal maps. This class will introduce students to industry standard animation software.

Picking up where Writing Short Fiction I leaves off, this course affords advanced students additional instruction in the demanding art of short story writing.  The workshop model continues to serve discussions of original student work, and during other class discussions particular stress is laid on finer aspects of craft and sincere engagement with more recent masters of the form. 

This course is an introductory-level course for students. Its intent is to give an in-depth understanding of the differences between—and similarities of—leadership and management. The course focuses on the major traits of leaders and managers, and augments these with examples of great historic leaders, including George Custer and Jesus Christ. The course also studies the many leadership traits of Abraham Lincoln and looks at how these can be applied in modern business to improve management techniques. As part of the learning process, students give summaries of Lincoln’s leadership lessons, using short, Power Point presentations.

This course builds upon the skills and techniques learned in Sound in Film: Production, with an emphasis on post-production. The class will review the fundamentals of sound and how they are applied in a media environment to help communicate a message. Students will learn the element of a film or video soundtrack and how to take the elements from production and combine with created sounds and effects to create a complete soundtrack. Students will mix, process and enhance the soundtrack in post-production using a digital audio workstation.

This course will give students the opportunity to screen and discuss various content projects with media professionals who played a significant role in the creation or distribution of that content. Each session may include screenings, presentations, or panel discussions with key creative, marketing, or distribution professionals associated with the content screened.

The power of story is enduring and undeniable. Even today, many of the characters and scenes we deem most memorable and gripping come from the epic poems crafted by Homer and Virgil in the centuries before Christ. Beyond simply encountering finely-worked literary figures and plot developments, however, students taking this course will learn how the structures and conventions of epic narratives give these works immense force and drive, and how the importance of epic narratives in the self-understanding and collective life of ancient peoples invites a deeper appreciation of the importance of great stories for us in our own time.

The 20th century confronted Western civilization with a huge array of cultural movements, political crises, and technological breakthroughs. This course provides students with the historical grounding necessary for a serious reconnaissance into the recent past via its major cultural products. Some of these works have emerged over time as radiant masterworks, and others have proved to be but nightmarish visions. All, however, merit study and critical treatment, as they mark our previous century in all its alarm, acceleration and terrible beauty.

This class will help students to develop basic figure drawing skills. Students will study drawing a human body in various shapes and poses in order to create designs for animated characters.

The first in a sequence of three 3-unit classes offered to upperclassmen, generally seniors. This course explores market opportunities and needs, competitive market landscapes, skill competencies and gaps, and the process of creating a financial forecast model.

This course builds on student understanding of screen storytelling established in Story, Genre and Structure and Writing and Pitching a Script. Students will develop an original feature-length screen story from multiple ideas through idea evaluation and selection, character creation and development, story structure, treatment, pitch and beat sheet. At the end of the course, students will register their work with the WGA (a $20 fee). Students will consider more advanced screenwriting concepts presented in the text and will apply those principles to their developing stories.

In this production intensive class which builds on the directing fundamentals learned in Directing I, students will work together weekly to create short film subjects, dealing with spiritual and Christian subject matter, in an attempt to connect noble themes to photographed light. Students will be assigned weekly subjects and be expected to present them in class for feedback and analysis.

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Description TBA

This class will help students to develop basic figure drawing skills. Students will study drawing a human body in various shapes and poses in order to create designs for animated characters.

Students will continue their study of screenwriting with a focus on writing narrative films under 40 minutes in length. They will screen and analyze multiple examples of short cinema to gain an understanding of the qualities possessed by the best examples of the form. They will write numerous short scripts with the goal of generating one or more short scripts of high quality that can be produced either inside or outside the university setting. Students will critique one another's work with instructor supervision and guidance. Considerable time will be required for students to write. Students will read and respond to the required texts.

In this course text and dialogue are considered from the actor’s perspective. Scene work is explored, and students are instructed in text analysis (the study of the language within the script) and scene study (the study of the structure of the script) for performance.

Just because you have finished a film doesn't mean your work is done! In this concluding class to the Senior Project experience, students will develop and implement a marketing strategy for their senior project films. They will research film festivals appropriate for their film, develop a strategy and schedule for submitting to those film festivals, develop marketing materials for their films (including posters and taglines), craft documents that will enable strong consideration (including Director's Statements and personalized letters), and budget their senior project financial resources to implement their strategy.

In this class, students will reflect on their future career goals. Specifically, they will: determine their ideal career goal and put a concrete career plan in place now to accomplish it; learn to network in the professional community that you want to join; create a professional resumé and an equivalent LinkedIn profile, where the student will connect with 100 professionals in their immediate field of interest; form a team of 4-6 students to arrange group meetings with professionals in a field relevant to the student group; get an internship that could transition into a part-time job prior to graduation and into a full-time job after graduation; reflect on their personal strengths and weaknesses; create a personal Plan for Success; and create a 30 second Elevator Pitch.

This class revolves around creation and application of realistic and stylized textures and light schemes to produce depth and meaning in 3D computer generated scenes. Students will explore into various texturing techniques, while generating diffuse, specular, bump, and normal maps.

This course is oriented toward the production of a complete, substantial, and complex work of prose fiction. This process of writing a novella or significant prose narrative will provide students with a unique opportunity to learn and master elements of prose fiction such as character, structure, plot arc, narrative voice, and prose style, with the ultimate aim of creating a lasting work of literary art.

This class expands on the “12-Principles.” Through a combination of lecture and lab, the class will produce two (2) short 30-second animated Pencil Test movies (no color) using a soundtrack provided from the teacher. Each movie project will include creating Thumbnail Storyboards, drawing Key Poses, preparing Exposure Sheets, creating in-betweens, and compositing a final Quicktime Movie.

An exploration of the business and craft of writing for television. Students will study the distinctive characteristics of television storytelling, including episodic structure, character orchestration for television, hour-long versus half-hour writing, group writing and rewriting, spec writing for existing shows, the development and pitching of new series, writing pilots, and launching a television writing career. 

The course builds on “Introduction to Performing Techniques” with advanced explorations of the voice and speech techniques of Linklater, Berry and Skinner.

This course tracks the development in European art and thought during the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Special attention is paid at the outset to the tensions arising from, surrounding, and even effecting this epochal shift, especially as evidenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When the course later shifts its focus to texts produced by Shakespeare and others in Renaissance England, students find these tensions now located in increasingly realistic and complex human figures and dramas. Through these explorations students come to see the distinctive groundwork being laid for what will later be recognized as the modern period.

This course tracks the development in European art and thought during the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Special attention is paid at the outset to the tensions arising from, surrounding, and even effecting this epochal shift, especially as evidenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When the course later shifts its focus to texts produced by Shakespeare and others in Renaissance England, students find these tensions now located in increasingly realistic and complex human figures and dramas. Through these explorations students come to see the distinctive groundwork being laid for what will later be recognized as the modern period.

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This course follows Advanced Writing Seminar I and provides additional advanced writing experience for students who have completed multiple scripts for the screen. Assignments will be individualized based on student experience, interest, and skill, and may include development and writing of feature film scripts, television episodes or pilots, short film scripts, and scripts for web-based distribution. Students may also rewrite existing works for which they've written earlier drafts. Students will read and lead discussions of numerous screenplays. Students will pitch their stories, and may be asked to pitch to students in other courses. Students will critique one another’s work in large and small groups, with instructor supervision and guidance. They may also be asked to supervise the script development work of underclassmen. The knowledge, skills, and experience gained in this course will serve aspiring writers, writer-directors, and writer-producers for film, television, and new media. Considerable time will be required for students to write and develop scripts outside of class.

The course examines the legal relationships in the motion picture and television industries, as well as the legal relationships between artists and their personal managers. It covers the key legal principles that are involved in most media productions. This includes with trade unions, licensing, intellectual property and contract issues. In addition, this course explores ethical challenges students are likely to encounter working in entertainment and guides them through the development of a personal code of ethics that is informed by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Students conduct research on a primary text and write a lengthy paper, practicing revision and editing skills as they develop their original theses.  This class encourages a “close reading” of a primary text, requires students to build an annotated bibliography to evaluate secondary and tertiary source material, and introduces rhetorical concepts in the effort to help students become stronger readers and writers.

Students conduct research on a primary text and write a lengthy paper, practicing revision and editing skills as they develop their original theses.  This class encourages a “close reading” of a primary text, requires students to build an annotated bibliography to evaluate secondary and tertiary source material, and introduces rhetorical concepts in the effort to help students become stronger readers and writers.

This course focuses on introducing the idea of “entrepreneurial marketing” and is aimed at students who plan to start a new venture or take a job as a marketing professional pursuing an innovative marketing approach. Students will study a full spectrum of marketing strategy and tactics that are especially suitable for entrepreneurial firms aiming for high growth and innovation yet faced by limited resources and uncertain industry dynamics. Students will work in teams on marketing plans for their own venture or for other high-profile entrepreneurs or executives. The focus of this course is on hands-on experiences and practical relevance of innovative marketing concepts.

Description TBA

In this course text and dialogue are considered from the actor’s perspective. Scene work is explored, and students are instructed in text analysis (the study of the language within the script) and scene study (the study of the structure of the script) for performance.

Description TBA

Orthodoxy is not only right belief but right worship. Through the Church’s sacramental economy and the individual prayer life of the faithful, the truths of the Catholic faith are displayed, lived, and understood. Following Parts Two and Four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this course explicates the Church’s “mysteries”: the sacraments, prayer and devotion that nurture the faithful in their Christian discipleship and sanctification.

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This class is designed to provide students with the opportunity to study principles of traditional animation and incorporate those principles into computer animation. Students will produce several cyclical and performance-based animations.

This course builds on prior courses covering the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Study of the Catechism will be completed through an in-depth analysis of the third pillar, namely, the section on Catholic morality.

The course builds on “Introduction to Performing Techniques” with advanced explorations of the voice and speech techniques of Linklater, Berry and Skinner.

The power of story is enduring and undeniable. Even today, many of the characters and scenes we deem most memorable and gripping come from the epic poems crafted by Homer and Virgil in the centuries before Christ. Beyond simply encountering finely-worked literary figures and plot developments, however, students taking this course will learn how the structures and conventions of epic narratives give these works immense force and drive, and how the importance of epic narratives in the self-understanding and collective life of ancient peoples invites a deeper appreciation of the importance of great stories for us in our own time.

Description TBA

This course is an introduction to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Students will learn techniques for photo enhancement, image compositing, and logo creation through several projects.

The 20th century confronted Western civilization with a huge array of cultural movements, political crises, and technological breakthroughs. This course provides students with the historical grounding necessary for a serious reconnaissance into the recent past via its major cultural products. Some of these works have emerged over time as radiant masterworks, and others have proved to be but nightmarish visions. All, however, merit study and critical treatment, as they mark our previous century in all its alarm, acceleration and terrible beauty.

This course focuses on the traditional and materials techniques used to create hand-drawn illustrations and imagery. Graphite, charcoal, ink, watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and collage will be used to create projects rooted in originality. The assignments are intentionally experimental, allowing students to explore innovative solutions in image making. Form, structure, tone, light, shadow, texture and color, combined with different approaches to visual style, atmosphere and mood will be covered.

This course focuses on introducing the idea of “entrepreneurial marketing” and is aimed at students who plan to start a new venture or take a job as a marketing professional pursuing an innovative marketing approach. Students will study a full spectrum of marketing strategy and tactics that are especially suitable for entrepreneurial firms aiming for high growth and innovation yet faced by limited resources and uncertain industry dynamics. Students will work in teams on marketing plans for their own venture or for other high-profile entrepreneurs or executives. The focus of this course is on hands-on experiences and practical relevance of innovative marketing concepts.

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This comprehensive studio class will allow students to produce and polish their portfolio content. Several in-class progress milestones, qualitative portfolio reviews by the industry professional guest speakers, and peer critiques will enhance students' experience, and provide maximum guidance to improving the overall quality of students' artwork.

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While younger writers naturally place great emphasis on inspiration, this course provides students with a focused engagement on another critically important but often neglected aspect of masterful writing: revision.  In the process of putting key principles of revision into effect so as to improve their own creative pieces, students will also learn the fine (and also often neglected) art of editing, which benefits even students not interested in editorial work by making them more astute and discriminating readers.

This course is a continuation of THEO100. Whereas THEO100 focuses largely on the Gospels, this course takes a closer look at the major figures and events of the Old Testament. After a discussion of the literary and historical issues relating to biblical study, students learn the basic structure of the story of salvation history, surveying the books of the Old Testament. Special attention is given to the way the Old Testament books relate to those in the New Testament. As in THEO100 students also focus on how Scripture study relates to the life of prayer.

A senior-level illustration capstone experience. In this course, students create portfolio content and further develop a professional visual art portfolio. Topics covered include various techniques determined by the unique challenges of each project. Significant class time will be spent discussing and working on the needs of the projects.

This course is designed to introduce students to fundamental theories and principles of statistics and how those concepts relate to the real world. In particular, students will learn how to apply statistics to a business setting and gain understanding of how data can bring clarity to decision making.

Applied Market Research offers students an overview of market research techniques and primary and secondary research strategies informed by a Christian code of conduct. The course is designed to provide them with the principles, vocabulary, tools and practice necessary to identify a market demographic, write a research brief, develop and implement a research study, and analyze the findings.

This course is part of the Feature Film Program. Students fulfill the role of editor to create a rough cut, fine cut, and achieve picture lock on a feature length narrative film project under the guidance of a professional editor and in collaboration with the film's director. Each student is responsible for editing a specific portion of the movie and must collaborate to craft a cohesive style that fulfills the director's vision.

This class is designed to help students develop 3D modeling skills to produce low and high-poly hard surface models for animation and games. Students will learn to model using proper topology and be introduced to methods of speeding up workflow while creating props, buildings, and other hard surface objects.

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This course will offer an overview of some of the main themes, questions, and figures of existentialist thought. Topics studied may include freedom, authenticity, subjectivity, individualism, purpose, angst, being, and God.  Figures studied may include Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Gabriel Marcel, Jacques Maritain, and others.

Students study in detail the significant legal considerations involved with forming and operating a sustainable small business, becoming acquainted with real-world examples of incorporation issues and trade-offs, taxes and tax liabilities, human resource commitments and limitations, advertising issues and implications; contract law; patent, copyright and trademark law; and digital rights management.

This course is a deep-dive into Adobe After effects. Students will learn various advanced animation techniques used in the motion graphics industry, including character rigging and animation. Students will ultimately learn foundational techniques that will give them the technical ability to work on any professional motion graphics project.

This course will give students the opportunity to screen and discuss various content projects with media professionals who played a significant role in the creation or distribution of that content. Each session may include screenings, presentations, or panel discussions with key creative, marketing, or distribution professionals associated with the content screened.

This course tracks the development in European art and thought during the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Special attention is paid at the outset to the tensions arising from, surrounding, and even effecting this epochal shift, especially as evidenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When the course later shifts its focus to texts produced by Shakespeare and others in Renaissance England, students find these tensions now located in increasingly realistic and complex human figures and dramas. Through these explorations students come to see the distinctive groundwork being laid for what will later be recognized as the modern period.

This course tracks the development in European art and thought during the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Special attention is paid at the outset to the tensions arising from, surrounding, and even effecting this epochal shift, especially as evidenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When the course later shifts its focus to texts produced by Shakespeare and others in Renaissance England, students find these tensions now located in increasingly realistic and complex human figures and dramas. Through these explorations students come to see the distinctive groundwork being laid for what will later be recognized as the modern period.

Comprehensive introduction to basic tools and principles of Game Design including game systems, their components and interaction. Exploration into game analysis and game definitions. Opportunities to conceive an original idea and create a pitch to sell a game concept.

Building on programming fundamentals learned in Introduction to Programming, this course focuses on scripting common game systems in Unreal Blueprints. Specific topics will vary based on current industry developments, but may include player inventories, AI decision trees, nav meshes, and media playback.

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Orthodoxy is not only right belief but right worship. Through the Church’s sacramental economy and the individual prayer life of the faithful, the truths of the Catholic faith are displayed, lived, and understood. Following Parts Two and Four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this course explicates the Church’s “mysteries”: the sacraments, prayer and devotion that nurture the faithful in their Christian discipleship and sanctification.

Orthodoxy is not only right belief but right worship. Through the Church’s sacramental economy and the individual prayer life of the faithful, the truths of the Catholic faith are displayed, lived, and understood. Following Parts Two and Four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this course explicates the Church’s “mysteries”: the sacraments, prayer and devotion that nurture the faithful in their Christian discipleship and sanctification.

The third in a sequence of three 3-unit classes offered to upperclassmen, generally seniors. In this course, the team will continue to refine their financial forecast model and develop their marketing and funding plans, as well as putting their legal structure in place. The goal is a product or service ready for market with a team in place to deliver and support it, with a complete business plan, which includes a refined financial forecast model.

This course is part of the Feature Film Program. Students apply for specific on-set positions that align with their unique skills and career goals and fulfill that role throughout principle photography on a narrative feature film project. This class may be taken as a 3 unit or 6 unit class based on the student's role and class status.

Students taking this course will prepare intensively for missionary work abroad.  Along with describing processes, aims, and challenges of evangelization, emphasis will be placed on evangelizing via shared cultural interests and personal relationship.