Projects

The second annual MACS Student Showcase on May 4, 2024, was a faculty-curated film screening featuring the work of students in media and cinema studies courses from Fall 2023 and Spring 2024—courses such as Smartphone Cinema to the Horror Film to Cinematography and Sound, and more. Faculty wanted… Read More

Joanna Raimo (BS ’22, MACS; pictured at right) and Gio Giles-Sanchez (BS ’22, MACS), creators of A Tint of Red, won the 2022 UIUC Student Film Festival Jury Award, selected by members of the College of Media faculty. The pair’s film, a 21-minute psychological horror, was one of 19 short films and… Read More

Students in MACS 150: Introduction to Digital Media Production, taught by Derek Long, assistant professor of media and cinema studies, celebrated their final work of the spring semester at an in-class awards ceremony called the "CORNIs," where students received Camera Operators' Registry of Note… Read More

Update on the winners of the 2022 UIUC Student Film Festival: Jury Award: Joanna Raimo, for her film “A Tint of Red.” Among the jury’s comments was an appreciation of the film’s formal command and creative use of genre tropes.  Audience Award for favorite film: “Bodies of Water” by Ryan… Read More

This spring, students in MACS 480: Advanced Filmmaking are producing a live action short film called “The Goji Project,” written and directed by advertising senior Lincoln Rogers. Watch the final video. The class, led by Victor Font, lecturer in media and cinema studies, built a dorm room set… Read More

The UIUC Student Film Festival is an annual celebration of the creativity and diversity of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign filmmaking communities. Each spring, students in MACS 464: Film Festivals learn the history, functions, and value of film festivals, and then gain experience… Read More

In MACS 370: Cinematography and Sound Design, students had to build a strategy, a production plan, and a shooting plan for a movie that they write at the beginning of the semester, which is based on a famous painting.  "They have to imagine a story that could happen, ending in that specific frame… Read More

In Spring 2020, seniors in MACS 480: Advanced Filmmaking, taught by Victor Font, lecturer in media and cinema studies, collaborated with a Department of Theatre class (Acting for the Camera). Unfortunately, as the pandemic unfolded, students had to halt filming in their second day of production,… Read More

Each spring, students in MACS 295 gain experiential learning by attending True/False: A Film Festival Experience, held in Columbia, Missouri. Students learn about evolving cinematic approaches, and attend documentary panels, events with filmmakers, and film screenings. In 2020, the class saw a… Read More

In Fall 2019, students in MACS 496: Advanced Media Practicum, taught by Assistant Professor Derek Long in collaboration with Illinois Public Media, worked in teams to create three 10-minute opinionated documentaries (op-docs), which you can watch below. The students created a production collective… Read More