Senior Project: You Chance to Show Off

Every student in the Mass Communications program completes a major project during their senior year at NNU, such as a short film, television program, documentary, marketing video or feature film screenplay.
     The road to this project begins your very first semester at NNU.  Our goal is to design your schedule such that you'll finish all production classes, and most media classes in general, by the end of your junior year.  
     During that junior year, you will propose a plan for a project you would like to complete.  Once your plan is approved, a committee of three faculty members and experts in the field will be assigned to guide you through your project.
     You then spend the fall of your senior year in prep work -- either doing pre-production planning on a film or video, or research for a screenplay.  You will also complete research on the "theoretical construct" of your project -- what does it demonstrate, or how does it advance our understanding of communication?
     Spring semester is reserved for execution of your project, either filming and editing a visual project or writing the screenplay.  At the end of the semester, you present your project and theory work to your committee.

     Why did we institute the Senior Project program?   Several reasons:

• It allows you to do what you are passionate about doing while you still have free access to the equipment and facilities of the school, as well as willing help (and free labor) from a crew of other Mass Comm students
• It synthesizes the practical and the academic, the "how to" of production with the "why" of theory
• It's a chance for you to practice and demonstrate what you've learned during your first three years at NNU
• It gives you a professional media product to show potential employers, financial backers, and others who will have an impact on your career
• It forces you to think and work through an entire production from beginning to end, giving you invaluable experience for future projects
• You can leave school knowing you know what you know