FACULTY - Wesley Ellenwood
Instructor
What courses do you teach at Augsburg? In which program(s)?
I teach all of the film, video, and television production courses at Augsburg College.
Tell about a memorable classroom experience.
One class period, a few years back, I was teaching beginning film production and all of my students handed in their films on time. For me that was extremely memorable. And the films were quite good to boot.
In what area(s) do you conduct research?
In my area one either writes about film or writes a film. I have several film projects that I'm currently writing. One of interest, is a full length feature (a dark comedy) about revenge.
List your honors and distinctions.
I've had a documentary of mine aired on Twin Cities Public Television. I've won several awards including a "Telly" and an "ITVA Festival". I also had the opportunity to teach at New York
University's Film School for much of the 1980's.
Why should someone study in your area at Augsburg?
The reason why a student would choose to study Film at Augsburg centers on our approach to the craft of story telling. There are other schools in the region who have more equipment. There are others still that treat film as art. What makes the film program at Augsburg unique is our focus on 'the script'. Catagorically, many of our student lean toward making films in the 'Hollywood narrative' form.
Though as a faculty we do not exclusively push our students into this form (we also explain and promote the 'experimental' and 'documentary forms) a majority of our students naturally gravitate to telling Hollywood Narratives. And the foundation of all Hollywood Narratives is the script; its history, its structure, and its craft. A student of film chooses to attend Augsburg because they're interested in learning how to tell good stories.
What else would you like students to know about you?
The one thing a prospective student will know about me is that Ihave a good sense of humor. (If they stick around long enough to graduate that is.) :-)
