Fresh Films, a film production company that has made its home on Augustana’s campus, is in the process of working with the school to design a certificate program that would coincide with the internship program that they already have in place.
The purpose of this certificate program is to allow students to expand their proficiency in the film and entertainment industry.
“Augustana as a college is very interested in [Fresh Films] complementing [the internship program] with coursework…to expand the knowledge base of the students,” explains Kelly Feigley, one of the heads of Fresh Films.
“The goal”, Feigley describes, “is to make it interdisciplinary so that a student…[is] much more knowledgeable about the industry and the workings how of a production is produced and how it’s marketed”.
Students will not only have real world experience going into the film and entertainment industry, but they will have specific knowledge of coursework from academic classes under their belt. The idea is to broaden the student’s understanding on how to work in different fields of the industry.
The internship program already allows students to explore the different areas of the entertainment industry from business and accounting to writing and editing. In exposing students to these different aspects of the industry, Fresh Films is able to help them gain professional credits that will benefit them in finding their future careers.
Ethan Conley-Keck, a student who worked as an intern writing for Fresh Film’s show “Moochie Kalala Detectives Club” this past summer, explains that he is now working on business development with the company.
“I’m not a business person,” Conley states. “So, it’s completely different for me…they try to get you in every aspect of the filmmaking process”.
Conley explains that as a student interested in the film industry, the prospect of the certificate program is very exciting, especially since Augustana had not previously offered any type of discipline in film. He explains that the internships already provide such great real world experience. He believes that there really is no reason not to go for a certificate and have the extra knowledge to apply.
Working directly with Fresh Films is the Associate Dean of Augustana College, Wendy Hilton-Morrow.  Together with other faculty, they are currently coming up with a plan for the students who would benefit from this program. Hilton-Morrow states that this program is targeting two groups of students that might find interest in learning more about the entertainment field. One of the groups is students’ who are looking to work in the entertainment industry. The other group is more for students who are curious as to how getting a certificate would benefit them.
“The (second) group would be people who might not necessarily see themselves working in the entertainment industry,” says Hilton-Morrow, “but want to see how such knowledge and skills…might better prepare them for jobs in other fields.”
Throughout this academic year, Augustana will continue to work with Fresh Films in order to set up this certificate program for their students.
“We are just literally developing,” says Feigley.
She and Hilton-Morrow explain that while they are just in the beginning of creating this program with Augustana, they hope to have courses offered starting next fall.