What Personal Experiences led you to select your Major? by Kayla

What Personal Experiences led you to select your Major? by Kayla - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

Growing up, my family would gather and bond through a movie night every Saturday. I lived primarily with my mother and older sibling; to make ends meet, we were in a constant state of motion, moving further and further away from our family home. Our family continued to migrate away from each other, but we maintained communication through our love of movies. Like any other powerful art form, cinema encourages togetherness.

At my high school, I attended a Multimedia and Web Design course. Before taking this class, I did not know much about how my favorite programs came to life behind the scenes. This class changed my perspective on new media. It introduced me to the technical basics of creating and editing digital art using accessible software like Photoshop, iMovie, Audacity, and Windows Movie Maker. However, during this course, my teacher did not go into the specifics of filmmaking and production aspects, and I was left wanting to know and create more. The digital resources at my school in North Carolina were desktops of an older make. Our assignments did not allow for practical application of the various media topics we studied outside of learning Photoshop skills. I was left with an intense desire to go in-depth about the filmmaking process and, though we only spent about one lesson on it, this class made me realize my dream of studying film and media in higher education.

I aspire to receive an undergraduate degree in the Temple Media Studies and Production Major program, with the Media Production Professional Option. I want to become a producer for film or television and learn more about the film industry from a cultural and global perspective. The courses offered at Temple will allow me to study the film industry's beginnings and examine how this shapes the current filmmaking culture in positive and negative ways. The history of filmmaking compels me from the early 20th century to now, most specifically the Golden Age of Cinema, which I find necessary; it established filmmaking techniques still utilized in current productions. Classic Hollywood filmmaking, as shown in the Introduction to Cinema courses at Temple, will allow me to involve film studies in my future creative collaborations. Other classes explore the adverse relationships between race and gender in the mainstream film industry that continue to this day. As a young Black woman, I am always curious about how art has encouraged societal shifts for the better. With the classes offered in your course load, I can study the film industry's beginnings to examine how this shapes the current filmmaking culture in positive and negative ways.

I intend to work on films that can challenge mainstream culture and influence others to do the same. My biggest inspiration stems from Marvel Studios' films, which I have seen form lasting intergenerational bonds. Marvel Comics introduced the characters and settings before my time, and now, with increasingly diverse production teams, new character arcs have been added so anyone can relate to their film counterparts. The youngest generations of society enact so much change yet are underrepresented in this genre. I want my work to introduce lesser-known yet urgent heroes to marginalized youth so they can feel seen and heard. With the right tools, I can envision my ideas breathing life into an existing franchise to uplift and speak to my generation's problems through film.

Should I be accepted into the Media Studies and Production Major program at Temple, I am eager to learn the tools of the trade — specifically production, programming, and cinema history. I learn best through hands-on opportunities available to me through diverse assignments, collaboration opportunities in student-formed organizations such as Temple SMASH and Temple Talk, as well as internship/mentor possibilities. As an aspiring producer, I am most interested in making pivotal stories come to life. There is no better school to help me venture out into the professional world of media production than Temple.