Why this shot, this line of action, this cut, this silence? Film can shape an audience’s experience in as many ways as there are human emotions. As cameras, editing software, and distribution platforms become cheaper and easier to use, access to tools no longer distinguishes one maker from another. What distinguishes them is intentionality: understanding why they are making a creative choice and how that choice serves the effect they want to create. My goal in every course is to help students become thoughtful, deliberate makers. This goal shapes how I design syllabi, sequence assignments, give feedback, and assess work.

I structure learning in three stages. Students first learn the foundational skills of a craft. Next, they explore the range of possibilities those skills open up. Finally, they name an intention and apply their craft in pursuit of it. We then assess together whether the work achieved what they set out to do. In Film Writing, students move from learning about formatting, to a no-dialogue visual screenplay, before they do a final original short screenplay which is developed through several rounds of individual revision conferences. In Auteur Study, students move from close analysis of scenes to production exercises in still-image composition and ensemble blocking to making a final video essay on a film that makes a critical argument utilizing the very same audiovisual medium. I consider my teaching to be successful when students can clearly and confidently articulate the reasoning behind each major creative decision in their work.

Midway through one semester of Film Writing, while I was giving feedback on the no-dialogue screenplays, I came across an ambitious piece with a compelling story that had not yet been effectively realized on the page. So, I invited the class to participate in a live rewriting workshop. As students proposed changes to improve the action lines, I kept returning to the screenplay’s author with the same question: what do you want the audience to see, understand, and feel at this moment? We kept the suggestions that improved but served the author’s original intentions and set aside those that did not. At moments, when the author admitted they did not have a clear intention, I helped them discover or develop it through a series of questions.

The workshop showed the class that revision is more than just correction; it is the process of clarifying intention. The student’s screenplay improved significantly, as its author recognized, and so did every screenplay that student wrote for the rest of the course. The clearest change was in the language: broad, general sentences gave way to specific action lines, a sign that the writer was now more deliberate with their creative choices. The workshop also gave everyone a shared vocabulary for critique and most importantly, students learned to weigh feedback against the effect they were trying to achieve, instead of accepting or rejecting it completely.

I have been able to practice and hone my teaching philosophy with full responsibility for the last two years as an Instructor of Record. I have designed and taught Film Writing and Auteur Study at the 3000-level, and I am scheduled to teach Digital Cinematography at the 2000-level in Spring 2027. My other teaching interests also include Narrative Short Film Production, Color Grading, and Directing Actors, courses I have completed as a graduate student.

I also believe strongly in exposing students to diverse perspectives and contemporary developments in world cinema. In my Auteur Study course, I introduce films from different national and cultural contexts to expand students’ understanding of both cinema and life. These encounters have helped students develop more informed and rigorous critical perspectives, as seen in their video essays. One of the students made an incredible video essay reinterpreting the concept of monsters – often seen in filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho’s works – as products of corrupt systems prevalent in our societies. Another particularly meaningful moment came at the end of the course, when a student shared that watching these films from around the world had given them a new appreciation for the universality of cinematic language.

This emphasis on intentionality is also an ethical one. I guide students to connect critical analysis with creative practice by helping them understand how formal choices in writing, camera work, performance, editing, and sound shape an audience’s experience of the people and worlds represented on screen. This active practice of attention allows them to look closely, question assumptions, and recognize the responsibility that comes with using the powerful visual medium.

I also extend learning beyond the classroom. During the production of my MFA thesis film, Pay the Difference, four of my former students joined the crew as gaffer, gaffer’s assistant, second assistant director, and assistant camera. They carried real responsibility on a working set and experienced the collaborative and professional demands of filmmaking firsthand.

My teaching philosophy is to inculcate this value of intentionality in creative practice regardless of the artistic medium; it guides my teaching of directing, editing, producing, and color grading, but it also extends naturally beyond linear film. In Waiting Rooms, a virtual-reality project I am developing as part of my MFA thesis, I have found that immersive and multimedia forms demand even more deliberate choices. The maker must anticipate what a participant will do as well as what they will see. I would be interested in teaching across these forms. Ultimately, I want my students to leave the classroom confident in their skills and intentional in how they use them. That combination can help them become stronger film and media-makers, imaginative problem-solvers, and more thoughtful leaders in whatever field they choose to enter.