film students with camera equipment

What does it cost?

Check out our cost calculator or visit student financial services for information on estimated costs.

How long will it take?

The dual degree requires 36 hours of graduate course work spread out over the senior year of a student’s baccalaureate degree program and an additional year of graduate study.

Where will I take classes?
Atlanta Campus

Application Deadlines View Admissions Requirements

  • Fall: March 15
  • Spring: November 15
  • Summer: Does not admit

Film/Media Production, B.A./M.A. Dual Degree

The Georgia State University School of Film, Media, & Theater offers a professionalized dual-degree program for bachelor of arts (B.A.) Film students aspiring for advanced honors-level and master of arts (M.A.) thesis production. This program is designed to take five years (including a student’s freshman and sophomore years), at the end of which, a student will receive both a bachelor of arts degree in film and media and a master of arts degree in communication with a concentration in film, media and digital imaging. The dual-degree program is ideal for students who are sophomores or juniors and want to use their senior year as a segue into graduate work. The senior year would involve advanced coursework that one would usually take in the first year of the M.A. program. The first (and only) year of the M.A. program would involve only advanced coursework and the thesis film.

Program Highlights

Faculty

Graduate Students and Alumni

  • Caroline Rumley’s (M.A. ’18) thesis film, “The Ghost Behind” was accepted in the Documentary Short Film category and screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
  • Hemrani Vyas (M.A. ’16) employed as TCM Programmer.
  • Lee Thomas (M.A. ’91) was named Georgian of the Year for her work as the deputy commissioner for the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office.
Program Details

Students who plan to apply for the dual-degree program should indicate their intent to their assigned academic adviser as early as possible in their undergraduate studies. To be considered for this opportunity, students must have completed 60 hours of undergraduate work and have an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher. They should already have completed their Area F Film courses with a GPA of 2.5 or higher, qualifying them to take upper-level FMLE courses as a major.

Students with credit for the FMLE major from institutions other than Georgia State may apply to the program, but must have completed with a grade of “B” or better FMLE 4120 (Production I) at Georgia State prior to application.

If determined to be qualified by typical admission measures of the College of the Arts, dual-degree students can begin taking coursework toward the designated master’s degree program while still completing their final year of bachelor’s degree work.

Acceptance into the dual degree program does not constitute admission to the graduate degree program.
Application and admission to the graduate program occurs in the senior year and is contingent upon:

1) successful completion of the bachelor’s degree,
2) maintenance of the required program grade-point average,
3) performance in the graduate-level courses taken during the bachelor’s degree and
4) meeting of the other admission requirements of the specific program.

During the student’s senior year, if these requirements have been met, the student will submit the online application in order to begin taking graduate coursework in the following fall semester. The program’s graduate coordinator can answer questions about the process of applying to the graduate program in order to complete the graduate portion of the dual-degree coursework.

Master of Arts (Creative thesis option: minimum 36 hours)

  1. Seven hours of core courses: FLME 6020 and FLME 6155.
  2. FLME 6135 (Digital Cinematography) and FLME 6145 (Digital Editing)
  3. Seventeen to twenty-six hours in Film and Media at the graduate level.
  4. Up to nine hours of coursework in related fields.
  5. Proficiency in a foreign language or approved research skill.
  6. Three hours of FLME 6990, thesis research
  7. A successful prospectus defense.
  8. A creative thesis project.
  9. A successful creative thesis defense.

Upon completion of the M.A. degree, our graduates are prepared to enter their chosen field with a level of analytical sophistication that distinguishes them as storytellers, researchers and collaborators. We routinely hear from our graduates that the lessons they learned have helped them navigate their professional careers. For examples of these testimonials, view these videos.

Description

Careers

Our Moving Image Studies M.A. alumni have gone on to work in the entertainment industry, non-profit work, academia and a variety of other exciting careers. See our interactive profiles for more details on the successes of our students.

Contacts

Graduate Program Coordinator
Karin Smoot
[email protected]

Graduate Director
Dr. Ethan Tussey
[email protected]

School of Film, Media & Theatre
25 Park Place, Suite 1016
Atlanta, GA 30303

35 Broad St., 4th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30303

The information shared provides an overview of Georgia State’s offerings. For details on admissions requirements, tuition, courses and more, refer to the university catalogs.