Students of Fanshawe’s TV and Film Production program are standing up for their education.
Graduating TV and Film Production student, Ilhan Aden said a town hall between students and teachers helped shape second semester.
Adjusting to COVID-19
Aden admitted that first term was not all she’d hoped it would be.
“First term was a complete chaotic mess,” said Aden. “[It] was very difficult because this program is film, and so it’s a requirement to work with people, you’re not doing a lot of things on your own.”
Changes due to COVID-19 meant many of her classes moved online, while students were barely given any time to work on campus.
“Practical work for first semester was very hard to adjust,” she said. “Because that meant literally everything was online, and that was very difficult to understand. A lot of us in film are here because we’re visual learners, and visual doesn’t mean just seeing something on a computer, it’s part of that energy transfer when you’re in person.”
Reaching out to the students
In response to the difficulties, instructors held a town hall to hear directly from the students what needed to be done to make second term more successful.
“In that meeting we did decide that the students need to have a bigger say-so for how second semester is structured,” said Aden. “We were very lucky that one of our professors…was pushing for us to be in class in the safest way possible, on set in the safest way possible.”
The students recommended that they be given the opportunity to work in person when necessary. Only certain programs have been given on-campus privileges amid COVID-19, and the students in Aden’s program believed it should be included.
“If there is a limit to how many students can be on campus, and there are students on campus, then we were trying to argue that our program should be one of the programs required to be on campus for at least some of the time,” said Aden.
Following the town hall, instructors responded by giving students safe, in person opportunities.
“Now we are on campus twice a week, so we have two classes each week on campus,” said Aden.
In order to help students prepare for how the industry is adapting to COVID-19, Aden said her professors put a heavier emphasis on industry standards in second term.
“What’s really nice about this semester is that our professors put an emphasis on understanding the industry’s COVID rules, so that we can start applying them in our own film bubbles,” she said.
As Aden looks ahead to graduation in the Spring, she said she feels ready to tackle the industry in spite of COVID-19.
“I think after the projects that I complete in the next incoming weeks, based on the fact that we structured this semester to make us prepared, I think by the end of it I will be prepared,” she said.
“Because of that, I will be good when I’m leaving the school.”
Looking ahead
In the event that the TV and Film Production program remains partially online next Fall, Aden offered some advice to incoming students.
“One of the benefits of us being guinea pigs, is that the professors and the coordinators will really understand how to change this pr0gram, not only to adapt to COVID but also to adapt to the needs of the students,” she said. “You’re going to learn, you’ll have fun, be prepared to work very hard.”
She said working through COVID-10 restrictions may be a challenge for future students, but said she hopes the groundwork that her class has left behind will help make it somewhat easier going forward.
