Teaching Philosophy Statement
Education is not the answer to the question.
Education is the means to the answer to all questions.
-William Allin
Film brings us together. It connects us. Through our stories and imaginations we are introduced to a universe where anything is possible. Film offers a world where we are not ourselves, but rather the people we always dreamed we could be. As a filmmaker and an educator, I am filled with awe for the power of the moving image and the endless possibilities that filmmaking provides us with.
Within my classroom I strive to provide a balanced education perspective, combining a strong academic understanding with a practical, professional focus. This is vital in preparing students for the world outside academia. Given the extreme pressures and hurdles that must be crossed to thrive in the filmmaking industry, students must understand how to best apply their academic knowledge to their cinematic endeavors. Illuminating a clear path, from the theoretical to the practical, is at the very center of what I strive to provide as an educator.
The classroom setting should be a melting pot of ideologies and philosophies. The classroom shouldn't merely echo a regurgitation of facts and dates, but rather be home to a communal experience where the students learn and grow from each other, under the guiding hand of the educator. I am a part of the process as well. I hope to grow and learn with every single class of which I am a part, both as a filmmaker and an educator.
To achieve success, I construct clear, definable objectives for each class. I take the necessary steps to ensure that these goals are met by providing time at the end of each class where the theory that we have analyzed may be brought full circle and applied to the students' own, individual works. Classroom time is divided between lecturing and practice. The theory and philosophy of filmmaking is always brought back to the physical world, where it can be applied to the students' own creative pursuits. I try to focus on the theoretical as a means of understanding, but make the students aware that everything we discuss has practical applications in the professional world.
In filmmaking, you learn through practice; you learn through repetition. You must have a camera in your hand at all times if you are to succeed as a filmmaker, in any capacity. My students learn through doing. They learn from each other in the process, through the strong relationships built during the long hours and trying times the production process demands. Only half of the learning experience takes place within the classroom. The other takes place outside the walls of academia. While I may not necessarily be present, I provide the goals and projects that reinforce our course objectives. It is these lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom, but learned through experience.
My teaching experience is varied. I have served as a Teaching Assistant for various Directing Courses at Savannah College of Art and Design. I have written prepared lectures and worked one on one with students to ensure that they achieved their individual goals as artists. I have presented lectures entitled "Developing Visual Methodology Based Upon Character Perspective" and "Crafting Characters", both of which ask students to look at filmmaking as a visual language, one that can be deconstructed, analyzed, and interpreted the same as a written text.
While I have learned much from the classroom, my relationships with the students extends outside the walls of study. I meet many of the students outside of the classroom, in coffee shops and weekend workshops, forming relationships and trying my best to help them in any way I can. They seem to genuinely respond to this. They want the extra help. They want the best projects they can because they sincerely care about what they are doing. They are all driven by stories they feel they must tell. It is a fire burning within them, and it is a pleasure be a part of that experience.
I have also served as a mentor for struggling students at Savannah College of Art and Design. This has prepared me for students that may need added assistance, or students that do not immediately respond to my own efforts as an instructor. It has given me an added level of depth and perception of the different modes by which students respond to and learn from material. As an educator, I must be comfortable enough with my own abilities to alter my teaching styles, or provide individualized goals, for students who do not immediately react to my teachings.
I have worked in both fiction and nonfiction cinema, having recently completed filming my first feature documentary film. The story recounts the plight of poverty stricken Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica, and a literacy program that was constructed to promote education in the area. The experience has changed me in ways that I could never have imagined, and has instilled in me the absolute importance of education in guiding the future of lives and communities.
I do not see teaching as the end of my professional career, but rather as a means of guiding me towards new and exciting projects that will challenge me as an artist and as an educator. I try to bring my passion and love for the process in every single classroom of which I am a part. And I hope, in some small way, the students feel that same fire burning within themselves and are compelled to tell the stories that matter most to them, and to never stop dreaming.
Education is not the answer to the question.
Education is the means to the answer to all questions.
-William Allin
Film brings us together. It connects us. Through our stories and imaginations we are introduced to a universe where anything is possible. Film offers a world where we are not ourselves, but rather the people we always dreamed we could be. As a filmmaker and an educator, I am filled with awe for the power of the moving image and the endless possibilities that filmmaking provides us with.
Within my classroom I strive to provide a balanced education perspective, combining a strong academic understanding with a practical, professional focus. This is vital in preparing students for the world outside academia. Given the extreme pressures and hurdles that must be crossed to thrive in the filmmaking industry, students must understand how to best apply their academic knowledge to their cinematic endeavors. Illuminating a clear path, from the theoretical to the practical, is at the very center of what I strive to provide as an educator.
The classroom setting should be a melting pot of ideologies and philosophies. The classroom shouldn't merely echo a regurgitation of facts and dates, but rather be home to a communal experience where the students learn and grow from each other, under the guiding hand of the educator. I am a part of the process as well. I hope to grow and learn with every single class of which I am a part, both as a filmmaker and an educator.
To achieve success, I construct clear, definable objectives for each class. I take the necessary steps to ensure that these goals are met by providing time at the end of each class where the theory that we have analyzed may be brought full circle and applied to the students' own, individual works. Classroom time is divided between lecturing and practice. The theory and philosophy of filmmaking is always brought back to the physical world, where it can be applied to the students' own creative pursuits. I try to focus on the theoretical as a means of understanding, but make the students aware that everything we discuss has practical applications in the professional world.
In filmmaking, you learn through practice; you learn through repetition. You must have a camera in your hand at all times if you are to succeed as a filmmaker, in any capacity. My students learn through doing. They learn from each other in the process, through the strong relationships built during the long hours and trying times the production process demands. Only half of the learning experience takes place within the classroom. The other takes place outside the walls of academia. While I may not necessarily be present, I provide the goals and projects that reinforce our course objectives. It is these lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom, but learned through experience.
My teaching experience is varied. I have served as a Teaching Assistant for various Directing Courses at Savannah College of Art and Design. I have written prepared lectures and worked one on one with students to ensure that they achieved their individual goals as artists. I have presented lectures entitled "Developing Visual Methodology Based Upon Character Perspective" and "Crafting Characters", both of which ask students to look at filmmaking as a visual language, one that can be deconstructed, analyzed, and interpreted the same as a written text.
While I have learned much from the classroom, my relationships with the students extends outside the walls of study. I meet many of the students outside of the classroom, in coffee shops and weekend workshops, forming relationships and trying my best to help them in any way I can. They seem to genuinely respond to this. They want the extra help. They want the best projects they can because they sincerely care about what they are doing. They are all driven by stories they feel they must tell. It is a fire burning within them, and it is a pleasure be a part of that experience.
I have also served as a mentor for struggling students at Savannah College of Art and Design. This has prepared me for students that may need added assistance, or students that do not immediately respond to my own efforts as an instructor. It has given me an added level of depth and perception of the different modes by which students respond to and learn from material. As an educator, I must be comfortable enough with my own abilities to alter my teaching styles, or provide individualized goals, for students who do not immediately react to my teachings.
I have worked in both fiction and nonfiction cinema, having recently completed filming my first feature documentary film. The story recounts the plight of poverty stricken Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica, and a literacy program that was constructed to promote education in the area. The experience has changed me in ways that I could never have imagined, and has instilled in me the absolute importance of education in guiding the future of lives and communities.
I do not see teaching as the end of my professional career, but rather as a means of guiding me towards new and exciting projects that will challenge me as an artist and as an educator. I try to bring my passion and love for the process in every single classroom of which I am a part. And I hope, in some small way, the students feel that same fire burning within themselves and are compelled to tell the stories that matter most to them, and to never stop dreaming.
