Video and Film Production

Video and film have great power to entertain, inform, or influence. Technology has now made it possible for essentially any industry or organization to harness this power to connect with their audiences, customer, constituents, or students. MTSU’s B.S. in Video and Film Production degree considers all of these aspects, reinforces them with a foundation of media theory and a 4-year degree to produce graduates who are able to successfully enter the marketplace and advance through long-term careers. The program boasts a well-developed and flexible curriculum that enables students to focus on their strengths. Inspiring and experienced faculty deliver exciting classes inside and outside the classrooms and labs. An impressive array of facilities offers students boundless hands-on experience.

This program is approved for the Academic Common Market.

Learning on the “real stuff” makes working in real life easier

Tyler Shapard (B.S. 2014) says he’s lucky! He loves what he does and works with some of his closest friends. “I get to see and hear the best music almost every night,” says Shapard, a devoted fan of Twenty One pilots, the award-winning alternative band for whom he is lighting director and co-designer. What Shapard passes off as “luck” is the result of learning at every opportunity and focusing his considerable energy on whatever needs doing. “One reason I’ve done well is that I’m a video guy in a lighting world. I took what I learned and broke it down to the basics. Mike Forbes taught me to troubleshoot, and troubleshooting is troubleshooting no matter where you are,” Shapard explains, citing Bob Gordon, Dennis Oneal, and Mark Parrish as others he learned from at MTSU. “I used to hang out with Forbes and the switcher. . . . Another reason I learned was that at MTSU you get to work with the real stuff.” Shapard credits his time on “The Truck” for valuable experience in live production settings and learning to work as part of a highly functioning team. Recruited by VER, Shapard made it through the “reality check of three days of removing screws from panels” and worked his way up to Univision, the tv show Nashville, and Twenty One pilots. He says, “You can’t be just one thing. You need to know something about everything.” Shapard shares ways he keeps his energy level high in spite of 18-hour days on five hours of sleep: “I pretend that this is the first time I’ve seen the show, and I dance all the time. I’m homesick sometimes on the road, but during the show you can forget for a couple of hours. I like to imagine I’m the third member of the band as I push the buttons and control the live show.”