Timeline

Honors in the Major for students in the College of Motion Picture Arts typically follows a four-semester cycle: a preparatory semester (BFA2 Spring) to apply for admission into the Honors in the Major program, form a Faculty Committee, and develop a prospectus, followed by three semesters (BFA2 Summer, BFA3 Fall, BFA3 Spring) of work on the Honors project.

BFA2 Spring:

• Students must have at least a 3.750 GPA (cumulative GPA for all FSU courses) at the start of the BFA2 Spring semester and attend an info session with the Honors Liaison (Dr. Lisa Tripp) in order to be eligible to apply.
• Students decide on an Honors topic and enlist a Faculty Director from the College of Motion Picture Arts faculty.
• By Friday of Week 5, students must complete the application to be admitted into Honors in the Major. The Faculty Director, the Honors Liaison, and the Associate Dean must approve the application, so allow sufficient time to collect those signatures.
• By Friday of Week 10, students must have their committees fully formed, including the outside member.
• By April 1st, students submit a written prospectus to their committee for approval.
• By April 15th, students submit a committee-approved prospectus to the Honors Program.

BFA2 Summer:

• Students enroll in 2 credit hours of FIL4975 Honors in the Major Research, which may be taken as one of the summer electives. This translates into an average of about 10 hours of work per week.

BFA3 Fall:

• Students enroll in 1 credit hour of FIL4975 Honors in the Major Research. This translates into an average of about 3 hours of work per week, which the student must schedule alongside their work on capstone films.

BFA3 Spring:

• Students may enroll in 3 or 6 credit hours of FIL4975 Honors in the Major Research. This translates into an average of about 10 or 20 hours of work per week.
• By Week 15 of the Spring semester, students must hold a defense of the project in front of their faculty committee. At least TWO WEEKS prior to the defense, students must submit their completed project to their full committee. Students doing a Creative Project in the context of Honors in the Major (defined as one that results in a performance or product rather than a research paper) must also submit a written report on the project at this time (minimum 10 pages in length).

Milestones

Students work with the College Liaison and their Faculty Director to develop a set of milestones for their Honors work. These milestones are designed to help the student make steady progress towards the completion of their project over the course of the year and to make sure that all requirements for the Honors Program are met.

Students may be removed from the Honors in the Major program if they miss milestones, fail the defense, or fail to maintain a 3.750 GPA. Students do, however, have the right to appeal removal from the program if they believe the decision was unfair.

• Participants must complete the Appeal Form stating the details and reason for reconsideration.
• Appeal Form must be submitted within two weeks (including holidays and weekends) of the missed deadline in question or notification of removal from the program.
• The Program Administrator will contact the student with the decision within two weeks of the appeal request.
• No additional edits to the submission is allowed and a blind reviewer will evaluate the submission on the student’s behalf.
• Only one appeal request may be submitted per student.

Restrictions on the use of Film School equipment

Students are not permitted to use any equipment from the Film School Equipment Room for Honors projects. No exceptions.

School computing equipment may be available to support Honors projects, but the allocation of workstations to film school productions always takes priority. Requests for a workstation for an Honors project must be made to the Associate Dean before the student turns in their application form.