Filmmaking With Excellence
Because God made us in His image, we are designed to create and appreciate beauty as God does and to create work that is excellent. Taylor’s award-winning film program emphasizes the craft and technology of film and media production as well as focusing on the person you are becoming as a follower of Jesus. Our graduates are consummate professionals, able to contribute to culture in ways that make a difference. Joining Taylor’s Film & Media program means not only building your filmmaking skills but strengthening your understanding of the significance of stories and the role they play in the world.
Professional Technology
Taylor’s Film & Media program is blessed with over $2 million of equipment in the form of Hollywood-grade cameras, lights, and audio. Many editing suites and a computer lab enable you to do your best work with software such as Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, ProTools and more. Our equipment is the real deal; what the pros actually use.
Freshmen work with ProTools software in Audio edit suite 1
The RED Helium with 8K sensor is Taylor’s top camera for fiction filmmaking
The studio allows for multicamera television production
Learn live production and how to direct a crew from this control room
One of two checkout rooms full of professional equipment
Edit with Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve software
The MacLab has specialty software for audio, video editing and screenwriting
Multiple Steadicam® rigs allow for smooth camera motion
Taylor’s 40-foot production trailer takes production on the road
Inside the trailer, students direct multi-camera, live events
Using the trailer, students produce a variety of events for music and sports
The campus radio station offers opportunities for live and podcast shows.
Film screenings are regularly held across the street in Cornwall Auditorium
New Building Coming for Film Program
With an anticipated opening in the fall of 2024, the Horne Academic Center will house Taylor’s award-winning Film and Media Arts program. Check out the live construction camera feed here!
Housing a 2500-square-foot television studio and a 3500-square-foot film studio, the building will be equipped with state-of-the-art lighting, green screens, multiple cameras, control rooms, scene shop, classrooms with surround sound Dolby audio and top-notch projection, screening room, and spaces for project finishing work including color grading and sound mixing. A green room for hair, makeup, and wardrobe will enable performers to prepare for on-camera work.
The first floor will also include an extensive checkout room for Taylor’s more than $2 million of equipment, including three RED 8K cameras, a large variety of Sony cameras, and an exceptional collection of camera support gear, lighting, and sound equipment. The hallways will highlight Taylor students’ more than 900+ award-winning projects.
The second floor will feature a collaboration room for student filmmakers to work on creative team projects. A sound-controlled room for Foley sound effects and voice-over recordings will allow students to enhance their soundtracks for film and video. The second floor will also house the on-air and podcast studio of WTUR, Taylor’s campus webcast station; a computer lab; suite of faculty offices; multiple audio and video edit bays, classroom space; and a conference room. Comfortable seating throughout will allow for students to relax and collaborate.
Award-Winning Work
For the first time in 2023, a Taylor film was named a semifinalist in the Student Academy Awards, demonstrating the exceptional caliber of work created by Taylor students. Every graduating senior in the 2023 had accumulated at least three external awards or recognitions. Your faculty will push you to create great work, and then they’ll enter that work in competitions and film festivals.
"Dream Soda"
Fiction Film “Dream Soda” screened at 12 film festivals, won a Silver Telly Award, and two Student Production Awards from the Central Great Lakes Emmy organization.
"Lizzi: Deeper than Water"
Nonfiction documentary “Lizzi: Deeper than Water” won the Best Nonfiction Series award and a $10,000 prize from the Television Academy Foundation. The film was an official selection at more than 15 film festivals.
Our Approach to Story
In Taylor’s Film & Media Arts program, the stories we write, shoot, and edit are intended to be good, beautiful and true. God’s first act in the Bible is to create, and we’re made in his image, designed to create and appreciate beauty as God does.
The themes of our films and video projects echo the reality of life on earth: love, joy, celebration, pain, suffering, redemption, conflict, resolution, and justice, all imagined through the lens of a Christian worldview. With Jesus as our model of the ultimate storyteller, we endeavor to tell stories that are compelling, thought-provoking and sometimes even life-changing.
Taylor’s film program focuses on the craft of modern storytelling. The major requires a big commitment of time and energy. You have to be all-in and willing to put in the time to gain experience with producing, directing, writing, cinematography, editing, and sound.
We also focus on helping you develop character, helping you become the kind of teammate people want to work with–one who loves authentically and acts ethically.
Joining Taylor’s Film & Media Arts program also means you’ll learn about the significance of film and media, and the role they play in our culture, shaping values and perceptions of truth.
Start Gaining Hands-On Experience Freshman Year
Envision Productions
Taylor’s internal production team produces chapel videos, shoots live events, and produces client projects on contract. Volunteer to join the chapel broadcasts as a freshman and upperclassmen will provide training.
Red Eye Film Frenzy
Our 24-hour film festival is the most fun, sleepless night you’ll ever have. Put together a team, shoot a short film overnight and screen it the next day. Red Eye happens the first weekend in January.
WTUR Online Radio
Taylor’s online radio station and podcast studio hosts live programming during the school year. Be a DJ, create your own original show (talk, sports, music), broadcast chapel or join the production staff.
Media Participation
The film program values volunteer service, so you’ll be encouraged to join the crew of fiction and nonfiction projects being produced by both our upperclassmen and faculty members.
Are you a good fit for Taylor’s Film program?
Does one or more of these describe you?
- Like to express myself by telling stories
- Have interests and skills in music, studio art, photography, theatre, or writing
- Have served on my church media team, running camera, audio, slides etc.
- Love to watch movies and television and drive people a little crazy because of the way I analyze them
- Have chosen to turn in at least one high school assignment on video
- Have my own YouTube channel
- Enjoy posting stories on Instagram
- Watch YouTube to learn video-related skills
- Have roped my family members into my productions in the past
- Have taken a television or news production class in high school
- Love movie “behind the scenes” segments
- Have taught myself software for video editing
Even if none of those statements is true for you, have no fear. Faculty make no assumptions about prior experience. They look for enthusiasm, eagerness to learn and creativity above all.
Grad Programs for Film
Although attending film school or graduate school after Taylor is not required to work in the field, some alumni go on to do graduate work to further their expertise or to prepare them for teaching. Our graduates have pursued MA and MFA degrees at outstanding programs, including:
- American Film Institute Directing Program
- Ball State University
- Baylor University
- Boston University Film & Television
- Florida State University Film School
- Fuller Theological Seminary (Theology & the Arts Program)
- Regent University
- UCLA Screenwriting Program
- University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
