George Stevenson
Associate Professor
Media Arts and Technology
EMAIL: gstevenson@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: S-622G
Office Hours: Tu/Th 3:30pm-5:00pm and by appointment
Phone: +1 (212) 346-8469
M. George Stevenson is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Technology, and the Program Coordinator for Media Studies. He teaches film history, scriptwriting, producing and video editing, has served as Deputy Department Chairperson, and is the Course Coordinator for MES 140, Introduction to the Moving Image.
He directs the BMCC Time Warner Screenwriting Fellowship, which offers a year-long intensive workshop to a select group of BMCC screenwriters and holds annual readings of their work by professional actors in TribecaPAC Theater 2.
Professor Stevenson was awarded a Faculty Development Grant for the 2020-2021 school year for his project, “Adapting Dawn Powell’s ‘My Home is Far Away’ as an Audio Podcast.” In his role as a scholar, he gave a paper at the Orson Welles Centennial Symposium at Indiana University in 2015 and has lectured or taught at Columbia University, Drexel University, the University of the Arts, William Paterson University, New York Institute of Technology and the New York Film Academy.
Professor Stevenson is a filmmaker whose works include The Sea in My Brother (2018), which premiered at the Workers Unite! Film Festival and But Enough About Me… (2000). HIs photographs have appeared in The New York Times, People, New York Newsday, and The New York Daily News.
He is also an actor who has appeared in Approval Pending (2019), Dream Work (2015), Night of the Working Dead (2014) and Show Me the Aliens (2014). He is a sketch comedy writer and performer whose troupe, TunnelVision, has played venues in New York City including Caroline’s, the Gotham Comedy Club, StandUp NY and Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and he is a widely published critic, writer, and editor, whose articles have been featured in The New York Daily News, Newsday, Variety, Business Week, and elsewhere.
Expertise
Screenwriting, producing, directing actors, the aesthetic and business aspects of film and video making; performance practice and history; American and European film history, and journalism history and practice.
Degrees
B.A. from Columbia College
M.F.A in Film Directing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Courses Taught
- Introduction to the Moving Image gives students an introductory grounding in the history, aesthetics, and critical theory of narrative and non-narrative motion pictures, television, and animation. Students will gain a global perspective of how moving image works evolved from the birth of cinema to the current multiplicity of screens and screen works; special attention will be drawn to the theoretical and practical techniques unique to moving images and the tension between the media's apparent "realism" and the manipulations required to achieve it.
- This course focuses on writing treatments and scripts for the screen and video. Students learn the basics of visualizing narratives in 3-act structure; how to identify fiction and non-fiction genres; how to create character and story; how to research and write treatments and outlines; how to write single-column screenplays for narratives and two-column scripts for documentary scripts; and how to give and receive critiques on script work. Throughout, students will develop the basic skills necessary to write and revise scripts for upper-level VAT production classes and beyond.
- This course introduces students to varied applications of contemporary media in business, entertainment, and the public sector. Students study the processes of media production, the systems for media distribution, and the roles of media professionals. The course surveys the history of modern communications and the terminology of the media industry. Students examine the complex connections between technology, content, style, and audience response in the creation of media productions.
- MEA 300 will focus on a specific theme, concept, technology or methodology to be announced in advance. Topics for the following semester will be made available by the Media Arts and Technology Department during registration. Each section of the course will cover in depth a single special topic related to media arts and technology, such as one of the following: User Experience Design, Physical Computing, 3D and Laser Printing, Game Design, Documentary Film Production, Experimental Film, Journalism, Media Production, Project Management, Interactive Media, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Television News Production. Prerequisite: Any 200-level or above MMP, MMA, VAT or ANI course
Research and Projects
BMCC Time Warner Screenwriting Fellowship website and podcast productions of staged readings held at the end of each cohort (three grants awarded; new grants pursued)
Adapting Dawn Powell’s novel My Home is Far Away (1945) as an audio podcast series (first grant awarded for writing script; presentation planned for 2021)
You Could Never Make a Film about Andrew Paulson (documentary – grant stage)
