Jack Beck
Interim School Co-Director
School of Film and Animation
College of Art and Design
585-475-2761
Office Location
Jack Beck
Interim School Co-Director
School of Film and Animation
College of Art and Design
Education
BA, Denison University; MFA, University of Iowa
585-475-2761
Currently Teaching
SOFA-406
Senior Capstone I
4 Credits
Students work independently with their advisor towards completion of their capstone experience for their BFA degree. Students have a predetermined timeline and must complete all deadlines to pass this course.
SOFA-407
Senior Capstone II
4 Credits
Students work independently with their advisor towards completion of their capstone experience for their BFA degree. Students have a predetermined timeline and must complete all deadlines of that timeline to pass this thesis course including completion and public screening of finished work or final presentation of craft experience.
SOFA-202
Production Processes
6 Credits
This course is an introduction to all aspects of professional film/video narrative production. Students produce short projects while learning basic shooting and crewing procedures, studio protocol, equipment handling and maintenance, and basic sync editing.
SOFA-693
Film Sound Theory:Voice
3 Credits
This course is one of three courses offered in the study of film sound theory. Through readings, focused group discussion, and the viewing/listening of select films, the course promotes critical analysis of the varied and profound uses of music in sound design. The history of voice from the silent era to the modern sound design will be addressed. The concepts studied include the modal changes in point-of-audition, and positioning across diegeses. Other topics like the acousmetre and the mute, vococentric mixing and separation, relativizing, and dialogue theory are also addressed. Each student gives a presentation on a chosen concept within film voice theory.
SOFA-621
Spring Film
3 Credits
In this course students will complete their first full semester production. Students must decide on a concept, develop a treatment, write a script or research a non-fiction subject. Student will produce a film complete with mixed track and finished titles and credits.
SOFA-499
Film and Animation Co-op
0 Credits
Cooperative Education will provide Film and Animation students with hands-on experience in their field, directly related to a student’s major with an established studio or related business. Students will need to apply for co-ops, and interview as part of the selection process, based on available positions posted by the Co-op and Career Services Office, or found through the students’ own research. In programs where co-op is a degree requirement, students must obtain permission of their program or graduate director prior to enrollment. Co-ops are typically paid work experience, and can be part-time (150-479 total hours within the term), or full-time (480+ hours within the term). Co-ops may be one or two consecutive terms - fall, spring, or summer – with department permission.
SOFA-513
Film Sound Theory:Voice
3 Credits
This course is one of three in the study of film sound theory. This course will promote critical analysis of the varied and profound uses of music in sound design through readings, focused group discussion, and viewing and listening to select films. The history of voice from the silent era to the modern sound design will be addressed. The concepts studied include the modal changes in point-of-audition, and positioning across diegeses. Other topics include the acousmetre and the mute, vococentric mixing and separation, relativizing, and dialogue theory.
SOFA-890
Research and Thesis II
4 Credits
This is the second of two courses designed to advance a student towards completion of their thesis. Students will work independently on their approved plan of work for their thesis while meeting on a regular basis with their committee chair. They are required to meet at least twice with their full committee during the semester as well as present a final screening of their thesis.
SOFA-799
Film and Animation Graduate Independent Study
1 - 4 Credits
Film and Animation Graduate Independent Study will provide students with the ability to study in a specialized area with an individual faculty member. Students, with the assistance of a faculty adviser, should propose a course of study or project with clearly defined deliverables. Students must obtain permission of an instructor and complete the Independent Study Permission Form to enroll. Student must have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA to apply.
SOFA-599
SOFA Independent Study
1 - 6 Credits
SOFA Independent Study will provide students with the ability to study in a specialized area with an individual faculty member. Students, with the assistance of a faculty adviser, should propose a course of study or project with clearly defined deliverables. Students must obtain permission of an instructor and complete the Independent Study Permission Form to enroll. Student must have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA to apply.
SOFA-790
Research and Thesis I
4 Credits
This is the first of two courses designed to advance a student towards completion of their thesis. Students will work independently on their approved plan of work for their thesis while meeting on a regular basis with their committee chair. They are required to meet at least twice with their full committee during the semester.
SOFA-399
Film and Animation Part-Time Co-op
0 Credits
Cooperative Education will provide School of Film and Animation students with hands-on experience in their field, directly related to a student’s major with an established studio or related business. Students will need to apply for co-ops, and interview as part of the selection process, based on available positions posted by the Co-op and Career Services Office, or found through the students’ own research. In programs where co-op is a degree requirement, students must obtain permission of their program or graduate director prior to enrollment. Co-ops are typically paid work experience, and can be part-time (150-479 total hours within the term), or full-time (480+ hours within the term). Co-ops may be one or two consecutive terms - fall, spring, or summer – with department permission.
SOFA-213
Radical Cinema Workshop
4 Credits
Students will produce at least one major artistic work that uses the moving image. This course demands the use of alternative expressions in concept, style, or technology, and students are encouraged to take risks, break "rules" and explore their own unique creative potential. Students may work in a variety of media, depending on their proficiencies and their vision of the project. Non-majors are welcome with the permission of instructor. Students will complete projects for screening at the end of the semester. Students can retake this course as a SOFA elective once they have completed Fiction Workshop or Documentary Workshop.
SOFA-511
Film Sound Theory: Music
3 Credits
This course is one of three in the study of film sound theory. Through readings, focused group discussion, and the viewing of/listening to select films, the course promotes critical analysis of the varied and profound uses of music in sound design. Addressed is the history of music from the silent era to the modern score. The concepts studied include the modal changes in point-of-audition, and positioning across diegeses. Newer topics including audio-visualization and ventriloquism theory are also addressed.
In the News
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February 11, 2020
![School of Film and Animation students adjust a camera during a video shoot in one of RIT's soundstages.]()
RIT ranked as a top college for film production
GradReports.com listed RIT in the top 10 of its alumni salary-based ranking of best film production programs in the country.
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October 7, 2019
![The award-winning Barry sound crew poses for a photo at the Emmys]()
Alumnus captures Emmy for sound work on popular HBO show
Matt Taylor '02 (film and animation - production option) was the co-supervising sound editor of a Warner Bros. sound team that won an Emmy Award for its efforts on Barry.
Featured Work
Stari Grad Trailer
Jack Beck
This is a preview trailer for a 10-minute HD movie I shot in Dubrovnik, Croatia in April-May 2011. An alternative sci-fi which touches on recent history of the Old Town.
Polar Bear Video (excerpts)
Jack Beck
Travel agencies currently promote trips to Churchill, Canada that encourage “ecotourists” to watch and photograph polar bears struggling to survive. One intention here is to create a context where a...
AUX1
Jack Beck
The electronic image, doubled, crossed, combined, and looped upon itself, exposes the circuitry matrix, and becomes its own surface texture, color, and motion; pulsing to its own overlapping signals....
Select Scholarship
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Beck, Jack. "Bressonian Method of "Complementarity": Guiding Tenets to Image/Sound Imbalance." UFVA Conference: Land of 10,000 Tales. Augsburg University. Minneapolis, MN. 1 Aug. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Beck, Jack A. "Re-Defining Focalized Sound: The Convergence of POA, Suspension, and Extension." CILECT North America Sound Conference: Sound & Storytelling. Chapman University. Orange, CA. 23 Mar. 2018. Conference Presentation.
Beck, Jack A. "Captured!: The Obsession of Powerful/less, Mediated Voice in Cinema." UFVA : Stories Without Borders. New Mexico State University. Las Cruces, NM. 25 Jul. 2018. Conference Presentation.
Beck, Jack A. "A Case for Spectral Music: Score that Inhabits the Diegesis." UFVA - Media Diversity: Inclusion and Convergence. Cal State University, LA. Los Angeles, CA. 1 Aug. 2017. Conference Presentation.
Beck, Jack A. "Challenges and New Approaches to Teaching Music and Sound in Film/New Media." GEECT - Music and Sound Design: When Theory Meets Practice. GEECT at the National Library. Vilnius, Lithuania. 29 Sep. 2017. Conference Presentation.
Beck, Jack. "A Call for the Mise-en-Bande in an Image-Centered Lexicon." UFVA Conference: Content Creation in the 21st Century. University of Las Vegas. Las Vegas, NV. 3 Aug. 2016. Lecture.
Beck, Jack. "Conveying Point of Audition for the Hearing-Impaired Character." UFVA Conference: Content Creation in the 21st Century. Las Vegas University. Las Vegas, NV. 1 Aug. 2016. Lecture.
Beck, Jack. "SOFA Request for Membership." CILECT Congress. Griffith Film School. Brisbane, AUS, QLD. 21 Nov. 2016. Address.
Beck, Jack. "The Emergence of On-Screen, Graphic Text(ing)." UFVA Conference: Media With Impact. American University. Washington, DC. 6 Aug. 2015. Conference Presentation.
Shows/Exhibits/Installations
Beck, Jack. Stari Grad (Old Town). n.d. Ninety-Seven Film Festivals to Date, 35 Countries, 9 Awards, several cities world-wide. Exhibit.
Beck, Jack. AUX1. 2007. Eight Festival Screenings, several cities. Exhibit.
Beck, Jack. Fossil Light. 2008. Twenty-One Film Fests, several cities, international, awards. Exhibit.
Beck, Jack. Church Wall, Sarajevo. Dec. 2016. Rochester Contemporary Museum Members Exhibition and Presentation, Rochester, NY. Exhibit.
Beck, Jack. Flour Alley, Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dec. 2015. Rochester Contemporary Museum Members Exhibition and Presentation, Rochester, NY. Exhibit.
Beck, Jack. Morning Light, Old Town, Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dec. 2015. Image City Photo Gallery, Rochester, NY. Exhibit.