Category: Kreag

Well everyone, this is it, my final blog post as a COM Ambassador and as a college student!  As of this Friday, December 1st, I will officially be done with college, which is an absolutely crazy thought.  It feels like just yesterday I was driving into Boston to move in for freshman year.  But here I am, three and half years later, in Los Angeles, where I always hoped to end up, preparing for my final class of college!

My time in Boston provided me with some of the best moments of my life.  I met some of my best friends and took advantage of some amazing opportunities that I wouldn’t have had anywhere else.  Boston became my home and I am terribly sad to leave it behind for the huge metropolis that is Los Angeles, but I know some day I’ll find my way back to Beantown!

For my final blog post, I decided to compile a list of my favorite places/things in Boston, and a list of the things I wish I had done during my time in the city.  For any incoming or current students: check these places out; four (or 3.5) years flies by quicker than expected.  Make the most of your time in Boston!

FAVORITE PLACES/THING I DID IN BOSTON

The North End, specifically all of the pastry places, like Modern Pastry.  (Honestly, I think Modern is better than Mike’s, plus it’s cheaper.)  There’s a lot of history in this part of town, lot’s of old buildings and churches, etc.  It’s the perfect place to just walk around and absorb the city.  

Relatedly, I love Faneuil Hall, mainly because it was where my family would always take me when we would visit Boston when I was younger.  I just think it’s such a cool place, with plenty of different dining and shopping options.  There are always performers there as well, and you’ll be only a few minutes away from the harbor, another fantastic place!

Coolidge Corner is another one of my favorite places in Boston.  There is so much to do there: shopping, eating, seeing a movie.  The Coolidge Corner Theater is an absolutely beautiful theater and always shows smaller indie films that might not show at Regal or AMC, which is great.  Brookline Booksmith, right across from the theater, is also another great place to visit.  They have a whole basement full of used books for great prices, and the store consistently brings in authors for a variety of events!

Illuminus, an art festival held on Landsdowne Street: The last time this festival happened was my sophomore year, and I’m so sad they didn’t bring it back until this fall while I was away in LA.  During Illuminus, Landsdowne street was shut down and filled with a variety of art installations, most of which involved amazing lights.  It was quite a amazing to behold and I would totally recommend attending the next time it comes to Boston!

Spectacle Island– When I worked as a program assistant for the AMP high school program, I was able to bring my students on a trip through the harbor to Spectacle Island.  Not only was the boat ride beautiful, but the island itself is magnificent, with plenty of walking trails and beaches made almost entirely out of sea glass.  I guess it really was a spectacle.

THINGS I WISH I HAD DONE

Boston may not be the biggest city, but there is still so much to do both there and in the surrounding areas.  One of my biggest regrets was failing to go to nearby places such as the Bunker Hill Monument or the USS Constitution Museum.  The USS Constitution was one of my parents’ favorite places to bring me and my siblings when we would visit Boston as kids, so its a shame I never had the chance to see it while actually living nearby!

The Institute of Contemporary Art

This museum is on the water!  You probably see your friends there on Snapchat and realize that it’s a super cool museum and wish you took the time to visit!  Or maybe that’s just me…

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I’m noticing a trend here with museums.  Again, I lived about ten minutes away from this museum over the past three years and somehow never managed to visit it.  Fun fact, it’s free to get in with a student ID or if your name is Isabella (I only qualify for one of those), so I really had no excuse not to stop by!

Well everyone, this was just a short list of the things I did and wish I had done while in Boston.  I think it serves as a way to commemorate the many great memories I made while visiting these places, with friends or on my own, all while learning the city and growing to call it home.  I’m sad that my time as a student at Boston University has come to a conclusion so soon, but I am beyond excited to see what the future has to offer me.  I’m so thankful for the many opportunities I have been offered during my time in Boston, especially those offered to me via COM.  Being a COM Ambassador is one of my favorite memories of all, and I’m so happy I was able to spend the better part of my time at BU helping welcome in new students. 

Last summer, I discovered that the city of Boston is home to the Massachusetts Film Office, the office that helps all films shooting in Massachusetts find locations for their films.  For the longest time, it did not seem like their office offered internships, and then one day, I discovered it, the treasured “Internship Application” tab on their website!

The interview process was relatively simple, and I had the chance to meet the many wonderful people that work at the Office of Travel and Tourism as well as at the Film Office.  I ended up being offered the internship during the interview, and I quickly accepted, and the internship there has made my semester so, so amazing.  Essentially, the goal of this blog post is to get other people excited about the Massachusetts Film Office and what they do as well as show you all one of the fantastic opportunities you could have as a film student at BU!

Working at the Massachusetts Film Office (or MFO for short) has given me a huge amount of real world experience that I would not have necessarily received otherwise. At my time with the MFO, I have learned to location scout, which is not necessarily something we get to utilize very frequently for our classes at BU unless you are producing a film. Being able to find locations and photograph them for potential filmmakers to use is a skill that will look very good on a resume, especially since it's not something everyone has experience with!

At the film office, you'll be doing a pretty frequent amount of script coverage. This is one of my favorite parts of the internship, as not only does it allow me to read developing projects, but I then get to create a script and location breakdown that could potentially aid in finding the right location for a filmmaker. Script coverage is also something a lot of people end of working with at internships and entry level jobs when they get to LA (from what I've heard) so it is definitely valuable experience to have going forward as a Film and Television student.

Many of the skills you learn at the MFO will be related to the job of a producer (pre-production, finding locations, etc).  From what I have heard, many internships in Boston are production based, so for those of you looking to get experience with creative producing/pre-production/etc, look no further than the MFO!  And for those of you interested in screenwriting, this is also a fantastic opportunity, as being able to consistently read scripts has allowed me to improve my own screenwriting abilities.

What's even better is that the aforementioned skills I learned in this internship will be especially useful when moving on to other internships and when applying for jobs. As many of you Film and TV students know, internships are competitive, especially in Los Angeles, so any experience is good experience, and I think the things I learned while at the MFO will help me look like a better candidate when I go to LA next semester.  You also make a lot of great connections when you intern for a company that has a presence in the film world, and those connections will help you in the future when looking for other opportunities to further yourself in the industry!

Wow, this semester has really flown by!  Its week seven already?  And spring break is only a week away!  I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to a nice long seven day worth of relaxing and doing nothing.  So, for those of you who are not heading out on a fun adventure for Spring break, here are my Netflix binge-watching recommendations!

Penny Dreadful:  I first discovered this show when one of my fave professors, Kam Miller, analyzed a clip in her Episodic Drama class.  It had me hooked from the first scene, and I spent a probably unhealthy portion of winter break binge watching this show.  It mixes together a lot of classic literary characters (Dorian Grey, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, etc) and creates a really interesting horror-fantasy mystery hybrid.  The performances are also fantastic across the board which makes it even more enjoyable.

Top of the Lake: This was another show I watched over winter break.  It stars Elisabeth Moss as an Australian detective in New Zealand working to find a missing girl.  It takes a lot of unexpected turns and goes into some dark territory, but it was great overall.  There’s a second season coming sometime this year featuring Nicole Kidman which should be interesting!

Shameless:  This has become the show I am determined to finish watching this semester.  There’s something about it that’s just so fun, even when the characters are dealing with stressful and outlandish situations.  Its one of those shows you can throw on and follow along with while doing other things, but it still manages to draw you into the world that it creates and get you invested in the characters.

Bates Motel: This is a show that I used to be really into back in high school, but managed to lose track of once I got to college and no longer had easy access to television.  But, I am extremely interested to see how the sixth season of the show tackles the original “Psycho” story, and therefore I am going to *try* and catch up on the ~2/~3 seasons that I’ve missed, especially to see how Rihanna does in her television debut.  Should be interesting!

Sense8:  This show just released a Christmas special a couple months ago in order to lead up to season two, which is coming in May.  Now is the time to catch up with/rewatch this series!  Its a bit strange at first, and takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it becomes addicting.  Its full of gorgeous cinematography and locations, and I really loved the characters.  I think this was the only show I’ve ever binge-watched within a single day back when it was first released and I have no regrets.

Riverdale: This show is interesting.  I don’t know much about the original Archie comics, but apparently the show is not very faithful to them.  What the show is, however, is extremely entertaining.  The dialog takes on an almost surreal quality.  Absolutely none of it sounds like anything a teenager would actually say, which makes it even more entertaining.  Other than that, its a pretty standard teen drama/murder mystery, but its a fun watch overall!

Two years ago, I started school at Boston University with the intention of someday becoming a screenwriter.  I have always written, as far back I can remember, and storytelling has always been one of my greatest passions.  When looking for schools, I focused on the places that seemed to have a strong writing focus, and BU definitely had exactly what I was looking for.

However, as I went through the stages of being a film student here in COM, I realized that screenwriting is not my only passion.  After taking FT201, I realized that production is something else that I truly enjoy working with.  Whether it is lighting, sound, cinematography, I have enjoyed each aspect that I have worked with both in class and for outside projects as well as for BUTV10.  I think this is one of the strongest aspects of COM, the fact that you are able to take a variety of classes and join a variety of clubs that allow you to explore so many different areas of the Film and TV world.

I think that this is one of COM’s greatest assets, the ability to explore your interests in many different areas.  If I was forced to stick to writing classes only, I never would have been able to discover my love for production.  Though COM does have suggested tracks within the Film and TV major, you have the freedom to jump between production, writing, producing, etc which gives so many different chances to explore something that may interest you.  I believe that it is super important to be well rounded in all areas of Film and Television, and being able to take a variety of classes has allowed to me learn about different aspects of film, even if I don’t necessarily want to work with them someday.  For example, I took a class called Film Industry, which was entirely focused on producing films.  Though I don’t necessarily want to produce, I now have the knowledge of how people fund, cast, and promote films, which could be very helpful for me someday if I go into the world of independent filmmaking.

Along the same lines, being able to explore these interests in other areas is something that I believe has made me a stronger storyteller.  Right now, I am taking a class entirely focused on directing.  While this class primarily focuses on how to work with actors in order to get the most effective performance, we also focus on how to make the story come across clearly.  Though we don’t write in this class, it has helped me focus on making sure that the stories I write outside of class are clear and easily interpreted for the screen.

Overall, my advice for your time in COM is to take advantage of the many class options that are offered.  Even if a topic doesn't necessarily interest you at first, maybe its something important to learn about, and better yet, maybe you'll grow to love it!

In his most recent blog post, CA Zach talked a bit about the CAS Focus that all COM students must complete and the ways in which you can work it into your major. That got me thinking a lot about the upcoming Spring semester scheduling as well as one of the biggest concerns potential students always seem to have: our liberal arts foundation requirements, AKA the COM Foundation Requirements.

As an employee of COM Undergraduate Affairs, I constantly speak with prospective students about he various classes they would need to take as a student here.  Something that always seems to concern or at least surprise people is the inclusion of the COM Foundation Requirements, previously known as our Freshman/Sophomore Foundation Requirements.  Often times people seem to worry about fitting these classes into their future schedules or finding classes that will interest them.  Whenever this seems to be a potential students concern, I love to tell them about the endless opportunities that the College of Arts and Sciences provide us in order to fulfill these requirements. 

So, if you are looking at BU and you’re concerned about what you’ll have to take a student here, listen up!  You have so many choices over in CAS.  As a Film student, I was very stressed at the idea of having to take Humanities, History, Philosophy, etc classes.  However, once I actually looked at the extensive list of the classes offered, I discovered just how many options I had.  I took a Film and Philosophy class my first semester here, something that ended up being one of my favorite classes, and guess what?  There goes my philosophy foundation requirement, completed!  I know quite a few people taking a class called Politics of The Wire right now that counts as a Political Science class.  Honestly, any class that lets me watch TV as homework is okay in my book.  And for all you Journalism majors, there is a huge selection of history classes, many of which cover topics relevant to journalism and its history.  

But you know what else is cool about the Foundation Requirements?  The classes you take don’t HAVE be relevant to your major.  As much fun as it is to take a Film Anthropology class, it can also be very cool to take a basic archeology course, or learn about the potential for life on other planets in an Astronomy class.  I think one of the greatest strengths of COM’s liberal arts requirements is that it really forces us to explore other topics, things we might not ever have had an interest in. I know I discovered a love for anthropology because I had to take a social science class, and now I’ve taken that interest and made it into my CAS Concentration (maybe a minor, but that’s still up in the air).

As we approach Spring scheduling (yikes, this semester is really flying by), stay open minded.   Find the classes that seem interesting to you, or find a class that covers a topic you’ve always wanted to learn about.

Here are some recommendations for some great liberal arts classes:

AN101: Cultural Anthropology: This class was great.  I never expected to find anthropology as engaging as I did.  I think what appealed to me most is that much of the course material is old in story form via first hand reports on various cultures, and as a writer, this really connected with me.

Philosophy and Film: This was a great philosophy class, especially for someone without much knowledge on the more “theory” based side of film studies.  It was also a great way to pick up some basic terminology and concepts before taking Understanding Film, a required FTV major class.

MA113: Elementary Stats: Okay, math is not my favorite subject.  But this class made it bearable.  Whenever someone comes to COM Undergrad Affairs to talk about math classes, I always urge people to check out this class.  Its simple, especially if math is not your strongest subject, but everything you learn is valuable in real world situations.  Plus, you don’t have to use a graphing calculator, which is honestly fantastic.  I hate graphing calculators.

I don’t know how many other people deal with this problem, but for me, the end of the semester typically signals stress-time.  This isn’t necessarily due to the amount of finals or final papers I have, but sometimes everything coming to a close for the semester becomes very overwhelming.  Whether its projects in the weeks leading up to finals or the stresses of trying to figure out your summer situation, things seem to pile on quicker than ever as you approach the end of the school year.  Today I am going to share with you some of my favorite ways to escape the stressors of the end of the semester.

1. Go see a movie-  This is my favorite thing to do when things start to get crazy.  I know it could potentially just sound like I’m avoiding my responsibilities, but sometimes you just need a break from reality, and a movie is a perfect way to do that.  Recently, I went to see Zootopia with a few fellow COM Ambassadors after Open House, and it was a super fun time.  Also, if you haven’t seen it, I totally recommend Zootopia.  It was better than Inside Out.  And I’m sure you know how people feel about Inside Out!  Zootopia is that good.
2. Take a walk/go on adventure in the city- We are in Boston!  There are so many places you can reach just by walking for a little while!  At the end of last year I would walk with friends from campus to the harbor and then spend some time in the North End before typically getting some form of pastry (a lot of people would recommend Mike’s for a cannoli, but I really enjoy Modern).  You could also just walk to the Boston Public Garden and spend an afternoon doing some reading or work there.  Its one of my favorite places to go in the city, especially on a nice April/May afternoon when the sun is out and the weather is warm.  Alternatively, you could just take a walk along the esplanade.  Its beautiful in the spring with all the trees in bloom, and if you walk down far enough you can end up at this super fun playground with this weird spider-web playscape.
3. Go to FitRec- I have found that this is one of my favorite ways to escape the stressors of finals period.  Being able to go and  work out is a great way to take your mind off things.  An hour on the elliptical can work wonders fro your mental state.
4. Go to Target- Whoever decided to build a Target near Fenway is my personal savior.  There is something very therapeutic about entering a Target and wandering around for hours while you do your shopping, and that’s a feeling you are most definitely not going to get at other stores like StarMarket.

I know that a lot of these suggestions could just sound like tips to procrastinate doing your work, but remember, breaks are necessary!  The last few weeks of the semester can be a rough time, and if you don’t take a moment for yourself every so often, stress is just going to build up even more.

Good luck with finals, and enjoy the last few weeks of the semester!

As a COM Ambassador, some of my favorite activities from the past two years have been the annual Open House events for prospective students.  I think part of the reason I love Open House so much is mainly due to the wonderful experience I had back when I visited Boston University for the second time.  Being able to go behind the scenes in a way is really eye opening as to how much Boston University and specifically COM itself cares for its students.  It is amazing to see how much work the Undergraduate Affairs department and the COM Ambassadors themselves put into Open House in order to ensure that it is the best experience that it can be for potential Terriers.

However, not all of our accepted students are able to make it to an Open House.  I am aiming this blog post at all of those students who cannot attend so that they can get a bit of a look into just what happens at our Open House events.

There are definitely some highlights to every Open House that we host, and its definitely very hard to determine what exactly my favorite part is, so I’m just going to go through Open House step by step and talk about what makes it so amazing!

The morning typically begins around 7am, which is definitely the only bad part of the day.  However, we move to Tsai auditorium very quickly after that, where we are provided with Starbucks coffee and some fantastic bagels, which really makes up for the fact that we have to wake up before seven a.m. on a Saturday.

From here we move into a variety of presentations.  COM’s Dean Fiedler talks to the prospective students and their parents a bit about the school and everything they will encounter here.  Then it was time for both Claudia and I to talk to the audience, which was a very fun opportunity.  Last year, both of us were just regular ambassadors, but this year as the Coordinators of the program, we were able to get up on stage and help run the show, which was a fantastic experience.  As someone who did a lot of public speaking in high school, it was a lot of fun to be able to bring back those skills.

After this we presented the Open House video, which was Full House themed this year, and featured quite a few of our COM Ambassadors.  Big shout out to Claudia for shooting that video and putting it together!  It was a lot of fun and got a lot of laughs from the audience, and will be online sometime in the next few weeks, so if you want to see it, keep an eye on the COM Ambassador twitter!  The video serves as an introduction to all of our COM Ambassadors, who come rushing down the isles an not the stage, where they tell us a bit about who they are.

We then broke into the three different departmental presentations- Journalism, Mass Communication+Advertising+Public Relations (I like to call it MAPs), and Film and Television.  These are always a lot of fun, and this was my first time attending the MAPs presentation, and it was very cool learning a bit more about their programs since I’ve ever heard Film and Television presentations before. Though I did miss sitting in on the FTV presentation and seeing all of the cool stuff they show, I think all of the departments do a fantastic job of explaining just what it is that they offer the students.

After the presentations we break down into the student and parents lunches.  Its a great chance for students or parents to get to know each other as well as the ambassadors.  Its a lot of fun for us to be able to sit down with prospective students and tell them about all of the experiences we have had here in COM.

Next is one of my favorite parts of the day: The student panel.  This year we had five students who sat down with us to answer all of the questions that students and parents had to offer.  There was a great variety on the panel this year: two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and a freshman expanding across the various majors that we offer here in COM.  It is a great opportunity for students to find out about life here at BU from the perspective of current students.

We end the day with tours of the College of Communication, where all of the prospective students are able to tour the school with our COM ambassadors, which is yet another great way for them to see some of the great things that COM has to offer.  They get see the wonderful resources we offer such as Undergraduate Affairs and the Career Development center, as well as some very cool places in COM like the BUTV10 studios.

I would like to end this post by congratulating all of the students accepted into the BU Class of 2020, and if you aren't able to make Open House and have any questions at all about BU/COM, please feel free to tweet me @kreagsheehan or email me at kreags@bu.edu!

As the winter months approach, a lot of people end up stuck in their dorms as the snow buries our dorms and traps us inside.  Especially for those coming from rural or more suburban areas, its unusual to not be able to run out of your house and jump into the snow.  The city is a totally new experience during winter, but that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty to do!  So, today I’m going to share some potential activities around the city that you can do even when there’s a few dozen feet of snow on the ground.

1. Personally, my favorite thing to do in the winter, especially right after a fresh snow fall, is to take a trip to the Public Garden and Boston Common.  The whole area is absolutely beautiful after it has snowed and its perfect for those of you who love photography.  This is also going to be your only chance to visit the little island that lies in the center of the pond in the public garden, as the water freezes over and you’re able to walk out on to the ice and journey out to the center of the pond!

2. The Esplanade typically has a big snowball fight after the first big snowstorm.  Last year it got cancelled because the storm was soooo bad, but hopefully this year it’ll be back on.  I’ve heard that it’s a lot of fun, and people come from all over the city to take part!  The esplanade in general during the winter is a beautiful place to visit, and also super close to campus!

3. Another great opportunity is ice skating on the frog pond at Boston Common!  I had a few friends who went last year and claimed it was a super fun time.  I plan on going sometime before the end of the semester.

4. The tree lightings across the city are also wonderful events that I wish I could have attended this year!  There’s a great lighting in Faneuil Hall that already happened, but Faneuil Hall during winter in general is a beautiful place to visit.
5. Literally just wandering the city.  Last year I had to do a photography project out in the city in the middle of February and it was a great way to see the city from a whole new perspective.  Somehow I ended up at the fishing pier, which was entirely empty for once and it was super cool to see.  Honestly, losing yourself in the city during the winter is a great experience.

So, there you have it.  Five different activities to keep you busy during the frozen winter months!  Now here's to hoping that we don't break another snowfall record this year...