Students who were interested in the course applied and were interviewed and evaluated based on their past experience and portfolio. “I’m expecting that I’m going to start to see quite a difference in what they’re capable of doing right out of the gate,” Kout said. Kout has been involved in SOU’s film school for years and hired students as interns to help make his movies. Gary Kout, an adviser to “The Crew Experience” who also owns Ashland-based Elsewhere Films, applauded Gay for creating the new course. In that sense, “I think what we’re addressing with ‘The Crew Experience’ isn’t a lack of knowledge, but really is that lack of opportunity,” he said.
Gay added several SOU alumni have told him that prior to graduation, they had never been on a professional movie set. “So we needed to create an environment … that felt more professional.” “Our students can make films, but they might be in a position where they would embarrass themselves if they walked onto a professional set,” he said. When there is no professional set to use for learning, Gay said, that can lead student filmmakers to take on too many roles in filmmaking or cut corners in production and not produce the best possible movie. “The impetus behind this program is that we’ve been offering filmmaking for a long time and our students are making solid films, but what we found when we visited our student sets is that they don’t look like professional sets,” said Andrew Gay, principal architect of “The Crew Experience” and associate professor and chair of communication, media and cinema at SOU. The university recently announced the launch of “The Crew Experience,” a 12-credit, one-term course that makes for a film and media program unlike any other in the Pacific Northwest.
Stranger Things season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.SOU course focuses lens on real-world filmmaking with experienced mentors and top-of-the-line equipmentįilm students at Southern Oregon University are dusting off their camera lenses - after a two-year pandemic delay - in a new course that teaches how to professionally shoot movies.
With two episodes remaining before Stranger Things season 4 comes to an end, there’s still time for Will to figure some things out and share them with both his friends and the audience at home - if the show lets him. And it’s understandable that actors and writers may not want to give that up ahead of the narrative itself.
At best, it goes over the heads of viewers embracing a heteronormative world at worst, it reinforces the idea that being quiet about being gay so as not to upset the status quo is preferable.Īt the same time, stories can take time to unfold, and characters - especially young characters - can take time to figure out who they are. Many fans have pointed out that with conservatives fighting to roll back acceptance for LGBTQ+ people, now is not an ideal time for media to embrace the concept of no labels for queer people. “I think that’s the beauty of it, that it’s just up to the audience’s interpretation, if it’s Will kind of just refusing to grow up and growing up slower than his friends, or if he is really gay.” “I feel like they never really address it or blatantly say how Will is,” Schnapp recently told Variety. In particular, the seemingly wishy-washy comments from cast and crew declining to label Will have been the topic of debate since the first chunk of the final season came out last week. He fits a lot of stereotypes, and the show’s reluctance to canonize his potential queerness has been of frustration to fans as the character has gotten older. Questions about Will’s sexuality have persisted since the early days of the show, particularly before the Netflix hit introduced any queer characters at all. I think you find out slowly through the season, Will’s kind of love towards Mike, and I think it’s a really beautiful thing.”
Stranger Things has captivated audiences since the monster-centric supernatural series first premiered on Netflix back in 2016, but as we creep towards the final two episodes of the season, one of the main questions on fans' minds has been something much more human: Is Will Byers gay?įinn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler, Will's best friend and the person many have speculated the now-15-year-old character is in love with, is the latest cast member to weigh in on Will’s sexuality.ĭigital Spy recently asked the actor if he thinks Will’s feelings towards Mike are “shifting towards a more endearing, kind of heartfelt, romantic affection.” Unlike other actors who have tip-toed around the question a bit, Wolfhard answered affirmatively.