Bruce Hutchinson, Ph.D.
Professor of Film, Film Program Coordinator
Stanley Russ Hall 202I
teaching specialties and areas of interest:
Screenwriting, Narrative Theory, Cognitive Film Theory, Directing, Cinema History
Ph.D., Film Studies, The University of Kansas, Lawrence (1998)
M.A., Film Studies, The University of Kansas, Lawrence (1995)
B.A., Communication, The American University (1993)
B.A., Literature, The American University (1993)
Bruce is the Director of Graduate Studies for the Digital Filmmaking Program and an Assistant Professor of Digital Filmmaking. He has taught a wide range of course including Script Analysis, Screenwriting, Cinema History, Digital Film I, Digital Film II, Digital Film III, Topics in Digital Filmmaking, and Seminar in Mass Communication. He helped start both the undergraduate and graduate Digital Filmmaking programs. Bruce is a writer/director whose most recent movie, Europa, is a 3D dramatic science-fiction film, currently in post- production. Bruce’s research interests include narrative structure of the classical Hollywood film and cognitive approaches to character and narrative. He has taught at UCA since 2002.
Films
Director/Executive Producer, Europa, 2011
- 15-minute HDV short narrative film
- Currently in post-production
Writer/Director/Executive Producer, Going to Hell, 2010
- 15-minute HDV short narrative film
- Currently in post-production
Writer/Director/Executive Producer, Surfacing, 2009
- 30-minute HDV short narrative film
- Screened at: Little Rock Film Festival (2009); Offshoot FilmFestival (2010)
Writer/Director/Producer, The Truth the Dead Know, 2008
- 7-minute HDV short narrative film
- Winner Best Screenplay, Best Actor at the Little Rock 48 Hour Film National Competition
- Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Use of Dialogue at the Little Rock 48 Hour Film National Competition
Writer/Director/Co-Executive Producer, Abbey and Everything After, 2005
- 30-minute Mini-DV short film
- Formal Screening, 2006 UFVA Conference, Orange, CA
Publications
“Maya Deren and the Birth of the New American Cinema.” Experimental Film: Missing Frames. Ed. Benjamin Meade. 2010.
“Understanding Character Motivation: A Process Oriented Approach to Realism.” Emotion-Empathie-Figur: Spielformen der Filmwahrnehmung. Ed. Thomas Schick and Tobias Ebbrecht. Berlin: Vistas Verlag GmbH, 2008.
“Understanding Character Motivation: A Process Oriented Approach to Realism.” Narration and Spectatorship in Moving Images. Ed. Joseph Anderson and Barbara Fisher Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, Forthcoming (January 2008).
“Report on the Center for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image 2006 Conference” CILECT News. Winter 2006.
“An Attentional Model of Film Viewing.” Journal of Moving Image Studies. Vol 2 (2003/2004). <http://www.avila.edu/departments/journal/fall03/toc.htm>
Paper Presentations
“Unbelievable Actions: Dealing with Unexpected Character Actions in the Classical Hollywood Cinema.” Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. June, 2009.
“Four Act Structure: Exceptions That Prove the Rule.” University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, Denton, TX. August 2007.
“The Filmmaking MFA in the Creative Economy” panel presentation at the University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, Orange, CA, August, 2006.
“Scene Structure in the Hollywood Arch Plot” paper presented at the University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, Orange, CA, August, 2006.
“Understanding Character Motivation: A Process Oriented Approach to Realism” paper presented at “Narration and Spectatorship in Moving Images” the 5th International Conference of the Center for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image Conference, Berlin, Germany, July, 2006.
“Mr. Maslow, Meet Anderson: Understanding Character Goals in the Hollywood Film” paper presented at the University Film and Video Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, August 2005.
Organizations
Member, University Film and Video Association (UFVA), 2001-present
Member, Independent Film Project (IFP), 2006-presentFellow, Society for the Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image, 2006-present
Member, Center for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image, 1998- present