Spring 2027

Introduction to Film and Tv Production

A hands-on introduction to creating film, video, and television content from script to screen, covering media production principles and visual storytelling approaches.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Craig Erpelding3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Craig Erpelding

The final exam covered only lecture material, and the student reported that attending lecture and paying attention was sufficient to achieve a good score without the textbook.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Employ the basics of videography and composition

  • Apply the concepts of cinematic storytelling to the production of short video projects

  • Examine a variety of cinematic forms, styles, and production strategies

  • Use industry-standard production tools for screenwriting, pre-visualization, video recording, and motion picture editing

  • Articulate the relationship and deployment of media production to other industries and fields of study

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing or COM ARTS 155

COMARTS 355 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 1 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Craig Erpelding

Craig Erpelding's final exam covered only lecture content, and students reported that attending class and taking notes was sufficient to perform well without the textbook. A reviewer noted that lecture was technically not mandatory, the instructor did not post slides, and a TA handled the majority of grading.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.82 GPA, 91.0% A/AB (n=100 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CRAIG ERPELDING is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online (some classroom)0 / 1280
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 309Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 308Classroom Instruction0 / 160

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Craig Erpelding

The course relied heavily on lecture content for the final exam, and students found success by attending class and taking notes rather than using the textbook.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.45 GPA, 73.9% A/AB (n=111 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.47 GPA, 73.9% A/AB (n=119 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.82 GPA, 91.0% A/AB (n=100 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Craig Erpelding

The final exam covered only lecture material, and the student reported that attending lecture and paying attention was sufficient to achieve a good score without the textbook.

Past student reviews · Craig Erpelding

The instructor did not post lecture slides, and while lecture was technically optional, the student noted that obtaining good notes from a friend was necessary if missing class.

Topics

  • Principles and practices of media production.
  • Visual storytelling.
  • Cinematic forms, styles, and production strategies.

Skills

  • Screenwriting, videography, production design, and editing.
  • Basics of videography and composition.
  • Applying cinematic storytelling to short video project production.
  • Using industry-standard production tools for screenwriting, pre-visualization, recording, and editing.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
COMARTS 355 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Film and TV Production

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:250:003814",
    "course_id": "COMARTS 355",
    "course_uid": "course_b06371c7d81e67a2dd64144f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "003814",
    "source_subject_id": "250",
    "title": "Introduction to Film and TV Production",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "5eb1beb69252d2dd51c030fc273295659ece7f742f567b69bdca0bb5b8c19ec7",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}