Vanessa Theme Ament and her students created a documentary, Amplified, that focused on interviews with women who work in film sound in the New York and Los Angeles film industries. The goal was to allow women’s perspectives of life and work in film—in an era of continuing revelations about gendered workplaces—to be highlighted in an aspect of movie making that is often overlooked and misunderstood.
The goal, in addition to the obvious of hearing the voices of the women, is to better understand the obstacles and opportunities they experience in the world of film making, expose the students to the Hollywood industrial method of movie making, and to allow them to integrate their classroom and student experiences with those of the film professionals.
Students were encouraged to think of the semester as a workshop and professional boot camp, where they might be confronted with situations that required critical thinking skills past their normal experiences to date.