Dr. Greg Carlson
Chair/Professor, Communication Studies and Theatre Art
Program Director, Film Studies and Media Activities

Lifelong Love for Film

Dr. Greg Carlson has always had a fascination with the fantastical. His earliest memories include being drawn to fictional worlds and creatures through various forms of media. 

This love of science fiction hit its peak when Carlson’s father took him to the Fargo Theatre to see “Star Wars” when he was 5 years old.

“I’ve always been a pretty voracious consumer of popular culture, but that was when I realized this is what I want to do,” he said.

His dream of working with film was realized when Carlson took over teaching film studies classes in 2001. He is also director of the film studies program.

Carlson also works as the projects producer for the. Over the years, he has developed several initiatives, including the two-minute movie contest. The film festival has one of the longest-running short-form filmmaking competitions of its kind.

Some career highlights Carlson experienced through the film festival include the attendance of Fargo native Richard Edlund, the special effects cinematographer for the original “Star Wars” trilogy who won Oscars for all three films, and the dual attendance of Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel. Flanagan is the director of well-known episodic horror series on Netflix such as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Siegel is an actress in these projects as well as many horror movies.

All three of these film celebrities have visited Concordia’s campus and spoken to Carlson’s students. They shared stories, answered questions, and provided a unique experience for students interested in film, Carlson said.

“The value of film studies is that, contained within our desire to be storytellers, is the capacity for empathy. Roger Ebert once described the best films as being empathy machines, which is a kind of reductive way of saying that we can look at a story about a person who may not resemble us on the surface but whose struggles and experiences resonate through empathy and identification,” he said. “I am by nature an introverted person. I get a lot of energy from observing, reading, consuming, and ingesting this culture. Ever since I was little, I feel like movies helped me closely identify with characters I was seeing on screen.”

Carlson completed a bachelor’s degree in English and speech communication with an emphasis in film and telecommunication from Minnesota State University Moorhead, a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and a doctorate in communication from North Dakota State University before teaching at Concordia.

^{Working with students while filming Concordia On-Air, the student-run weekly newscast}

Cinema-Based Curriculum

Something Carlson sees in each of his students is the capacity for potential.

“Every year, I have a small handful of students who have decided to take a risk and are working outside their comfort zone. They’ll tell me right away they are nervous, but that’s equally as exciting for me as someone who has a deep background in film,” he said. “Because, by the end of the semester, if our work together has been successful, they usually feel more confident and think the class was worthwhile to take.”

Carlson teaches Audio Production and Podcasting, Analyzing Film (a film theory course), Global Cinema (primarily non-English language films), and a variety of other related courses.

In the fall, he teaches Video Production and Appreciating Film.

Video Production is part of more than one program at Concordia. Although it is offered through the communication studies and theatre art department, it also fulfills credits for the multimedia journalism program, film studies minor, and environmental and sustainability studies program. This course is an introduction to the production process, which includes writing, shooting, and editing.

“It’s designed so that there’s no experience necessary,” Carlson said. “Anyone with an interest can take the course and then hopefully attain transferable skills in terms of what I like to call visual storytelling, which can be fiction or nonfiction.”

Appreciating Film is an option to meet a Core graduation requirement and a wide range of students typically take the course.

“Students learn about the production process, but we also use analytical critique to look at the content of the feature films we watch in class,” he said. “We watch two movies pretty much every week all semester.”

However, Carlson says that Analyzing Film is by far his favorite course to teach and is offered every other spring.

“The discussions that we have in class are so exciting,” he said. “It never gets old to hear people’s reactions and perspectives on films they may be seeing for the first time but that I’ve seen many times.”

A unique opportunity students have through the film studies program is to earn a PEAK (Pivotal Experience in Applied Knowledge) by taking the Documentary and Historical Film course that Carlson teaches.

Students will work with an off-campus organization in our community as part of their PEAK. This is designed to have students grapple with not only the issues of how to tell a slightly longer form story but also touch on the social and political realms of storytelling.

“I always encourage them, after the film is made, to share it with the subjects of the film — no matter whether they think it’s good or bad. I always think it’s good,” Carlson said. “To me, it’s not always about the destination. It’s about the journey, to use a cliche. I think it’s very rewarding to share and see the reactions.”

Sometimes, at the end of the semester, the film subjects are invited to class so they can see the completed film for the first time. Carlson noted that this experience is often powerful and emotional.

“For any of the film classes I teach at Concordia, my desire is that students will take away a better understanding of how visual narrative works, how to ‘read’ a movie, and how to be critical consumers of any content we’re ingesting,” he said.

Bridging Disciplines 

Most of the courses that Carlson teaches are interdisciplinary and have crossover in the film studies, communication studies, and multimedia journalism programs.

“As it exists at Concordia, the multimedia journalism program has a big umbrella approach. The notion of strictly hard news, some might even say an old-fashioned approach to journalism, isn’t going to be as sustainable as a broader understanding of how all these technologies intersect and converge together,” he said. “If you’re going to be a journalist right now, and you cannot only write but also know how to shoot and edit video or have some fundamental skills in web design or can put together a podcast, you’re going to be prepared to be successful.”

The field of multimedia journalism is never static, Carlson said. There are changes that happen as quickly as the news cycles, which makes the field perfect for people who enjoy a dynamic and fast-paced work environment.

In addition to getting to know students through teaching, Carlson is the advisor of and , two of the three co-curricular programs focused on multimedia journalism.

“The students get involved with them because they’re really interested and they enjoy it,” he said. “These are non-credit-bearing activities, so they participate because they want to build skills they can use postgraduation.”

Concordia On-Air is a live 30-minute news magazine show produced by students. It covers campus, community and, in some cases, national or international news. Carlson meets with students Wednesday nights to prepare the different segments and go over what the show will look like.

The students who get involved vary from those who study media and film to those looking to improve oral performance and presentation skills or camera skills to those who enjoy the behind-the-scenes tech aspect, he said.

KORD Radio is a student-run station that allows students to pre-produce podcast content. They can pre-record episodes of a show to create a season or series of completed content or they can do a live show.

“Most people play music, but there’s no limitation on the kind of content students are allowed to design or develop as part of their show,” he said. “We have talk shows, sports shows, and music.”

Carlson started working on these co-curricular activities right after he was hired at Concordia in 2001. He fondly remembers working with Dr. Don Rice, the head of media studies activities at the time, for nearly 20 years.

It’s exciting to watch them grow.

“Because these activities are entirely student-run, there’s an executive level of leadership that provides an opportunity for students who want to get a feel for collaborating and managing a team of people,” Carlson said. “By the time someone becomes a leader, they may have worked on the show for several years and it’s exciting to watch them grow.”

The third co-curricular program focused on multimedia journalism is the student-run newspaper, , which Erin Hemme Froslie advises.

On top of these activities, Carlson also assists his students with internship opportunities. In previous years, he has helped students find internships at local news stations, allowed students to assist him with the Fargo Film Festival, and has taken students to the to develop skills they are learning in class, such as conducting interviews and writing entertainment journalism.

He has connected students with filmmakers and publicists at Sundance to help students expand their knowledge and skills in multimedia journalism and filmmaking.

“I think the students who are motivated, who are already thinking about what they might want to do, we can work with the Center for Student Success to help them find an internship and make it happen,” he said.

This year, Carlson took over as chair of the communication studies and theatre art department. While this new role is exciting, he said, there is a lot of responsibility in running a department that is so large.

The CSTA department is responsible for administering the required first-year course of Communicating to Engage. Carlson said that, over the past couple of years, the department has been developing considerable changes to the curriculum.

Carlson also welcomed two new faculty members to the department, Dr. Samantha Archer and Dr. Connor Wilcox.

"I’m so excited to work with people new to the department and try to make them feel welcome,” he said. “I’m confident that their classes will be successful.” 

Classroom Connections

Carlson said his experience at Concordia has been one of resounding support.

“There is such a strong emphasis on teaching and on that student-professor dynamic. I love that I am doing something I’m passionate about, and I am hopeful that the excitement I have about the content I get to teach is visible to the students I teach,” he said. “I know that not everybody who takes a film class is going to be as into movies as I am, but there are always people who find it really exciting.”

The college’s small size allows the opportunity to center on students as whole individuals. Academics are at the core, but there is also a focus on nourishing passion.

Carlson said that when he meets with prospective students one of the most frequent questions is why a liberal arts education is so important. His response is that it gives students the skills to think critically, especially when it comes to topics that may be uncomfortable to discuss.

His advice for incoming students is to fully embrace the variety of opportunities that are present at a place like Concordia.

“You can explore outside of your comfort zone and across the curriculum in a liberal arts college,” he said. “Be open to new experiences.”

Carlson acknowledged that this can sound scary but that being open to failure is a part of life. He said that making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn and advises students to think of it as the start of the next step instead of the end.

“I didn’t set out to work at a place like Concordia, but different doors kept opening and, like I say to my students, take advantage of the opportunities afforded to you,” he said. “I’ve now been here for almost a quarter of a century.”

^{Published November 2024}