 "Photo: Photo by Josh O'Bright")
UW-Oshkosh Radio-Television-Film program proves to be an enticing prospective career path for many college freshmen, luring them in from all corners of the Midwest. This may be attributed to Douglas Heil, coordinator of the RTF program and its director for nine and a half years. Heil’s term concluded in the summer of 2009, with his colleague Troy Perkins replacing him as coordinator.
During the course of nearly a decade, Heil, an advocate of “larger picture thinking,” has proved to be a progressive influence on a previously confining major.
“Too often in academia, walls are built to protect domains,” Heil said. “Since these walls do not exist in the professional world, they need to be dismantled.”
According to Heil, some students tend to be attracted to one facet of the program, which can be problematic, for the ideal communication major must be an effective mass media communicator.
“Philosophically I have advocated the broadest possible education for RTF majors,” Heil said. “Achieving this entailed abolishing the strait-jacket emphasis tracks that used to be here, developing upper-level theory courses so we could evolve beyond being just a hands-on program.”
Heil stressed the program’s devotion to its students.
“We have aggressively pursued every funding dollar for years, and as a result we have remarkably professional facilities for a mass media program at a regional university,” Heil said.
The program itself is multi-faceted and includes single-camera film and video production, multi-camera TV production, radio production, history, theory, screenwriting, management and marketing.
“It’s unusual for a small-industry oriented program to offer this much history and theory, and to explore the aesthetics to the degree that we do within production courses,” Heil said.
Heil’s methodology has been most beneficial for the University; during his tenure, 60 different student projects have won citations in national competitions. Heil also received the UW System Regents Teaching Excellence Award in 2008 and his book “Prime-Time Authorship,” which outlines the correlation between personal work and the mechanized formula of commercial television, has been published by Syracuse University. In addition, Heil has also written and produced numerous motion picture shorts, three of which have won awards.
The success and growth of the RTF program within the past decade is relatable to Heil’s roots as a student. Upon receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois with a major in English and a minor in Anthropology and classical civilization, Heil debated between his future career paths.
“I stalled until the absolute last minute,” Heil states. “I couldn’t decide between English, anthropology and geology.”
The vast majority of students waffle over choosing their major at one point or another. Heil’s confession wasn’t just refreshingly candid, it also illustrated why he empathizes with the indecisive outliers stamped “undeclared.”
A graduate of Northwestern University with a Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking, Heil emphasized the importance of mentors.
“Originally, I had not considered teaching as a career option,” Heil said. “An excellent production professor told me I had been selected for a teaching assistant position.
Looking a gift horse in the mouth, I replied I wasn’t interested. He just looked at me-as if he were facing an inscrutable Martian-and then he abruptly said, ‘Well, that’s too bad. I need an assistant, I picked you, and you’re going to be my assistant.’ And so I became his assistant, and to my surprise, I found I loved teaching.”
It is also evident that students within the RTF program find Heil’s approach most gratifying. RTF major Peter Murphy has seen Heil’s value within the major first hand.
“Doug is very personal with the students,” Murphy said. “It is a great privilege for the department to have him as a teacher. He is also the advisor of the Film Society and is always very proud of student’s works.”
RTF major Jonathan Brandt was drawn to Heil during Cinema Techniques, Brandt’s first course with Heil.
“During Cinema Tech, Doug’s quirky, laid-back personality made it easier to pay attention,” Brandt said. “Doug is very passionate about his students, and great at finding out how you learn.”
Outside of his career Heil stressed the importance of marriage and fatherhood within his own life. Heil’s wife, a Columbia filmmaking graduate, legitimately understands the essence of his projects and they have collaborated on several films in the past.
The collaboration of the Heils extends further; they have two children, Stephanie and Steven, and he plays an active role in each of their lives.
“Parenthood is a pleasure I take seriously,” Heil said. “Stephanie keeps me current on music. My son Steven and I are completing a book of satirical verse for older children … I wrote the verse and he drew the illustrations.”
Aside from his pivotal role at the University, Heil hopes to continue his prose and poetry writing for children. In addition, a book concerning screenwriting is on the horizon, as well as a potential essay concerning the art of music videos.
Heil’s well-rounded and accomplished persona is, in fact, made better by the following statement:
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