Screenwriting Workshop

Amanda Kraus has been teaching college-level courses for 13 years in video editing, sound recording and mixing, and post-production. Ms. Kraus participated in curriculum development at Columbia College of Hollywood and course development at George Mason University. Ms. Kraus’ significant professional experience bolsters her teaching experience: 11 years serving as Senior Editor / Senior Producer and Director at GMU-TV. Ms. Kraus has managed the build and design of instructional Foley facilities (post-production sound recording), served as Assistant Engineer at Paramount Recording Studios and Director of Post-Production Operations at Sonic Surgery.

Her numerous television awards include seven Telly Awards, a Gracie Award, and Teacher of the Year at Columbia College Hollywood. Beyond her B.A. from Columbia College, Ms. Kraus earned a certificate from the Recording Engineer Program at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA where she also taught a Studio Basics course. She has taught an extensive range of courses: Advanced Editing, Video Editing, Motion Graphics, Studio Basics (sound engineering), History of Film Editing, Producers Workshop, Principles of Editing, Video Production Workshop, ADR/Foley, Production Sound, Script Writing, Film Scoring, Final Cut Pro, AVID Editing, Sound Design, and Acting for Directors. Ms. Kraus has a BA in Film and Television from Columbia College, Hollywood.

Benjamin Steger has been making films and videos since the 1990’s. He has considerable experience as a director, producer, documentary cinematographer, editor, and sound recordist for documentary, fiction and institutional films. He holds an M.F.A. in Film and Video from Columbia College Chicago and a B.A. in Theater and Film from the University of Kansas.  

His latest project, Vibrations, is a documentary series on contemporary world music, the first season focusing on the music cultures of Southeast Asia. The project received a 2018 Summer Impact Grant from George Mason University’s Office of the Provost which enabled four Mason undergraduate Film and Video Studies students to work with Steger in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam on the series.

His documentary, Stage Four: A Love Story, was awarded “Best International Feature Length Documentary” at the 2016 DOCFeed Documentary Festival in the Netherlands and “Best Feature Length Documentary” at the 69th Annual University Film and Video Association International Conference in 2015. 

Left Field, a feature length documentary directed by Steger about an oddball community of artists, musicians and misfits that coalesce around the grade school game of kickball, screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago as well as the Austin, DocuWest and DocuFest film festivals among many others. 

Great Bend, a short fiction film written and directed by Steger was selected as a “Critic’s Pick—Best of Festival” at the 2006 Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee by film critic Robert Butler of the Kansas City Star.

Steger was commissioned by the National Park Service to create two short videos that were made in cooperation with George Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication. Mason students and alumni acted as crew, gaining valuable experience and employment. 

Adapting for the Future: National Parks and Climate Change Resilience screened at the 2016 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital while Stewards of the Parks won Best Film in the Hope Category at the Film Festival for Climate Change in Portland, Oregon.

Steger has been nominated three times for Mason’s Teaching Excellence Award and once for Mason’s OSCAR Mentoring Excellence Award. He created and directs the Mason Community Arts Academy Film and Video Summer camp for adolescents.