I have suggested elsewhere that Joss Whedon might be considered a “film studies auteur,” the successor to that generation (Scorsese, Lee, Lucas) who went to film school and those obsessives (like Tarantino) who learned their visual culture at the video store. Whedon  learned to think seriously about cinematic narrative at Wesleyan, where his professors included prominent film historian Jeanine Basinger and American studies scholar Richard Slotkin.

 Wesleyan

Jeanine Basinger		Richard Slotkin
	Joss Whedon