Film School produces 25 years of excellence

Students who dream of making it big in the film industry need look no further than the northeast side of campus.

 According to Film School Exposed, the Film School at SCC is currently ranked seventh best school in not just the United States but across the globe, sandwiched between Emerson College and University of California, and at only a fraction of the cost.

Simple beginnings

SCC’s Film Production School’s humble beginning was kicked off with a mere eight students, four Super 8 cameras and one 16mm camera; all of the equipment could be stored in a single cabinet.  

Penelope Price taught the first Film Production Class in 1985.

“We taught all our classes in either the Music Building or the temporary shacks,” Price said, who also heads  the Film Production Track.  “I remember having to battle first to get that space, then to get permission to hire a student for a few hours a week to help me.”
Twenty-five years later, the school has multiple facilities including two production studios, two editing labs, tiers of rental equipment, a conference/production room and a radio station.

The expansion of the school did not take place overnight. It has been a continuous work in progress – a necessary process for Film School because of rapidly changing technology.

Price did much of the leg-work to get the school started by modeling SCC’s Film School after other highly acclaimed schools.

“I would research good schools like UCLA, USC, Vancouver and NYU to get ideas for classes,” Price said.  She even visited these schools and talked to their faculty to get their advice for developing SCC’s Film Production program and studios.

The school has evolved to include five areas of study: screenwriting, broadcast production, film production, editing and criticism/analysis. The school offers both certificates and associate degrees.

 “I bring in people to do guest lectures and then if they are really good, I hire them,” Price says jokingly.  “That’s how I develop the faculty.”

Price’s latest contribution to the program is the creation of the documentary course, “Lights, Camera, Activism.” Price has shot documentaries in El Salvador, Iraq, Africa and just returned home from working on a documentary in Afghanistan.  

After 25 years, Price is retiring from full-time teaching to follow her passion of filming documentaries. “It’s like I graduated from my own film school – finally!” Price said.

Alums ‘reel’ successful

Adjunct faculty instructor Alden Fahl teaches Sound Design at SCC and is a 2003 alumnus of the film program.  Fahl currently has a production company with a couple friends and is working on a feature- film, all while guiding students in the right direction for careers in the film industry.

“I love being able to help and give inside information,” Fahl said, adding, “not only from the professional side but also from the side of things that I understand them as students.  I have been there before.”

Student successes are a common outcome of Film School graduates. While some graduates continue toward a four-year degree, others go straight to work.  The hallway outside of the faculty office is a testament of this and is covered with postings recognizing students for their accomplishments.  The wall also assists in networking by advertising job prospects for students looking for work experience.

Fahl stresses that while a degree is beneficial, it is still only a piece of paper.  “Keep your networks close and keep them growing…you need luck and a network of people like you that have your same objectives,” said Fahl.

Fahl acquired a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College Chicago after graduating from SCC and asserts that the education he received at Columbia was of equal quality to that of SCC’s, despite the dramatic price difference.  

Top training at SCC prices

Department chair Bert Cutler said that SCC has created an environment where students receive the same standard of education as the “high-price bed” schools, but for a tenth of the cost.  

“Private schools that are available here and in California typically run $28,000 to $38,000 a year.  Coming here (at SCC) costs about $3,500,” said Cutler.

On a trip to Los Angeles to study risk assessment, the idea of being a small-time community college Film School died when Cutler said he “discovered our students are doing equal quantity and equal or better quality of work” than the leading film schools.

This was made apparent again to Cutler in 2007 when Kodak awarded SCC a grant and invited a group of SCC students to do a production.  

“When the showing came of all the different schools that Kodak was sponsoring, our product won hands down. There was not a jury on this, but we went and watched and we saw what our students had done,” said Cutler.

Advanced films developed

As a result of the Film School’s success at the Kodak event, faculty decided to create a unique class that serves as a capstone project for students.  Every semester, students have the opportunity to apply for this advanced class that takes participants through the whole process of film making, “from the germ of an idea to the final product,” Cutler said.
“I am writing a script right now to try to get into the advanced, invite-only class,” said film student Bret Kalmbach.  

Students submit their scripts and then the professors choose three of those scripts.  Next, students who get their scripts chosen put together a team to produce the film.  The team must consist entirely of SCC students, giving students in lower-level classes the chance to crew on a high-end production.  The final products are screened at the annual SCC Film Festival in May.

Akil Williams is one of the students currently working on a capstone project and he said that the school will fund the team anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 to produce the film.
“The film is called ‘Sanctified,’” Williams said. “It’s about a disgruntled boxer with conflict with his wife and (he) tries to get out of the relationship by practicing black magic.”
The film will be roughly 12 minutes long. Williams and his team began working on it in October and will likely complete the final product in April.  Following the movie’s completion, Williams will send it out to the major film festivals in hopes someone will pick it up.

SCC students can check out any equipment they need to shoot films from the “cage,” a room with numerous rows of shelves stocked with film and set equipment.  

Williams, who also works in the cage, explains that the students have to go through all of the legalities in order to check out equipment, which is just one more way the school prepares students for the real world.

Kalmbach was drawn to the school because students get to use equipment from day one in class.  Other schools teach theory for the first couple of years, said Kalmbach.  

Film School family grows

Evening department chair Anna Thorlaksdottir said she prefers the more intimate setting of a community college to that of a large university.

“There is more sense of family or support group. I know pretty much all of the students by name. We call ourselves the Film School family,” said Thorlaksdottir.  

Thorlaksdottir said she loves to teach and credits the students for making SCC’s Film School thrive.

“Our students are here because they really want to be here.  Everybody is eager to learn.  They are fun, driven, great students who want to be in this industry,” says Thorlaksdottir.

That ambition is exactly what is needed, according to former student Jimmy Gadd.
Gadd says that determination coupled with the tools provided by the school is a set-up for success, and Gadd is no stranger to success.  He is currently the assistant editor on the CBS show, “The Mentalist” and has had the opportunity to work on many feature films and television shows.

“SCC gave me what I needed when I wondered about my interest in film as a career and allowed me to try my hand in filmmaking by immersing me in the art so I could make that determination whether or not film was the right path for me,” said Gadd.