Re-designing
the Movies:
How Art Center
is Uniquely
Educating the
Next
Generation of
Filmmakers
by
Rebecca Epstein
Continued:
Based on his own experience as a young screenwriting student, LaManna decided to assemble a faculty comprised solely of industry professionals who teach part-time. “The instructors who gave me the most accurate entrée into how things work and the skills that will get you a career in the business were all working professionals,” he says. Of course, at any given time, one-third of the instructors are off working in the field, so the Department has to be very nimble. “Fortunately, we are not like a big university where you don’t have much flexibility.” The secret, LaManna says, is having a “very strong bench.”
For example, Directing 1 is taught by Bobby Roth, who started his career as a writer-director of critically-acclaimed indie films and now has more than 70 network one-hour directing credits on shows like Lost and The Mentalist. “We had to move the class to Saturday morning because Bobby is always working,”
Ross LaManna
“The practical, how-to knowledge his
students learn is informed by directing
experiences he has had that very week.”
Natalija Nogulich, an actor who has had roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, The West Wing, Red Widow and Suburgatory, and will next appear in the upcoming HBO biopic on Phil Spector starring Al Pacino, teaches Acting Workshop for Directors, in which she educates aspiring directors on how to get great performances from actors. Students often say it’s one of their most challenging classes. “But that’s what it’s going to be out there in the film biz—challenging!” says Nogulich.
“There is a mistaken presumption that acting is simple, just say the words and hit your mark,” says Nogulich, who has taught at Art Center since 2007. “The second erroneous presumption is that directors can get what they want from an actor by doing it for them. These misconceptions are shattered on day one of my class.”
Students also benefit from the expertise of Affonso Beato, ASC, renowned cinematographer (The Queen, Nights in Rodanthe, Love in the Time of Cholera), who in 2009 developed for Art Center a stereoscopic 3D cinematography program and lab, the first at any U.S. film school. He also teaches Advanced Cinematography, which includes preparing students for job interviews.
Beato admits that working with students makes him better at his craft. “Sometimes I can’t answer a question, so we’ll research the answer together,” he says. Drawing on his early background in computer science and mathematics, he and some of his students developed an iPhone and iPad app called SD3D that calculates best shooting distances for 3D films.
Beato heralds Art Center’s creative environment. “You’re immersed in visual design here,” he says, praising the frequent collaborations among film students with those in other design disciplines.
Affonso Beato
“In film, design is a collective art.”
