Reposted from CSUN Today

One of the first people photographed on the red carpet and featured on the 2020 Golden Globe Awards® homepage was a CSUN student.

Alejandra Guzman, working at the film and television industry awards ceremony Jan. 5, was captured by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) member Luca Celada, and her picture was posted online.

But Guzman wasn’t nominated for an award or a guest at the ceremony — she was hard at work on the red carpet. Since 2017​, CSUN has partnered with the HFPA to have two or three CSUN students enrolled in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts (CTVA) intern at the Golden Globes. When it came time to recommend a new set of interns for the 77th annual Golden Globes, CSUN professor and Film Production Option Head Nate Thomas knew exactly whom to send: seniors Guzman and Kaelin McDonald.

Guzman worked as a runner throughout the night — a person who goes on the red carpet to drop off clean video cards in exchange for content-full cards from the camera operator — and had to look and act like she belonged there if the cameras caught her.

“Of course, I only attempted entrances where I was allowed, but when you display a great sense of confidence, it tells the other person that you know where you are and what you are doing,” Guzman said.

CSUN has partnered with HFPA since 1996 to support film students and help them find a foothold in the industry. The HFPA frequently gives grants to fund student film projects. In 2016, the HFPA donated $2 million to CSUN to enhance technology in the CTVA department and help create the HFPA Scholars program, in which students receive sizable scholarships and are mentored by CTVA faculty and industry professionals. McDonald was the 2019-20 recipient of the scholarship.

McDonald and Guzman are highly regarded by their peers and CSUN faculty — Thomas recalled that before she received her scholarship, McDonald volunteered hours of her time assisting an editing teacher and tutoring students to ensure they understood the material.

“They are students that peers aren’t jealous of, but look up to,” said Thomas, who also attended the event.

Guzman, the first in her family to earn a high school diploma and attend college, was recommended for the Golden Globes because of her social media skills, Thomas said. Described as a “go-getter,” Guzman was the social media manager and a multimedia team manager in CSUN Student Housing. For the Golden Globes, she served as an HFPA media intern for the event’s website, periodically uploading live updates on red carpet looks with fashion credits, interviews, speakers, winners, winners being photographed and anything else worth noting.

“Through this experience, I learned that multiple skills are needed in such an environment,” Guzman said. “You must [draw on] knowledge about your job area, pop culture, fashion, people, and even food.”

People skills are paramount, she added.

“You must know how to interact with people, and maybe not necessarily make them love you, but at least appreciate you,” she said. “The way you present yourself also plays a big role. I made sure that I looked presentable and held confidence, but not ego, wherever I went.”

McDonald was a last-minute addition, Thomas said. The Friday before the awards, he was asked to recommend another student to assist producer and actress Silvia Bizio during the HFPA Viewing Party and After-Party, and he knew McDonald would be perfect for the job.

McDonald worked as Bizio’s right hand during the event, making sure party guests were taken care of, and she even helped hand out HFPA gift bags to Golden Globe winners while they waited to have their awards engraved.

“As a film student with big dreams to work in film and television, it was a dream come true — dressing up in a gown, walking the red carpet, mingling with filmmakers and celebrities, and honoring the best at one of the biggest events in Hollywood,” McDonald said.

McDonald and Guzman said they walked away from the event grateful and inspired, confidently looking forward to their careers in film and TV.

“It gives them self esteem, and it gives them understanding that they, too, can make it,” Thomas said.

“They are exceptional students,” he said. “I’m touched when I see them living their dreams.”

Reposted from CSUN TODAY

By the time she enrolled at CSUN, Talicia Raggs already had built an impressive resume, writing for or producing television shows such as “NCIS: New Orleans,” “The Originals” and many others since the mid-2000s. With her experience, Raggs knew she had a lot of knowledge to offer and wanted to teach. With only a bachelor’s degree, however, every time a teaching opportunity came up, she was out of the running.

“People were not only looking for candidates with great experience, but who also had terminal degrees,” said Raggs, referring to the highest degree one can achieve in one’s field — in her case, screenwriting. Raggs received her bachelor’s degree from USC.

She turned to what she describes as “one of the best-kept secrets in town”: CSUN.

“CSUN has great programs, great, top-notch facilities, caring and helpful instructors, all for an unbelievable value,” Raggs said, calling her decision to pursue her degree at CSUN a “no-brainer.”

She recently made industry news when she was hired by PatMa Productions at CBS to write a pilot for “Never Tell,” an upcoming series based on the book by Georgia political figure Stacey Abrams — first published in 2004 under the pen name Selena Montgomery. Abrams became a national household name as the Democratic party’s 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate and the first African American woman to deliver a response to the State of the Union address.

“Never Tell” is a romance novel that follows linguist and criminal psychologist Dr. Erin Abbott as she investigates a potential serial killer in New Orleans, along with her love interest, journalist Gabriel Moss.

“We’re all very excited for Talicia,” said Scott Sturgeon, screenwriting professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator for the screenwriting program. “She’s a wonderful writer and the perfect person to bring the Stacy Abrams project to the screen. We’re happy Talicia chose to pursue her MFA at CSUN. Our program is a home to aspiring writers and industry professionals, and our graduates are working in television, features, animation and as creative executives. This fall we’re hiring a new full-time faculty member with extensive professional experience in television writing. We look forward to following Talicia’s career and hope she’ll come back soon and teach for us.”

CSUN’s MFA in Screenwriting is a 42-unit, two-year terminal-degree program that focuses on mastering the foundation for all cinema and TV narrative — the script. It also prepares those who have a passion for teaching at the college and university levels, including experienced industry professionals. The program includes a look at the history of and critical approaches to film and television, a thorough exploration of screen narrative aesthetics, tools and methodologies, and the writing of several scripts, including a culminating feature-film or episodic television project. Applications are accepted from October to February.

Raggs got her first writing job in 2005 on a show that never aired, and she has since worked on shows such as “Switched at Birth,” “Saving Grace” and “Ironside.”

She landed the job writing for “Never Tell” after pitching an adaptation of the book for TV. Balancing work and school hasn’t been easy, she said, “but I’m very grateful to have helpful and understanding instructors who go out of their way to accommodate my schedule when need be.”

Her cohort of MFA classmates are helpful as well, sharing notes or recording any lectures she might miss, Raggs added.

“Now that I’m completing my MFA at CSUN, the next time the perfect teaching opportunity comes up, I’ll be prepared,” she said.

In the late 1970s, Thelma Vickroy was the only female student in her film class at California State University, Fullerton. As a graduate student at NYU in the early ’80s, she was one of three. Now the chair of the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge and an award-winning documentarian, Professor Vickroy says more than 50 percent of CSUN's program is comprised of women.

“The face of the student body has changed dramatically,” she says.

But as evidenced by the recent awards season (zero Oscar, Golden Globe or BAFTA nominations for female directors), women still face an uphill battle in Hollywood.

(Click here to read the entire story in CSU SYSTEM NEWS)

Graduating senior Ravhel Granillo will be attending the Production and Directing Program at UCLA in the fall.  A stellar student, Rachel is interested in social issue documentary.   "I am passionate about helping others. I hope to provide a voice for those who are silenced by tyranny, injustice, and maltreatment. Documentary film has the power to inform, educate, and make people better citizens through shared stories. I hope to be able to partner with non-profit organizations to create  social awareness of topics that go overlooked by mainstream media and governmental policy. The issues I would like to cover are civil rights violations and the environmental crisis. With these films, I would like to inform people and create a sense of empathy among viewers. I believe that the power of compelling documentary films can change the world."

Congratulations to Laura Gonzales, 2007 Graduate from Television Production Option,  for starting a new position as Director of Operations and Events at Disney Television Animation. Laura was promoted from Senior Manager of Facilities and Operation at the Walt Disney Company where she had worked from December 2017 through her promotion in March 2020

Reposted from CSUN TODAY

In the week following George Floyd’s brutal death and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests across the nation, “The Help” was the number one trending movie on Netflix.

Films like “The Help” — a period piece set during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement that follows a white woman’s relationship with black maids — may leave viewers feeling positive about society’s progress when it comes to race — a feeling that raises concern among critics, including California State University, Northridge film professors Michael Johnson Jr. and Nate Thomas. They worry that such movies often frame racism as a problem of the past, or that the problems caused by systemic racism can be easily solved by a white benefactor.

Johnson and Thomas — both men of color — argued that movies featuring “white saviors” can have an adverse effect on viewers.

Such films can make people of color feel as though they need to be saved and cannot save themselves, and can make white viewers see themselves as the center of stories involving people of color, they said.

“I think it’s showing a very strong people as being weak,” said Thomas, head of the film option in CSUN’s Department of Cinema and Television Arts. “It’s a societal thing, that you won’t get [anything] accomplished without the white man.”

Johnson, an assistant professor of media theory and criticism, defined a “white savior” in movies as a white character who rescues non-white characters from unfortunate circumstances.

“One of the indispensable features of the white savior is that, in the process of saving or rescuing those characters — who may or may not actually need rescuing — they typically learn something valuable or some oral lesson along the way,” Johnson said.

Thomas pointed out that “white saviors” pop up frequently in the real world, likely both as the result of and feeding into the trope. He singled out the recent protests against racial injustice and police brutality, noting that serious attention was not paid to the protesters’ demands by the general public and many policy makers until white protesters joined in.

“Society has an impact on cinema, but more importantly, I think, cinema has an impact on society,” Thomas said.

Johnson called Hollywood a business whose leaders lean toward stories they know are formulaically built for success — films that would appeal to a white liberal audience.

He and Thomas noted that, in the past, movies that focus on the lives of people of color might not have been made if they didn’t have a white director — a real life “white savior” — behind them.

Thomas recalled a conversation he once had with acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg about “Amistad” and “The Color Purple” — both films historical dramas focusing on black characters — and discovering that neither film, both critical and box office successes, would not have been made if Spielberg hadn’t stepped in to lead the projects.

Thomas and Johnson have no objection to heroic white characters in film, as long as the character does not take center stage when the story is supposed to be about people of color, they said.

“Until people are more aware of the white savior trope and understand how it functions — in film and in television and the mass media — it’s going to continue to exist because audiences are the drivers of demand for Hollywood,” Johnson said. “And until those audiences express a desire for something other than that, Hollywood has a vested interest in continuing to provide that for them.”

Reposted from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (August 19, 2020)

The Top 25 Film Schools

By Mia Galuppo and Kirsten Chuba

A career behind the camera begins at these elite institutions (even as COVID-19 complicates curricula)

With both entertainment and higher education deeply impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown, top film schools across the US spent the summer break reassessing established curricula. Many programs are moving classes completely online to comply with local and state health restrictions (student films will mostly be shot on cellphones and star family member and roommates). Colleges, universities and conservatories alike are filing in the gaps in their promised programs with Zoom lectures from top talents like Taika Waititi and Spike Lee, and hoping to hold makeup physical production classes over the spring and summer breaks in 2021, assuming the work returns to relative normality by then.

But no matter how they are handling the pandemic, all of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's top film programs are committed to ensuring their graduates will be ready for a career in Hollywood—whatever it may look like.  Whether it's adding new virtual and augmented reality labs (like University of California Los Angeles), or offering more courses in Black film theory (USC, Chapman, CalArts and UT Austin are among the schools to do so), these programs air to evolve with the industry and educate the storytellers and executives who will shape the future of entertainment—even if that future currently on hold.

#25 CAL STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE

This state school offers a cost-effective education that has the added value of being Los Angeles-adjacent. And thanks to a grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the department of cinema and television is finishing a three-year cycle of updating production facilities, which includes new camera, sound and lighting equipment. Curriculum additions include a dedicated documentary production program, while extracurricular adds include a gallery devoted to the art of film posters, and upgraded script library and a public screening series that centers on21st century LGBTQ films and rock'n'roll fare.

NOTABLE ALUMNI: Glenn S. Gainor (Head of Physical Production at Screen Gems), Ami Cohen (Executive Direcotr of Television at Lionsgate), and John Hampian (VP Physical Production at Lucasfilm)

Reposted from CSUN TODAY

Two CSUN Cinema and Television Arts alumni were recognized for their work in the television industry at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

Arielle Kilker ’11 (Film Production) took home two Emmys for her work on the acclaimed Netflix docuseries “Cheer.” Ryan Mallick ’10 (TV Production) won a statue for his work on the VH1 reality series “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Kilker, a first-time nominee, was honored twice for her work on “Cheer”: one for Outstanding Picture Editing for an Unstructured Reality Program, and one for producing “Cheer,” which was recognized as Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. Kilker also co-directed an episode and was a part of the development team for the series. She’d previously edited the Emmy-nominated Netflix show “Chef’s Table” and was a supervising editor on the Peabody-nominated documentary series “Last Chance U.”

Mallick was awarded the Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Competition Program Emmy for his work on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Since 2013, he has been nominated for six Emmy Awards for his editing on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the Bravo series “Project Runway.” ​

The Emmy Awards recognize excellence within various areas of television and emerging media. The primetime award is a symbol of peer recognition in the television industry from over 24,000 Television Academy members.

The Hollywood Reporter recently named CSUN one of the Top 25 American Film Schools, citing CSUN’s film program for having updated facilities and excellent programming — and invaluable proximity to Hollywood — as well as comparatively affordable tuition.

Congratulations to recent graduates Akinori Chen, Michael O'Leary, and Daisy Reyna, who have been accepted into Graduate programs at Chapman University.

Akinori Chen has been accepted into the Graduate Film program, with a fellowship from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Michael O'Leary has been accepted into the MFA Screenwriting program, and Daisy Reyna will attend the MFA Production Design program.

Senior Román Zaragoza, who is producing the senior film project This Is Their Land, a historic Native American story currently in pre-production, co-stars in the CBS comedy pilot Ghosts, a co-production of LionsGate and the BBC. The pilot has just been picked up for a series on CBS, and Roman will be a regular co-star. Roman is a minoring in Theater.

Congratulations to Screenwriting alumna Kara Swenson and Television Production alumna Raquel Tuil, who have been accepted to the Writing and Producing for TV program at Loyola Marymount University.

Congratulations to 2019 Film Production alumna Shari Coleman, who has been selected for the new Universal Animation Writers Program, part of Universal’s Filmed Entertainment inclusion program. She will be mentored by execs from DreamWorks and Illumination. While at CSUN, Shari was a Hollywood Foreign Press Association Scholar, an HFPA Fellow, and a Firstenberg Scholarship recipient. She selected in the summer of 2019 for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Gold Program, an inclusion and diversity paid summer program. Read more here.

Television Production major Ronald Lewis (CTVA ’20) interned last year at award-winning non-fiction company 44 Blue Productions. He was hired as post-production associate and has since been promoted to an Associate Producer.

Congratulations to 2021 MFA Screenwriting alumna Sybil Azur, who has been selected for a coveted Comedy Writing Summer 2021 Fellowship with the Television Academy. The program provides mentorship  and seminars with top industry professionals. Sybil is a Spring ’21 creative intern at Limelight, a top-tier production company.

https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/uncategorized/csun-ranked-as-one-of-the-nations-top-animation-schools/#:~:text=With%20nearly%20200%20schools%20across,Top%2040%20Public%20Animation%20Schools.

Sarah Tadayon, 2022 CSUN MFA Screenwriting student, shares her incredible experience living out her dream as an intern with Star Trek Command Training Program, a partnership between the Television Academy Foundation and CBS Television Studios that allows students to participate in the production of the franchise’s current shows. Read her story here.

Six CSUN student films have been selected as finalists in the 31st Annual CSU Media Arts Festival. Finalists are determined based on scoring from both CSU faculty and entertainment industry professionals. 

• Baby – Justin Aaron Sirkin (19:51, Narrative) 

• Edges – Halasius Bradford (8 pages, Short Screenplay) 

• Her Last Stage – Daniel Salas, Ivan Bello (12:23, Documentary/Creative Non-Fiction) 

• Kites – Rosanne Liezl Lim Bitas (14 pages, Short Screenplay) 

• Nepantla – Stephanie Ledesma (12 pages, Short Screenplay) 

• The Potion – Abigail Sciortino (20 pages, Short Screenplay) 

Congratulations to our finalists! Learn more about the CSU Media Arts Festival here.