Photos this page: R. R. Jones
Enrollments in film classes last year topped
2,200. Close to 400 students are pursuing bachelor's degrees in film,
making it one of the most popular majors on campus.
|
"The cinema is an invention without a future."
--Louis Lumière
Le Cinématographe, 1895
|
Louis Lumière and his brother,
Auguste, are credited with staging the first exhibition of "moving pictures"
in 1895. Even though their screening of a mov-ing train caused panicked
audiences to shriek and duck for cover, the brothers dismissed their
invention as a mechanical novelty with no future.
Today,
cinema is one of the world's most popular art forms and, with ticket
buyers paying $7.50 or more at the theater, one of the most lucrative.
While the 1900s were a time of tremendous growth for the film industry,
the new century--with the advent of the Internet and a variety of digital
media--holds even more promise.
As the industry booms, so has the demand for people trained in the
field. This upsurge in interest is obvious at UCSC, where enrollments
in film classes last year topped 2,200. Close to 400 students are pursuing
bachelor's degrees in film, making it one of the most popular majors
on campus.
This year's graduates were the first students to receive a B.A. in
"film and digital media." The name change, from "film and video," reflects
the evolution in the field as well as the program's emphasis. "Since
the program was established in the mid-1970s, we've aimed to train people
as artists. Now we are training them as artists who can be leaders in
the digital revolution," says Professor Eli Hollander, chair of the
department.
UCSC film alumni have excelled in the field, taking leading roles as
directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and technicians. The
list of films and television shows they are associated with includes
Titus, The Abyss, Flubber, Follow Me Home, Glory Daze, Star Trek,
Days of Our Lives, Xena, and Frasier. Others have landed
jobs with such companies as Skywalker Sound, 20th Century Fox, and Castle
Rock/Spyglass Entertainment.
Many
universities focus their undergraduate film programs on theory and history,
reserving access to equipment for graduate students. On the other hand,
technical schools typically provide hands-on experience but rarely offer
academic courses. UCSC's Film and Digital Media Department stresses
both.
Marti Noxon, who graduated from the program in 1987, explained the
value of UCSC's dual emphasis during a recent campus visit. "Learning
how to look at film theoretically, as well as technically, really made
a difference when I began writing and selling scripts," said Noxon,
supervising producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "I developed
a sensibility for how to look behind an image to the ideas that give
the image depth, innuendo, and spark."
--Barbara McKenna
TAKE ONE:
Photo: R. R. Jones
In the 1910s, promoters in the fledgling film industry began
actively courting women audiences. Up to that point, filmgoers
had been largely working-class and immigrant men, and promoters
hoped that drawing more women into their theaters would lend respectability--and
profitability--to their venture.
Until a new book was published this past April, the general
belief among film historians was that these promotional efforts
were a complete success. But the book, Movie-Struck Girls: Women
and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon, undermines that
long-held theory.
The book's author is Shelley Stamp, a UCSC film historian. Stamp,
who won UCSC's prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998,
is one of seven faculty in the Film and Digital Media Department
who specialize in such areas as theory, production, and history.
Her book is the latest example of projects by these faculty--research,
publications, and films--that are expanding the scope of film
studies.
Leading film historians are praising Stamp's work as an important
contribution to film studies--one that provides a new understanding
to a crucial era in cinema. "The 1910s were a period of real transformation
in the film industry," Stamp says. "The industry was 15 to 20
years old and starting to become more sophisticated as a visual
and narrative medium, but it still lacked wide cultural acceptability."
"Ladies, if you spare us one evening and make use of the
enclosed tickets, we will consider it a favor."
Advertisement for the Star Theater, New Hampshire, 1913
By targeting women, promoters did succeed in attracting more
women. But, as Stamp discovered, the films that drew in female
patrons did not always elevate the reputation of the cinema.
"Action-adventure serials, like The Perils of Pauline, politically
charged
films on women's suffrage, and lurid stories of white slavery
and prostitution all attracted female audiences during these years,"
Stamp says. "But none fostered the ladylike refinement promoters
sought out; and all three further challenged an industry already
worried about its public reputation."
|
TAKE TWO:
Photo: R. R. Jones
In June, David Bolam graduated with a degree in film and digital
media--and a lot of options. "I have a Plan A, but I also have
a Plan B and C," he says. "In this field, you have to have alternatives."
Bolam, 46, began a career in theater in England and Europe immediately
after high school. Although he eventually left the theater, Bolam
never lost his passion for dramatic expression. So, in 1998, he
returned to the classroom, enrolling in UCSC's popular film and
digital media program.
Bolam quickly discovered that his Plan A would be experimental
filmmaking--visual expression without traditional plot-oriented
frameworks. Bolam had his first taste of such work in a class
taught by Associate Professor Lawrence Andrews, producing a piece
on the long-term psychological and social impacts of the Hiroshima
bombing.
Although filmmaking is his first love, Bolam is well-prepared
to steer his career in other directions. He has finished a screenplay
penned in Professor Chip Lord's screenwriting class. Titled "A
Fighting Chance," the piece is being considered in a universitywide
screenplay competition. At the same time, Bolam is exploring job
possibilities in the lucrative field of interactive media (web,
CD-ROM, and DVD).
As diverse as his options are, they all offer Bolam the one
thing he sought when he returned to school--the opportunity to
articulate his imagination. "The exciting thing for me is to turn
the spark of an idea into something tangible that celebrates the
complexity of being human."
|
TAKE THREE:
Photos: courtesy Blake
Leyh
Last winter, to demonstrate the importance of sound in setting
a mood, film professor Chip Lord showed his students the opening
scenes of the Coen brothers' offbeat film, Barton Fink. "You can
hear high liquid bursts, distant thunder, long metal screeches--they
create a montage that gives you a visceral feeling you can't get
from dialogue," Lord told his Introduction to Production Technique
and Theory class.
Of the thousands of films Lord could have settled on to make
his point, he inadvertently chose one in which the sounds were
created by a former UCSC student, composer Blake Leyh. Leyh completed
his studies in 1983 with an individual major emphasizing film
and electronic music.
Lord and the Coen brothers are not the only ones to recognize
Leyh's talents. Leyh has produced sound and scored the music for
dozens of Hollywood and independent films, including Titus; The
Abyss (which received an Academy Award nomination for sound);
The Moderns; Get Shorty; He Got Game; Summer of Sam; Bamboozled;
and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
UCSC was the perfect training ground for Leyh, who haunted the
electronic music and film studios. When he left and began working
in sound design, Leyh says he was surprised to find out how much
of his experience at UCSC was applicable in the professional world.
"Sound design requires a lot of creativity--something that was
really valued at UCSC," Leyh says. "The faculty were very supportive
and gave us access to what was, at the time, pretty sophisticated
equipment. When I began working in 1983, I was, in some ways,
ahead of people who were doing the work professionally. I was
able to say, 'Hey, why don't we do it this way--the way I did
it in Santa Cruz.' "
|
|