USC Faculty Retreat Memo

The process of moving forces you to confront all the garbage you've collected. I came across one interesting memo that SPO put together a couple years ago about filmmaking at USC. I actually thought it was quite smart and from what I hear, some of the items were recently implemented.

To: Film Production Faculty

From: Student Production Office

We were asked by (name:deleted) to compile a memo outlining, from the student perspective, problems with the Cinema School and potential solutions.


Guidance

Mentorships develop over time through classes and SAships at the Cinema School. There is not, however, a formal mentorship program with individualized attention paid to a students career plan both during and after USC. We believe students would benefit from having faculty mentors that last throughout their tenure at USC.

Jobs are the most worrisome aspect of a film education. The Career seminar hosted by the Dean’s office and Student Industry Relations was a big step in the right direction for relieving anxieties and providing guidance about finding work outside of school. Our understanding is that the scope of the Student Industry Relations office is primarily geared towards career opportunities after school. At SPO we are often sent job opportunities for smaller projects for students still in school. Currently, our only resources are job binders and the posting boards. We think students would benefit from an online job and internship posting board with live job leads. We could limit access to such a website by making it open to those who’ve logged into the CNTV Community Website.

Additionally, we feel students would benefit from more accessible resume help and finding jobs. As it is, we make appointments with Student Industry Relations and it takes awhile to get an appointment. More dedicated staff or trained student workers would be useful to students.

With the abundance of film festivals and other new options for getting short movies seen and networking with other young filmmakers, many students feel at a loss. A more active and open door availability and guidance would again, be useful for students.


Practicalities


DVD burning capabilities. The cost for burning DVDs at Zemeckis is excessive and cumbersome because students pay for labor they could do themselves. Our post facilities should have a few dedicated DVD burning machines hooked up to the network. Students are required to make numerous reels, from scholarship applications to 546 applications to getting copies to actors. With the affordability of such technology, the school should certainly have such capability both in Zemeckis Post and Lucas Post.

Finding on-Campus Locations. (name: deleted) has expressed concern with the willingness of on-campus locations to allow students to shoot. Students have trouble finding locations around campus because many locations have been “burned” by former students. We do not have a proposed solution to this problem other than promoting a culture of thanking and double-checking with locations to ensure the shoots did no damage. We believe in general, that future students should not be punished for the poor etiquette a single student or group of students. As it stands now, students who do damage to locations are not held to proper account. The cost is borne by future students who are not allowed to access to those “burned” locations.

Perceived Bureaucratic hurdles to getting films made. We recognize the reasons for getting permits (which is always cumbersome with Film LA), getting insurance certificates, student certifications, greenlight meetings, safety meetings, studio teacher confirmations, and so forth. Viewed collectively, however, the processes and varying time frames (4-7 days for insurance, 48 hours for permits, scheduling meetings, etc) makes the filmmaking process very slow and cumbersome. Combined with tight deadlines, elements get overlooked, both creative and practical. Ironically, we can often trace rule violations back to issues of timing, related to the cumbersome process of trying to follow ALL the rules.

Accuracy on Rights and Permissions. In film festivals and other short film venues we see films that are constantly “breaking” USC rules with respect to getting music rights in perpetuity and getting permissions to display products. There is leeway on using real world products in films, as are there limited festival rights available for music. Are the strict USC polices of benefit? As students, we would like to have clear, logical rules that are consistent with the rest of the industry, so we are not put at a competitive disadvantage.

Internet Distribution. We recognize the uncertainty for all parties regarding distributing short films over the internet. It is clear, however, that the internet has become very useful for short filmmakers to get their work noticed. It is also clear, that distribution via the internet is happening and happening fast. We don’t know the solution, but ultimately as a community, we should look toward the internet distribution as an opportunity, not as a danger or a burden.

Access to Equipment. Currently, access to equipment is based upon production numbers and production numbers are class specific. There are numerous reasons for students legitimately needing access to equipment and facilities, i.e. a production number, when their class production numbers no longer apply. Instances of such would be cutting reels, renting classrooms, shooting on campus, shooting pick ups for video projects, getting student discounts from vendors (we are still students), and so forth. As long as work is for educational purposes, students should always have access to student privileges. A possible solution is to make production numbers available to student specific, as opposed to class specific.


Cultural

Communication. Students receive information for a wide variety of events, jobs, and classes at the last minute. We suggest making a master calendar for the entire cinema school, one that is easily accessible online and in public, on which all deadlines and events are be posted. Such a calendar should be easy to post on, at it will only be useful if the faculty, Production Offices, SAs, and various other groups put information on it.

Film Production Costs. Tuition is expensive, but the additional costs of producing films that fall upon students are often enormous and untenable. Excessive debt restricts choices after film school. There is an attitude of “go big or go home” that permeates many thesis productions, the results of which are questionable. We are unsure how to solve this problem collectively, but we believe some of these costs bleed into the next issue: Safety.

Safety. As a result of excessive cost, safety is one of the first elements to be neglected. Additionally, there are safety concerns with the number of hours students work, putting themselves in danger both on set and while driving from sleep deprivation – again, an issue related to cost (it is generally cheaper to get things done in a single day).

We believe this is the root of many safety issues are twofold: a “kicking ass” cultural attitude that emphasizes working excessive hours because it demonstrates commitment to a career in filmmaking and it cheapens the cost of productions that operate on limited funds.

Adding to these cultural elements are practical realities that serve as multipliers to safety concerns. From day one, there is a cultural disconnect between class expectations, physical production expectations, and industry expectations. For example, on the first 507 project, students are expected to make an in-camera movie on the first weekend. It is impossible for students to learn all the physical production rules, much less go through the processes of permitting, renting props, finding actors, or getting studio teachers, yet they go about conceiving of projects with these built in production hurdles and come into SPO, disappointed to hear all the steps they need to take.

Students are also inundated with information during the safety meeting of rule after rule related to larger productions, most of which are irrelevant to the 507 assignments. Add this to the filmmaking “rules” that are taught in early 507 classes, crossing the line, continuity, etc., one cannot expect the students to “follow” all the rules. Guess which ones get neglected?

The result is a system in which students start off from the very beginning making choices about which rules to follow and which to break. This attitude permeates through later productions when following safety precaution become much more important, on 546 and even 508.

We believe the root of the safety concerns result from three interrelated cultural and practical realities of making films at USC. The excessive and unaffordable costs of some film productions, a pervasive “kicking ass” attitude stressing that working excessive hours demonstrates a commitment to filmmaking (when in fact, such attitude is used practically as free labor), and lastly a system of rules too complex to easily follow, leading to students selecting certain rules to follow at their own discretion.

How to resolve each any every one of these problems is not clear. We were asked to compile a list of student concerns, some of which we found have easy practical solutions, while others we recognize, do not.