In other news
Hugh Hefner is giving $2 million to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, funding an exhibition area in the new complex currently under construction, along with an archive. I’m on the alumni board for the school, so I’ve had a chance to see a lot of the plans for much-improved facility, and take a hard-hat tour.
Between you and me, I’m sick with jealousy for the students who get the new building. Not only is it finally big enough, but it manages to capture the feeling of a studio lot, with all the California Mediterranean details and great attention to the hidden infrastructure — physical and digital.
They have two live webcams documenting the construction, which you can visit here.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Oh man, your jealous! I just graduated in May! As I was leaving they had me on a little student committee to discuss what to improve, so I got to see all my wishes come true… right after I left.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:26 am
As a UCLA student I am both envious and furious.
BAH.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
As a recent alumnus (MFA in Screenwriting 2006), I’m more interested in changes to the curriculum than the building. Shortly before graduation, our class had a big meeting to offer feedback on the program, and we were pretty unanimous in the feeling that they should get rid of the requirements for the entirely worthless Directing, Editing, and Critical Studies classes*, and offer more writing-specific electives.
At the time, the only electives that were actually about screenwriting were the Scene Writing Workshop and Rewrite.** I would have loved the opportunity to learn more about the areas I was specifically interested in.
I’m curious if any of our recommendations were put into practice.
* I’m not saying it’s worthless for a writer to know about Directing, Editing, and Critical Studies. But the way they were taught was certainly useless. And given the limited time of the program, there are a lot of things that would be more valuable to study, especially for someone not planning to be a hyphenate.
** These were excellent classes, and I have no complaints about them. But when the program only gives you room for two electives, and only two are offered, they aren’t really electives.
November 18th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Here’s an idea: instead of throwing money at an institution that could most likely self-fund most of this expansion, how about donating 2 million dollars to some schools that really need it. Community colleges, high schools, trade schools, whatever. There are struggling film programs all over the state (minus the prestige, but with plenty of heart.) Don’t get me wrong, by all accounts, USC is a great school. But donating 2 million dollars to USC is kind of like handing out food bank donations in Beverly Hills.