Profiles | UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

"Lainie's Cabaret at UCLA" launched with smashing benefit performance

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:00:00 -0800

Teri Schwartz, dean of the School, and Michael Hackett, chair, Department of Theater, saluted legendary performer Lainie Kazan on Sunday evening, November 27. Hackett and Schwartz joined Kazan on stage at the Freud Playhouse after her one-night-only benefit performance of classic songs, on a spectacular nightclub-style set designed by TFT professor and Associate Dean Rich Rose.

Kazan's performance kicked off the four day run on the same stage of "Lainie's Cabaret at UCLA," a showcase for students in TFT's Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program. After the great success of a Master Class she taught last year, in a series generously sponsored in the Theater Department by the Los Angeles Philanthropic Committee for the Arts (LAPCA), Dean Schwartz invited Kazan back this fall to take over the required Theater 136 acting class, with an emphasis on acting in song. "Lainie's Cabaret" was performed by students Kazan taught in this class.

Kazan described her solo program in the benefit as a work-in-progress version of a projected one-woman show that will provide an over view of her distinguished career, which was launched in the 1960s on Broadway, in recordings and on television. (She was a frequent and memorable guest on "The Dean Martin Show"). The line up mixed full-throated-performances of many of her signature tunes with biographical anecdotes - a description of a meeting with idol Judy Garland, for example, followed by her own rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

At the midpoint of the show, Kazan called to the stage a TFT student from the cast of "Lainie's Cabaret," Nina Herzog , a blistering rendidtion of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's "Stormy Weather." The authority of Herzog's enthusiastically received performance confirmed the frequent description of TFT students as "professionals in training."

"Lainie's Cabaret" debuted a few days later, selling out six shows at the Freud over four days with a program of classic tunes from the Great American Songbook sung in a dazzling array of styles. Students Hunter Bird, Beatrice Crosbie, Emma Degerstedt, Jon Eidson, Nina Herzog, Mikayla Mcvey, Sarah Miller-Crews, Kimberly Moore, Marco Ramos, Michael Starr, Jake Everett Tieman and Rachel Weck consistently won standing ovations for their work.

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/2011-lainie-kazan-cabaret/

Dustin Lance Black '96 sees both sides of "J.Edgar"

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 -0800

By Sheila Roberts

"Coming off 'Milk,'" says Oscar-winning TFT screenwriting alumnus Dustin Lance Black '96, "J. Edgar Hoover was someone I really wanted to investigate. To me, he seemed the very opposite of [martyred gay activist politician] Harvey Milk: a man with tremendous political power, but intensely closeted when it came to his personal life."

Hoover was a complex and compelling figure whose self-created legend as a gangster hunter captivated America in the 1930s. Both feared and revered, the man was a dichotomy whose public and private lives would spark rumor and innuendo. But thanks to his eternal secrecy, the question of who he really was remains largely a subject of speculation to this day.

Clint Eastwood, the director of "J. Edgar," the Hoover bio-pic Black crafted, grew up during his reign, was intrigued by the chance to explore Hoover on film. Along with Black, producer Brian Grazer and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the title role, Eastwood met the press recently in Los Angeles. His colleagues credited Black with the most critical skill a Hollywood screenwriter can have: the ability to sculpt complex material into exciting relatable stories that make other top artists want to sign on as collaborators.

"Hoover was a top cop, or a top 'G-Man,' as they called them in those days," Eastwood recalled, "but I didn't really know much about him. He had a high profile - he was seen with movie actors and famous writers at social gatherings and what have you - but he was an enigma in many ways." Therefore, when the screenplay for "J. Edgar" crossed his desk, the filmmaker says, "I was already curious, especially about how Lance had approached it. It was really a character study. I liked the story a lot."

The film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio, agrees. "Lance wrote this incredible screenplay that both Clint and I were attracted to instantly. Hoover has always been this mythic, iconic figure in American history, yet somewhat shrouded in mystery in both his political and personal life. To tackle his life story seemed daunting, and Lance did it in such an emotionally moving way."

The project came to Black through veteran producer Brian Grazer, who had worked with Eastwood once before and was eager to do so again. "I wanted to do a movie about J. Edgar Hoover - not a documentary, but an actual feature film," Grazer relates. "I was interested in the power and corruption that existed in his world, much of it of his own making, in spite of his being such a dedicated patriot."

Black and Grazer settled on a few key points on which to center the film, including the Lindbergh kidnapping and the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "I really wondered how this man, who started out with the best of intentions and went on to create the FBI and bring down some of the country's most iconic gangsters, became so paranoid and, by some accounts, diabolical," Grazer says.

Black notes, "My initial research labeled him either a hero to the nation, to whom we owe everything in terms of our protection and safety, or a villain who did things in an underhanded manner and was a terror to the country. It all seemed so extreme; I thought the truth had to lie somewhere in between."

Grazer agreed with that conclusion, and with the writer's idea to "present it from an internal point of view, from Hoover's own psyche, letting him tell the story as he remembers it," the producer says.

"This is a story about relationships," director Eastwood says, "intimate interactions between Hoover and everyone around him, from those closest to him - Clyde Tolson, Helen Gandy, his mother - all the way to Robert Kennedy and other well known political figures, even presidents. If it had just been a biopic, I don't think I would have wanted to do it. I like relationship pictures. I like exploring why people do or did certain things in their lives."

"This was one of the most challenging characters I'd ever seen on the page," DiCaprio says of Black's script, which spanned Hoover's entire professional life, beginning with the Bolshevik invasions in 1919, when communism was arriving on American soil. "Communism was almost like a terrorist movement in Hoover's eyes, and he battled it and other perceived enemies throughout his career. Lance analyzed him as a young man and an old man, critiquing him in every possible way."

Producer Robert Lorenz felt that the subject was a particularly fascinating one because, as he remarks, "What most of us know today is basically hearsay. This was a chance to put him in context; to attempt to understand what motivated his actions, without defending or judging everything that he did; to show that he was a complicated man, not a one-dimensional individual."

In addition to reading almost everything that had been published on Hoover, Black set off to track down as many firsthand accounts as possible from those few people still living who had known him. He filled in the picture with information from others who may not have known the man personally but lived in Washington, D.C., during his period in office, in order to get a full picture of him, the good and the bad.

Proving the axiom that history tends to repeat itself, the filmmakers found Black's story of J. Edgar Hoover very timely, despite the fact he died nearly 40 years ago.

"One of the aspects of the script that was very appealing was the fact that it was about a guy who was really working to manipulate the media, and had a very shrewd ability to do that," Lorenz observes. "In this age, when people are constantly trying to shape their images and are having to fight an uphill battle against the fast pace of technology, I think it's fascinating to look back at how Hoover did it, and how he managed to keep so many things secret in his private life and his work. That type of privacy would be difficult, if not impossible, today, and was certainly one of the more intriguing aspects of making the movie."

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/industry/lance-black-jedgar/

VIDEO: Dean Schwartz and alumna Shirley Jo Finney at Orientation 2011

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Bookended by electrifying production numbers from the 2011 Ray Bolger Musical Theater production of "RENT," this year's orientation program in the Freud Playhouse celebrated in the arrival on campus of the School's new and returning students for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Attractions included a stirring statement of vision for the future from Dean Teri Schwartz, which offered an impressive list of scholarships and other initiatives that underscored her declaration of "The Year of the Student."

In her Guest of Honor presenation, alumna Shirley Jo Finney MFA '08, a world-famous actor and theater director put the credit for her wide-ranging career squarely on the interdisciplinary character of the TFT curriculum: She came to study acting, she said, and fell in love wih the other creative outlets being pursued under the same roof..

Shirley Jo Finney backstage with Dean Teri Schwartz, Theater Department chair Michael Hackett and Professor and Associate Dean Rich Rose. Photo by Todd Cheney, UCLA Photography.

"No more silos, no more bounderies, no more barriers"

Schwartz organized her remarks around what she called "a key questtion: What world are we preparing our students for?"

Emphasizing the central themes animating her strategic plan for carrying the School forward into the 21st century, a vision that embraces humanistic storytelling, global diversity, cutting edge research and a radically interdisciplinary approach founded on a shared passion for the uplifting power of great storytelling.

"Serving as our anchor," Schwartz said, "is great classical storytelling, the deep water that runs under everything we do at TFT."

Watch a complete video of Dean Schwartz's address to the students:

Next, Barbara Boyle, chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, introduced an outstanding recent film by TFT Director's Spotlight winner Mark Nelson, the epic computer animated comedy "Jockstrap Raiders." a worthy example of the high standards current students have set for newcomers.

Barbara Boyle - Photo by Todd Cheney, UCLA Photograohy

Theater Departmenr chair Michael Hackett introduced a stirring video documentary about the production of "Winnie," a grand opera on the life of South African liberator Winnie Mandela, directed in Pretoria by this year's Orientaion Guest of Honor Shirley Jo Finney. No stronger example could be presented or art that lives up to the dean's call for works that "enlighten, engage and inspire change for a better world."

Finney urged students to look for creative inspiration outside their comfort zones of specialization. "I don't need to act to feel fulfilled," she declared. "I have to create."

Michael Hackett on stage with Shirely Jo Finney- Photo by Todd Cheney, UCLA Photography

Watch a complete video of Shirley Jo Finney's on-stage conversation with TFT Theater Departmen chair Michael Hackett:

"RENT" cast members Melinda Porto and Cristina Gerla perform "Take Me or Leave Me" at Orientation 2011. Photo by Todd Cheney, UCLA Photography

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/2011-orientation/

Alan Armstrong on Creating a Legacy

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Alan Armstrong, a specialist in Shakespearean and classical theater costume design and a 32-year veteran professor in TFT's Theater Department, recently made a decision to extend his service to the School with a bequest that will make the Costume Design TFT program his principle heir. A revered professor, who has taught at one institution for over three decades, inevitably leaves behind a rich legacy in the lives of many students he has inspired. Armstrong has decided to go a step further, so that future classes and generations of students will benefit from his efforts.

"I have this belief," Armstrong said, speaking with us recently from his home in Palm Springs, "that education can fix the world. I don't care if it's beauty school or mechanics school or TFT. If you can teach people to think and focus for themselves, they probably won't believe that there are 72 virgins waiting for them if they blow up the World Trade Center."

There are personal motivations, as well: "I'm an openly gay man and I don't have anybody to leave money to, really. I wanted to leave a legacy and there are only two charities I believe in. One is AIDS research and the other is TFT."

Armstrong has worked continuously as a theatrical costume designer and film costume consultant in addition to his work at TFT. He feels especially privileged, he says, to have worked on more than 29 productions of Shakespeare plays at venues around the world.

"I was thinking about the needs of the costume area at TFT. Ever since I've been there costume design has been underfunded and understaffed, trying to work in a decaying facility to pump out the number of costumes that we do. That has begun to change significantly with the establishment of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design under founding Director Deborah Landis, so there's hope for real progress. I wanted to somehow specify that my bequest would be applied to that.

"I agree with Deborah that costuming is a vital and underappreciated component of telling stories on the stage and in films. And I love stories. I love myths and traditions and origins and the evolving of things. That's the foundation of what we do at TFT, we tell stories. The stories are told through the actors and costumes help define the characters they are playing, in everything from their economic status and where they're from to revealing a psychological state.

"And if they embody a character costume styles can carry out ripples into the culture. Young men who decide they want to wear blue jeans and leather jackets after seeing Marlon Brando in "The Wild One" adopted his rebellious attitudes along with the clothes. That's an early example of things going viral, as they say now. It's a small example, but it supports what I'm saying, that media can change the world.

"I think that in the interdisciplinary vision of Dean Schwartz, her push to bring the theater and film departments together, the underlying thought ought to be that through the arts we can indeed change the way people think and make inroads towards fixing the world and making it a better place. It's that underlying principle that I really believe in.

"I certainly hope that more of my bvcolleagues will consider joining me in establishing this kind of bequest to the School. More of them should come around to this way of thinking once they've retired and have had a chance to step back from the department and the day-to-day conflicts and the politics and remember the larger picture. I think if they reflect on all the good things that have come out of this program a lot of them would be willing to do what I'm doing. But you do need to get some distance from it. You need to get back in touch with your idealism."

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/alan-armstrong_legacy/

First group of TFT FilmLAB Fellows in partnership with Telluride

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A multi-faceted educational partnership has been forged, by Dean Teri Schwartz, between the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the Telluride Film Festival.

Famed film producer, TFT alumnus and Executive Board Member Frank Marshall '68 has generously pledged to fund for the next several years the first initiative under the partnership umbrella. This program is called Film LAB that brought ten of the School's outstanding graduate students - FilmLAB Fellows - to the world famous festival in the Colorado Rockies over the Labor Day weekend..

The second initiative launching this Fall as part of the new partnership is called For the Love of Movies" It will be centered around a curated film series for inner city high school students in Los Angeles. Based on the Telluride experience of seeing the very best of both local and global filmmaking, the series will focus on stories that resonate with the students' lives.

"In creating this partnership between two of America's most respected institutions dedicated to the love and study of cinema," said Dean Schwartz, "our intention is to build a series of joint educational programs that will benefit a diverse group of young filmmakers and cineastes. Our partnership is a unique, joint, educational, multi-program partnership to inspire the next generation of excellence in cinema and humanistic storytelling."

In addition to the exciting array of international films screening at one of America's best-curated festivals, FilmLab Fellows at Telluride participated in a series of workshops designed just for them, exclusive sessions with top directors, screenwriters, producers, agents and executives attending the festival. FilmLAB was a transformational experience that will have a profound effect on our Fellows' future careers in the industry long into the future.

Standout events included meetings with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, theater and opera director Peter Sellars and the filmmakers behind the highly anticipated new historical drama "Albert Nobbs," director Rodrigo Garcia, star/producer/co-writer Glenn Close, and producers Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn.

Collaboration was the subject of the "Albert Nobbs." The fact-based story of a woman who successfully lived and worked as man in Victorian England was a fifteen-year labor of love for Close, who had played the role on stage. For FilmLAB Fellow Susana Casares '11, the story Close told of working on a personal passion project with a strong collaborator such as director Garcia was an object lesson in the interpersonal aspects of the filmmaking process, "on how important it is to let go of something that you think of as yours, to let someone else make a contribution -- and how crucial it is to find the right collaborators."

This 38th edition of the Telluride Festival was a memorable one for the TFT community in other ways, as well. One of the most admired feature films screened this year, family drama "The Descendents," starring George Clooney, was a new work written and directed by one of TFT's favorite sons, "Sideways" Oscar-winner Alexander Payne MFA '90.

In addition, one of the FilmLAB Fellows, Julio Ramos, actually had a film screening at the Festival when he was in attendance. Ramos recognized alumnus Payne in the audience when his Spotlight-winning short, "Una Carrerita, Doctor" ("A Doctor's Job"), about a physician forced to deal with the unexpected hazards of driving a cab, screened in the program "Student Prints," curated and introduced by admired filmmaker Godfrey Reggio ("Koyaanisqatsi").

"My film was the first one to be screened," Ramos recalled, "and this great director gave it an amazing introduction it front of all these people whose work I admired. I didn't know how I could follow that."

For film editor ("Twilight") and TFT professor Nancy Richardson, who serves as faculty advisor to the FilmLAB initiative, "Telluride is a festival that is truly about the love of film, of historic films as well as excellent new ones. There is no film market; there are no paparazzi, no swag bags. It is really a perfect approach to influence young filmmakers, and a perfect fit with UCLA, with its emphasis on humanistic storytelling. What you see here again and again are films that tell truly human stories, that are about the real challenges we face as human beings. Here is where you can get a sense of the kind of films that are going to be made by our students in the future."

This was the aspect of the Festival that exhilerated Samantha Sheppard a Ph.D candidate in Cinema & Media Studies, helping to restore her devotion to the art form she is studying.

"What everyone said about Telluride beforehand," Sheppard said, "was that it was a festival that was all about the love of movies. And that was so true. Telluride reminded me that in addition to being a scholar I am a cinephile. The excitement of going into a dark theater, not knowing what you're going to get, seeing things you might never have heard of. Coming out and starting up a discussion with some random person about what you've seen. It was wonderful."

Casares agreed that ease of access was a crucial aspect of the experience, "But equally important was the fact that we were invited here. Being around young filmmakers and filmmakers who have major careers, it really makes you feel that although you are just starting out, you are part of this. You belong here."

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/2011-telluride-filmlab/

VIDEO: Reza Safai dazzles in bold new film "Circumstance"

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Iranian-American writer-director Maryam Keshavarz's debut feature "Circumstance," featuring TFT acting alumnus Reza Sixo Safai '96, MFA '99 in a complex leading role, won the Audience Award at Sundance in January and played at numerous festivals over the past year, including OutFest in Los Angeles and the prestigious New Directors/New Films series for 2011.

Now the film has opened nationwide to celebratory reviews.

A.O Scott in the "New York Times:"

"Circumstance" ripples with the indignant energy of youthful rebellion. Coming two years after the protests that convulsed Iran following the 2009 presidential elections and amid regional revolutionary turmoil, it has undeniable topical resonance. But Ms. Keshavarz is less interested in the public manifestations of political engagement than in the ways power, and particularly religious authority, affect the intimacies of families, lovers and friends.

...

The serpent in their garden of delights is Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai), Atafeh's brother, a former musician and recovering drug addict whose embrace of stern Muslim morality threatens the easy, hypocritical harmony that has protected the family. His interest in Shireen, mildly creepy at first, grows less mild and more sinister as the film progresses toward its final crisis.

Logan Hill in "New York" magazine:

One of the most thrilling directorial debuts of this year, Maryam Keshavarz's Circumstance is an edge-of-your-seat thriller with silk-sheet sex; a soap-operatic family melodrama with double-crossing siblings; and an exploration of the power of the state in the private sphere.

...

Iranian filmmakers who cross over into American art houses (Abbas Kiarostami or Jafar Panahi) have become known for intense levels of realism (often featuring untrained actors), bare-bones production values, and spare allegories. But Keshavarz's Tehran hews closer to the hard-rocking, pop-addled Iran of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and her style seems more indebted to the soapy excess of Douglas Sirk, the warm lusciousness of Bertolluci, or even Almodoóvar's kinky talent for mashing up the domestic and the profane, the ludicrous and the weighty. The film, shot lavishly by Brian Rigney Hubbard, moves with a fluid rhythm -- and its few stumbles are of the most excusable, overambitious sort.

Watch our exclusive video interview with TFT alumnus Reza Sixo Safai:

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/reza-safai_video/

VIDEO - TFT Commencement 2011

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PHOTO: Alumni honoree Mariska Hargitay, theater; Teri Schwartz, Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; US Senator Barbara Boxer; Scott Waugh, UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost; and alumni honoree Charles Burnett, film, at TFT's 2011 commencement ceremony. Photo by Juan Talo.

United States Senator Barbara Boxer delivered a memorable address at the TFT commencement ceremony on June 10 -- even breaking into song at one point, to delighted applause from assembled faculty members, graduating students and their family and friends. Boxer deftly wove into her remarks a discussion of the importance of the work done by storytellers to the well-being of society .

Dean Teri Schwartz presented Distinguished Alumni Awards to Emmy and Golden Globe winner Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU), for theater, and writer/director Charles Burnett '69, MFA '77 (Killer of Sheep) for film.

The Dean's welcome:

Barbara Boxer was first elected to the United States Senate in January, 1993, after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives. She made history in 2004 when she was elected to a third term with more than 6.9 million votes - the highest number ever for any a U. S. Senate candidate. A champion of public education, Senator Boxer is known for her strong advocacy on issues related to families, children, consumers, women and medical research. She Chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, becoming the first woman to hold this office. Her awards are numerous ranging from Environmental Causes to Leadership Awards.

The Dean introduces U.S. Sentor Barbara Boxer:

Senator Barbara Boxer's Commencement Address:

Emmy, Sundance and Independent Spirit Award winner, Charles Burnett, is one of the most distinguished African-American cinematic in film. He has endeavored to bring to the screen a personal, realistic portrayal of contemporary African-American life not often seen in mainstream feature films. Critically acclaimed for all of his work for both feature films and television, Burnett is best known for his films Killer of Sheep, To Sleep with Anger and The Glass Shield. Burnett just received a major retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in April 2011.

The Dean introduces alumni honoree Charles Burnett:

Charles Burnett's acceptance speech:

Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Mariska Hargitay stars as the committed and emotionally driven Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, now in its 12th season on NBC. Inspired by her role, Hargitay founded in 2004 the Joyful Heart Foundation, whose mission is to heal, educate, and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness surrounding these issues.

The Dean introduces alumni honoree Mariska Hargitay:

Mariska Hargitay's acceptance speech:

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/community/commencement-video-2011/

Talking about writing for "The Simpsons"

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Your first day at TFT is your first day as lifetime member of the TFT alumni network.

That's the message that emerged most clearly from the inaugural public event created by the new TFT Young Alumni Network, a laugh-filled panel discussion featuring eight smart and funny writers from "The Simpsons."

The series, now approaching its landmark 500th episode after more than 20 years on the air, has employed many Bruins as writers, animators, designers, directors and producers over the years. Which made it a perfect fit with the goal of the Young Alumni Network: to serve as a catalyst that brings all TFT alumni together.

The network was created by TFT Dean Teri Schwartz to generate opportunities for young Bruins, just beginning their careers, to interact with alumni who are established veterans. Schwartz says she remembers vividly how hard it was to make connections in the industry when she was starting out as a movie producer in the 1970s, and set out to create for today's students "the opportunities I wish I had had."

TFT alumnus and panelist David Silverman is often described as the "founding director" of "The Simpsons," because he was the first person ever to animate creator Matt Groening's characters when they were introduced in brief cartoon segments on "The Tracy Ullman Show" in the late 1980s.

As TFT animation professor (and Emmy-winning "Simpsons" director) Chuck Sheetz pointed out in his introductory remarks, in addition to the dozens of Bruins who have worked behind the scenes on the show, eight of the program's 36 directors were graduates of our Animation Workshop, responsible for a total for 118 episodes.

The "Simpsons" Bruin team includes producers Mike B. Anderson and Richard Sakai and voice performers Nancy Cartwright and Harry Shearer.

The writers on the panel were (from left to right in our video clip) Bill Odenkirk, David Silverman, Joel Cohen, John Frink, Kevin Curran, Michael Price, Rob Lazebnik and Tom Gammill. The discussion was moderated by Geoff Boucher, writer and editor of the "Los Angeles Times" pop culture blog "Hero Complex."

Watch a clip from the event:

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/social/writing-for-simpsons/

Justin Lin on the "Fast" track

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

TFT alumnus Justin Lin '95 is now officially one of the world's most successful film directors. His most recent supercharged action movie, "Fast Five," which brings Duane "The Rock" Johnson into the "Fast and Furious" street-racing franchise, to smack down with returning stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, opened in Europe and Asia a week before its debut in the US and has become a true global blockbuster - a path-clearing multi-ethnic 21st century phenomenon. It was the number one film on earth in its first two weeks of release and the biggest international hit in Universal Picture's history.

We asked TFT staffer Sheila Roberts to update the excellent profile and interview she wrote for us when Lin's previous contribution to the franchise, "Fast & Furious" was released in 2009, following the 2006 installment "Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift."

By Sheila Roberts

Justin Lin has been a fan of the franchise ever since he saw "The Fast and the Furious" on its opening weekend when he was a TFT directing student. He knew, he says, exactly what he wanted to accomplish in his latest contribution to the series: It would be a one-two punch of inspired casting coupled with jaw-dropping action.

Lin reflects: "I felt like there were still a lot of areas where this franchise could go. I appreciate that the studio has never asked me to recycle the same thing over and over again. By virtue of that, this franchise has been able to grow and evolve and mature. I came back for that reason."

Lin's breakthrough feature "Better Luck Tomorrow" (2002), filmed on a budget of just $250,000, was a startling suburban noir about "model minority" Asian-American high school boys drifting into crime. It established his reputation as a stereotype-buster.

Arguably it was an even bolder move for Lin when he ventured off the indie cinema reservation into the glossy realm of mainstream Hollywood commercialism. But Lin has been forthright about acknowledging that he grew up enjoying, and wanting to make, the same kinds of high octane popcorn movies as other filmmakers of his generation.

He says he was instantly intrigued by the sub-culture of underclass street racing the "Fast and Furious" films portray, but adds, "The core theme of the series is family. 'Fast & Furious' explored the sacrifice elements of family. As soon as I was able to grasp that the next one should be about freedom and family, it became clear to me why I wanted to return."

Lin knew if he were to helm his third film in the series, the expectations from the fans would be huge. "I know the action in this one is bigger than the last two combined. There are about six action pieces in this movie, not just car chases, but foot chases and a heist as well. It's just jam-packed."

Lin recalls his experience shooting "Fast Five's" complicated pivotal heist sequence: "The train heist was a challenge. The logistics of doing a train heist were much greater than the land train that we had in the last one. On this film, we had to get permission to basically own a piece of a working railroad. Then we had to buy trains and build these trucks that were able to go up against the trains. I wanted a car to be jumping out of the train at full speed, and then there were trestles that become an obstacle for our characters. It was costly, and it took precise execution."

Lin's career has risen steadily as his "Fast" films have gone from strength to strength. He is the official attached director on a planned re-boot of the "Terminator" franchise, which will feature former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to his most iconic role.

"The Terminator was one of my favorite films growing up," Lin has said, "and I feel I have a take that I would love to see. I've talked with Arnold, and now we'll see.

According to several sources, it was Lin's pitch of his concept for the film that persuaded Schwarzenegger to return, though he's declined to discuss details. "It's still very early on" Lin says, "but I don't want to make a movie where it's just showing off [technology and special effects]. I want to support the human elements. If you don't have humanity, then it just becomes robots."

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/industry/justin-lin_fast-furious/

The Future is Now -- Transmedia Hollywood 2

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The second, annual Transmedia Hollywood conference, focusing on "Visual Culture and Design" this time, moved past the storytelling themes introduced in last year's Transmedia Hollywood: "S/telling the Story," which argued that even when media projects are spun out across several platforms (potentially migrating from novels to comic books to movie and TV programs to video games and beyond) the source of power, the "mothership," is still the overarching storyline that plays out across all those interlocking media. A secondary question that year was who should be responsible for creating and managing all those additional storylines--the creators, their collaborators, digital producers, ARG designers?

This year, staying true to their goal of collaborating across previously dueling film schools, UCLA Producers Program head and associate professor Denise Mann once again joined forced with USC Provost's Professor Henry Jenkins, moving the conference its previous berth at USC to TFT's James Bridges Theater.

In her introductory remarks, Mann referred to a line of inquiry that turned out to be a key theme of the day: the ways in which the members of the "production cultures" that comprise Hollywood (referencing the work of Mann's TFT colleague Professor John Caldwell) are learning to navigate on a day-to-day basis the often choppy waters of transitioning from traditional industry practices to those embracing new media, social media, virtual workspaces, redefined job descriptions, and many of the bleeding edge technologies of visual design, including those that merge real-world and digitally-reproduced spaces in entertainment worlds as vast as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and as imaginatively transporting as that of "Avatar," "Spartacus," and beyond. TMH2 had a noticeably more practical approach to Transmedia as a work environment - and the Bridges Theater audience, made up predominantly of industry insiders, was riveted.

One goal of TMH2, Jenkins said, would be to get beneath" the standard definitions, including his own (from his 2006 book "Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.") Panels would zero in on nuts and bolts topics such as character delineation, fan engagement as a precursor to (and extension of) transmedia, and the difficulty of planning and controlling a narrative, to explore how these activities have changed when these stories are transported to the virtual and physical worlds of theme parks.

A day-long event as wide-ranging at TMH2 can't easily be summarized. But here are a few of the points of discussion that seemed especially noteworthy:

Taking a cue from the user experiences created of pioneering theme parks such as Disney's Tomorrowland, scholar Scott Bukatman of Stanford ("Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century") noted that in the era of Imax 3-D much of popular culture may no longer be primarily concerned with telling stories. Instead, its goal is a "kinetic, bodily, immersive experience."

Theme park scholar Angela Ndalianis of University of Melbourne (Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment) and Thinkwell Designer Craig Hanna debated the social function of theme parks and amusement destinations from the past such as Coney Island and Atlantic City and how they fuse nostalgia and new technologies to create fantastic, baroque, alternative urban spaces (minus the crime).

Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering and a long-time Visiting Assistant Professor at TFT, says that while there can be a "narrative thread winding throughout the day," the hart of all Disney theme park attractions is to create "a compelling collection of experiences"--each designed to take you through a set of emotions."

Thierry Coup, an imagineer-equivilent at rival Universal, captivated the crowd with his description of his latest design effort: the acclaimed new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction in Orlando. When asked about the involvement of the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and many of the creative personnel from the films, Coup explained that it's nearly impossible to tell a coherent story over the three or four minute course of the typical theme park ride. Fortunately, he explained, most "guests" come to the park with a full knowledge of the world of the novel and films, freeing the designers to concentrate on creating "experiences that engage all the senses." Their goal is always, Coups says, to create a seamless experience for visitors, "to keep them in the world and not have them snap out of it."

A recurring theme in all four panels was the need for creators to allow consumers to immerse themselves in the "world" of the theme park, video game, film, or TV show. Production designer extraordinaire Rick Carter (Avatar, War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park) described how his work with such visionary directors as Cameron, Spielberg, and Zemeckis compared to the experience of working with a next generation director like Zack Snyder ("Sucker Punch"), which replicates the experience of battling combatants in a first-person video game. While matt painter and UCLA alum Dylan Cole expressed relief that digital technologies have made it possible for him to keep pace with the demanding visual aesthetic of his visionary boss, James Cameron.

Geoffrey Long, a scholar associated with the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT, where he studied under Jenkins, argued that the "negative space" of as-yet untold stories "makes the world of a project come alive in the viewer's imagination." These gaps provide opportunities for authors to come back later and fill in the spaces - though in a Transmedia-saturated world there is always the danger will take matters into their own and fill the interstices with home material as interesting as any the original creators could devise.

Film studies professor Francesca Coppa, both in her scholarly work at Muhlenberg College and as a board member of the Organization for Transformative Media, is a strong advocate for the mash ups and other transformations perpetrated upon copyrighted IP (Intellectual Property) in fan fiction, fan art, and fan video. "Fans pioneered transmedia," Coppa declares, as recognizable characters were moved into different forms and contexts, often changing gender or race or sexual orientation in the process.

Kelly Souders, head writer and executive producer of "Smallville," provided examples of ways in which mainstream entertainment has already been altered by Transmedia thinking. "Smallville" is a solid case in point because it was presented originally as an alternative, more down-to-earth version of the mythic "Superman" universe, an approach that could be seen as analogous to the context-shifting of fan fiction. Fans drawn to the show have enthusiastically embraced the notion that there could be distinct "Smallville versions" of established characters such a General Zod.

And "Smallville" has boldly gone where only Kirk/Spock softcore "slash" fiction has gone before. The show's writers spoke openly, Souders said, of the Clark Kent/Lex Luthor relationship as a love story. And in the current final season, a clone character has been introduced, created from a mixture and Kent and Luthor DNA - a character described by no less an authority than Lois Lane as "the genetic love child of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor." Territory that George Reeves never explored.

Jeph Loeb brought his rock-star status in the comic book (Marvel and DC Comics) and television worlds ("Smallville," "Heroes) to bear on his new job as head of the Marvel TV division, vowing to tear down the walls previously separating comic book authors from animated, anime, and live-action TV producers. He traded barbs and jokes with fellow TV writer-producer Steven DeKnight ("Spartacus," "Smallville," "Buffy") about their early efforts to bridge the gap between the comic book and TV worlds and between his new cable series Spartacus and his visual predecessor, 300--itself a graphic novel brought to the screen.

UCLA alum and SVP, Global Marketing, Disney Interactive Media Group executive Craig Reylea celebrated the archival impulse behind Warren Spectors' world-building wii game, Epic Mickey and the implications of choice and consequence when using a well-known imp like Mickey as your "first-person shooter""(with a paint-brush as his weapon of choice).

Again and again at "Transmedia Hollywood 2," entertainment professionals acknowledged that they are already working in New Media on a daily basis, living in the brave new world, absorbing a new prospective at the same time. The Transmedia future is now.

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/scholarship/transmedia-hollywood-2/

Barbie Goes to Film School

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

As the multi-media triumph that was the 1st Annual Barbie Film Festival was winding down, as the last pink-frosted cupcake crumbs were being brushed from various lapels in the lobby of the Bridges Theater, one question reverberated through the minds of the stunned participants: What hath Tom Denove wrought?

Indeed, as Professor and FTVDM Vice Chair Denove explained to the assemble multitudes, it was all his idea, inspired by a now-famous YouTube video some helpful students brought to his attention:

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Denove won the approval of TFT Dean Teri Schwartz for his wacky idea, and then approached Barbie's parent company, Mattel, to pitch his concept for a film festival exclusively for short films made by TFT students using the new Barbie Video Girl Doll -- an iconic slender young lady made of plastic with the lens of a palm-sized video camera embedded in her chest.

That many of the films, shot over a single week in April, were clever, funny and inventive was not suprise. They wwere, amde after all, by some of the most talentted film students in the continental US. Another slender young woman, Rose O'Neil, Mattel's Director of Barbie Marketing, was on hand to award MFA Production/Directing Tess Sweet to award the good-humored Mattel Jury Prize to one of trhe evening's cleverest clips, "Little Punk," distinguished, O'Neil said, by its vivid evocation of "Barbie's point of view," and because it paid tribute to an act that almost all little girls are eventually moved top perform: "Cutting off all of Barbie's hair."

So the high humor quotiant, from Soraya Selene's restaging of a key scene from "Basic Instainct" in "The Ken Show" (Best Cinematography) to Best Film winner Simon Savelyev's wistful evocation of an oppressed house appliance's break for freedom in "I, Roomba,"

What did take some viewers by surprise.was the high percentage of work that was artful and ingenious, and even beautiful. Undergraduate film makjor Travis Geiger deservedly won the Production Value Award for Overall Design and Ingenuity for a film, "La Muse," that paid atmospheric himage to the bacl and white French New Wave films of the 1960s -- Barbie and Ken as Anna and Jean-Paul, complete with subtiled French dialog.

One film was striking enough to take home two awards, both the Brandon Bloch Spirit Award for Achievement in Barbography, awarded via video clip by the filmmaker who inspired the event, and the Audience Award, determined by secret ballot after the screening.

This was Marika Boehler's "Bug Eye," a film that overcame the limits of Video Girl resolution by combining multiple screen images into a grid and allowing them to shift in arftul musical patterns.

"Marika took full advantage of the characteristics of this camera," Denove said, "its strengths as well as its limitations, and created a thing of beauty."

The bar has been set high, in other words, for the 2nd Annual Barbie Film Festival in 2012. We're so there.

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/innovation/barbie-film-festival-1/

AUDIO PODCAST: Marina Goldovskaya on her friend, her motherland, her powerful new film

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The powerful new personal documentary by TFT faculty member Marina Goldovskaya, head of TFT's documentary program, is an intimate portrait of an assasinated Russian journalist who was also a close friend.

The new film, " Bitter Taste of Freedom," was the centrpiece of a sweeping career retrspective of the filmmaker's work at the 16th annual edition of the international documentary festival "It's All True," which ran from March 31 to April 10 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The new film will also screen at TFT, in the James Bridges Theater, on April 27. Details will be posted here and on our calendar page as they become available.

The retrospective at "It's All True 2011 - 16th International Documentary Film Festival" celebrated the work of "the principal Russian documentary filmmaker," a diirector whose classics of the post-Glasnost era such as "Solovky Power" (1988) and "The House on Arbat Street" (1994) recorded all the major historical events of a time of momentous change in her homeland, from Glasnost and Peristroika under Mikhail Gorbachev to the dashing of hopes for democracy under current strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Goldovskya's heartbreaking new film "A Bitter Taste of Freedom" (2011) is a chronicle of an occurance that exemplified the disillousionment of many in Russia: the murder in 2006 of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose reporting on the atrocities committed against refugees from the conflict in Chechnya painted a grim picture of the re-birth of political repression in the former Communist nation.

"A Bitter Taste of Freedom" is also a personal portrait and celebration of the life of a close friend: Politkovskaya met her future husband when he was studying with Professor Goldovskya at Moscow State University in the 1970s. In footage of the writer and her family from an earlier film, "A Taste of Freedom" (1991). Politkovskaya comes vibrantly to life as she is interviewed by an admired teacher, and in the process her loss becomes a personal matter for the audience, as well, meeting her for the first time.

"It is an incredible honor to salute Marina Goldovskaya's 70th birthday with the first large festival retrospective of her work," says critic Amir Labaki, director of "It's All True" and curator of the retrospective. "In her unique recordings between the personal and the social, no one has better documented the turbulent period of the end of the USSR and the beginnings of the new Russia. It's not by chance that her memoir is called 'A Woman with a Movie Camera.'"

Marina Goldvofskaya on "A Bitter Taste of Freedom"

Anna and her husband Sasha were my students at Moscow State University. Later, as both their careers as journalists took off, we became close friends. In 1991, I made "Taste of Freedom," a documentary about them. I wanted to describe how the changes introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika, affected life in the USSR using as an example the Politkovsky family.

It so happened that making this film prompted me to undertake a long-term project of chronicling Russia's transition from totalitarianism to democracy. Perestroika came about unexpectedly and brought beautiful, euphoric feelings of hope for a better future. At that time, of course, I couldn't imagine how difficult and dramatic this transition would turn out to be for Russia and for the Russian people.

This ongoing project has resulted so far in ten documentary portraits of my country of origin at different stages of its development, including "Shattered Mirror" (1992), "Lucky to Be Born in Russia" and (1993), "House on Arbat Street" (1994). "A Bitter Taste of Freedom" (2011) is the latest installment in my continuous observation of the last two decades of Russian history. This film returns us to the Politkovsky family 20 years later.

The children grew up. Sasha Politkovsky, famous and talented, left not only the profession of journalism but also his family. In contrast, Anna became a well-known investigative journalist for the Moscow liberal newspaper "Novaya Gazeta."

Anna was writing about the atrocities of the infamous Chechen war, often the only spokesperson for the innocent victims. She was a fearless woman and a uncompromising critic of the Russian authorities. Her activities went far beyond journalistic reporting: she was a true human rights activist defending civilians whose lives were being destroyed by the dirty and criminal Chechen war.

In spite of numerous threats she continued to do her job. She was assassinated on October 7, 2006.

Anna and I were friends. We trusted each other and always had a lot of things to share and discuss. When we met, we couldn't stop talking, and I could not stop filming. We spoke not only about her work but about everything.

Since her assassination, Anna has become a symbol for the struggle against tyranny and corruption, an iron lady. As time passes, she is becoming more and more a myth. Our film "A Bitter Taste of Freedom" shows Anna as who she was: a normal woman, tender with her friends, loving with her children, and uncompromising with those who abuse the human rights of simple people whoever they were: Chechens, Russians or anyone else.

I feel very strongly that a film about somebody like Anna is especially important now, when the world is so full of cynicism and corruption, when we so desperately need more people with her level of courage and integrity and commitment..

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/community/goldovskaya_its-all-true/

VIDEO: James Lapine on life in the theater

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

At a recent Masterclass event sponsored by the Los Angeles Philanthropic Committe for the Arts, Michael Hacket, chair, UCLA Department of Theater, interviewed James Lapine, a giant of the American theater.

In 1982, writer-director Lapine and composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim launched one of the most celebrated partnerships in the history of American musical theater when they began working together on the path-clearing production that became "Sunday in the Park With George."

Several other Sondheim/Lapin projects followed, including "Into the Woods" (1987), for which Lapine won both the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award, Best Book of a Musical. and "Passion" (1994). Their most recent collaboration is the revue "Sondheim on Sondheim" (2010), which won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revue.

Lapine has also directed several other musical and also non-musical dramas, including "Dirty Blonde" (2000), nominated for the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Direction of a Play.

In 1991 Lapinee directed his first film, "Impromptu," from a screenplay by his wife, Sarah Kernochan. The story revolves around the romance of George Sand and Chopin, and starred Judy Davis and Hugh Grant. He directed the film version of the Anne Tyler novel, "Earthly Possessions" (1999) for television, wih Susan Sarandon starring.

Lapine's most recent project was writing the book and directing a musical adaptation of the Oscar-winning film "Little Miss Sunshine" at the La Jolla Playhouse.

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/scholarship/james-lapine_masterclass/

Peter Guber on the persuasive power of great storytelling

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:00:00 -0800

"The ability to move people emotionally is also the power to move them transactionally," says Peter Guber, veteran film producer and long-time TFT professor and Executive Board Member."

In high demand nationally as an entertaining and inspiring motivational speaker, in addition to his work as an educator and as the CEO of the company he created, Mandalay Entertainment Group, Guber has distilled the hard won lessons of a lifetime into those popular talks and now into an engaging new book, "Talk to Win: Connect, Persuade and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story."

The aim," he says, "is to empower the reader to tell emotionally resonant stories, in order to persuade, motivate, excite and incite others to your goal for success. Most importantly, how it provides the impetus for them to viral market your concept or product for you, because a good story is something people can't wait to pass on. I've designed this book to be exciting and inspiring to read and also to deliver tools and takeaways that readers can use today to change their tomorrow."

Teri Schwartz, dean of the School calls the book "a 'page turner' - certainly as entertaining and galvanizing as Peter's talk at our 2010 Commencement, and totally grounded in the captivating concepts he presented that day."

Guber began his on-going exploration of the power storytelling at TFT in 2008, Guber taught a popular workshop course at TFT called "Navigating a Narrative World," which studied the different types of narratives that permeate our work and everyday lives. Participants learned how to find and create their own narratives. Many of the same concerns later informed his 2010 commencement address and the writing of "Tell to Win."

The wide variety of situations in which the power of narrative can be decisive is a cornerstone of Guber's message. "Whether you're a manager, housewife, entrepreneur, lawyer or non-profit," he recently told "The Huffington Post," "you often must get someone or a group of people to do something - buy your product, adapt to your organization's culture, invest in your vision, donate to your cause, meet a curfew - and embedding the call to action by telling purposeful stories, preferably in the room, face-to-face, is the most effective means of achieving that goal."

To illustrate his claims about applying the power of purposeful storytelling to a wide variety of life-situations, Guber includes the testimony of a diverse array of "voices" - master storytellers with whom he has shared turning-point life experiences.

"As you can imagine," Dean Schwartz says, "Peter's amazing professional experiences have played a big role in the development of his theory of 'tell to win,' which he has successfully tested both in the classroom and in the boardroom. The stories and the people Peter chooses to highlight in his book dynamically bring to life his wonderful ideas and insights."

Highlighted individuals include former President Bill Clinton, record breaking NBA coach Pat Riley and NBA star Magic Johnson, former South African president Nelson Mandela, film directors Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and Curtis Hanson, actors Tom Cruise and Sidney Poitier, world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, novelist Alice Walker, rock legend Gene Simmons and physician and author Deepak Chopra.

Another key message is that often untapped persuasive power of narrative is available to all of us, even to people who do not see themselves as "natural storytellers."

"Everyone is a natural teller of stories," Guber has said. "The ability to tell purposeful stories for success isn't a gift from me to you. It isn't a special talent bestowed upon a select few. It's hard wired in all of us."

Guber ranks storytelling as one of the core atributes of human nature, as ubiquitous across all cultures as language itself:

"The telling of stories was critical to the survival of our species. In order to compete and triumph against far more ferocious predators we had to develop rules, beliefs, values and strategies. This meant the development of the ability to communicate, remember, and act upon the information embedded in stories told around the campfire. This social cohesion allowed us to move from the bottom of the food chain to the top - from prey to predator."

"Tell to Win" will be released on March 1 by Crown Business.

Peter Guber has served as Studio Chief at Columbia Pictures; Co-Chairman of Casablanca Records and Filmworks; CEO of Polygram Entertainment; Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures; and Chairman and CEO of his current venture, Mandalay Entertainment Group.

Among the award-winning films he has produced or executive produced are "Midnight Express," "The Color Purple," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Batman" and "Rain Man." Guber is the owner and co-executive chairman of the NBA's Golden State Warriors and oversees one of the largest combinations of professional baseball teams and venues nationwide. He is also a longtime professor at UCLA, a Harvard Business Review contributor, and a thought leader who speaks at numerous business forums around the country.

Peter Guber intervewed by UCLA Newsroom director Kevin Roderick:

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/scholarship/peter-guber-ttw/

VIDEO: "Let's Do Some Work"

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:00:00 -0800

"I feel almost superfluous," says legendary actor (and veteran acting teacher) Alfred Molina, shaking his head in amazement at the depth and persuasiveness of the student scene reading he's just witnessed.

The young actor is pleased, needless to say, and when Molina follows up with a suggestion that will become the driving motif of the evening, "Now let's do some work," the student leans forward eagerly. "Yes, please," he says.

The three-hour public master class featuring Molina and thirteen of the MFA acting rpogram's finest best on the stage of the Freud Playhouse , kicked off the new Los Angeles Philanthropic Committee for the Arts UCLA Theater Master Class Series, a major new enrichment program offered by the Department under chair Michael Hackett.

The work Molina does with the students often consists of simple, practical excercises that pay unexpected dividends in terms of deeper feeling and sharper clarity of meaning. In the video segments below you'll witness the instructor's delight as the actors' performances of scenes from Shakespeare, Shaw, and Chekhov evolve under his influence.

Molina, superfulous? Not a chance.

A passionate student of theater and of Shakespeare in particular (the playwright he's teaching in his regular Saturday afternoon class during the winter quarter), Molina spurs students to dig deeper into the meaning of the lines, to discover what is concrete and "actable" in a scene. ("That makes sense to me," he says at one point. " I understand that. I can act that.")

Throughout an exhilarating evening of instruction, these MFA acting students matched and exceeded the expectations of the Department, which refers to them as "professionals in training." We present on video selected segments from this exceptional evening of The Theater of Education.

Videographer: Juan Tallo.

Editor: Nolwen Cifuentes
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Click through to watch the clips in HD.

Additional clips will be posted as they become available.

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http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/scholarship/alfred-molina_master-class/