The Leimert Phone Co., an interdisciplinary, multiplatform project that aims to repurpose payphones into cultural portals to local history and arts in Leimert Park, will be presented at the four-day National Allied Media Conference, to be held in Detroit from June 20-23.

According to co-founders Benjamin Stokes and Karl Baumann, two PhD candidates at USC, their trip to Michigan is an ideal way to test their model in a city that has become a national center in the debate on how to revitalize troubled cities. In Detroit, the Leimert team will introduce “payphone redesign” as a creative use of media for social justice.

The Leimert Phone Co. project came together under the collaborative efforts of USC faculty and students and Leimert Park artists, residents and community members. Stokes, Baumann and the Leimert team aim to create a model for community engagement and design that can be taken up across the country.

During the conference on June 22, the model will be demonstrated in a workshop titled “Phone Booths Against Gentrification.” The team will emphasize investing in process, including participatory design and transmedia storytelling. The workshop will challenge representatives from communities across the country to apply the model hands on, redesigning a payphone for cities with their own social priorities.

“Whether they are from Detroit or visiting from Atlanta or New York,” Baumann said about the workshop, “everyone will learn through physical role-play and rapid prototyping.”

The Leimert Phone Company from Karl Baumann on Vimeo.

The idea was sparked when Ben Caldwell, founder of the Leimert-based arts collective KAOS Network and co-founder of the Leimert Phone Co., heard an NPR piece about repurposing New York phone booths into ATMs. Caldwell, who is also on the board of the Greater Leimert Park/Crenshaw Corridor Business Improvement District, said he heard the piece and promptly thought, “Wow, how can we as social practice artists engage our communities in a similar way?”

Caldwell turned to USC Annenberg Professor François Bar to help turn his idea into reality. The scholars gathered a group of young people, artists and residents of Leimert Park, as well as USC PhD and master’s students, who collectively came up with the idea of repurposing public phone booths into open portals that could be used as incubators in various communities.

“Just as Facebook and Google are free formats, I want these booths to be open portals similar to the Internet,” Caldwell said, describing his hopes for the project. “With their presence, we can do a lot of things to help invigorate Leimert Park businesses.”

With that goal in mind, the group met every Wednesday at USC and every Saturday at the KAOS Network in Leimert Park as part of a five-week pilot period for a future course with a similar structure. The test course, held for the first time in the spring semester, was made up of USC students in technology and media programs, as well as local artists and youth groups associated with the KAOS Network.

The class was co-taught by USC experts in technology, design and business innovation along with neighborhood organizers and artists with expertise in neighborhood strengths, culture and strategy.

“This project represents a unique opportunity for constructive engagement between USC and the neighboring community residents,” Bar said. “The resulting prototypes reflect the combined skills and ideas of local artists, community activists and USC students. New ways to learn and create emerge from this innovative process.”

After the E-bay purchase of 12 used payphones, three teams collaborated on different ideas based on personal passions. Each team created a concept that it felt accurately represented the cultural richness of Leimert Park and would give newcomers the tools to explore the neighborhood.

Groups then created pitch “concept videos” to spark community interest in funding the resources to build a prototype.

The first team pitched Dial-A-Track, a concept that allows listeners to hear music from Leimert Park musicians and upcoming music and art events in addition to learning about the neighborhood’s musical history.

The second concept, which focused on transmedia storytelling, aims to connect tourists with local businesses through a Sankofa Search, which is similar to a treasure hunt. Businesses would host a phone that, for a quarter, enables a Wi-Fi hotspot. When users connect to Wi-Fi, the login page takes them to a map that guides them through the neighborhood in search of Sankofa birds, which indicate locations where stories can be heard or told.

The third idea, smARTphone, hosts a mini art exhibition inside the phone booth. The payphone’s coin slot acts as a viewfinder through which guests can see slideshows of local art. With the press of a button, guests receive information on where to view or purchase local art and can hear a list of upcoming local events.

Each idea is an attempt to merge the physical and digital worlds in a way that creatively depicts Leimert Park, a predominantly black neighborhood that was once home to Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and former LA Mayor Tom Bradley.

The recent approval of a Leimert Park station on the forthcoming Crenshaw light rail has heightened the threat of gentrification for the neighborhood. The light rail will run along Crenshaw Boulevard, intersect the Exposition line and transport tourists and Angelenos alike to and from Los Angeles International Airport.

“It’s just about protecting the past,” Stokes said. “This is a group that wants to go somewhere in the future. They all want to grow their businesses while remaining tied to their cultural history.”

Leimert Park residents are not interested in defensively resisting the change the new metro station will bring, he noted. Instead, residents want to adapt with it in the right way. The new station will undoubtedly bring visitors to the neighborhood, and residents want to create an environment that is inviting and creative while sustaining the historic core.

“If there is going to be change,” Baumann said, “it’s going to be change on their terms to strengthen what is already there.”

Baumann described the overall idea as providing residents of any neighborhood a vehicle in which the cultural aspects and strengths of the community can be pushed into the public and further.

Stokes considers the project to be rife with possibilities. Payphone redesign can be as simple as a sticker beside the coin slot that provides guests a number to call to get a list of libraries or upcoming events in the neighborhood. The other side of the spectrum is a completely redesigned payphone that acts as a cultural hotspot that brings the past into public space, spurring new conversations, treasure hunts and supporting local business.

“A shared vision is a very tangible outcome,” Stokes said. “If this project helps Leimert Park articulate what kind of community it will fight to be, even without any payphones at all, it can help the fight on gentrification.”

The group’s blog will post updates on conference activities here.

Led by Don Arnold and Richard Roberts of USC, the team engineered microscopic probes that light up synapses in a living neuron in real time by attaching fluorescent markers onto synaptic proteins — all without affecting the neuron’s ability to function.

The fluorescent markers allow scientists to see live excitatory and inhibitory synapses for the first time and, importantly, how they change as new memories are formed.

The synapses appear as bright spots along dendrites (the branches of a neuron that transmit electrochemical signals). As the brain processes new information, those bright spots change, visually indicating how synaptic structures in the brain have been altered by the new data.

“When you make a memory or learn something, there’s a physical change in the brain. It turns out that the thing that gets changed is the distribution of synaptic connections,” said Arnold, associate professor of molecular and computational biology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and co-corresponding author of an article about the research that appears in Neuron on June 19.

The probes behave like antibodies, but they bind more tightly and are optimized to work inside the cell — something that ordinary antibodies can’t do. To make these probes, the team used a technique known as “mRNA display,” which was developed by Roberts and Nobel laureate Jack Szostak.

“Using mRNA display, we can search through more than a trillion different potential proteins simultaneously to find the one protein that binds the target the best,” said Roberts, co-corresponding author of the article and professor of chemistry and chemical engineering with joint appointments at USC Dornsife and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Arnold and Roberts’ probes (called “FingRs”) are attached to green fluorescent protein (GFP), a protein isolated from jellyfish that fluoresces bright green when exposed to blue light. Because FingRs are proteins, the genes encoding them can be put into brain cells in living animals, causing the cells themselves to manufacture the probes.

The design of FingRs also includes a regulation system that cuts off the amount of FingR-GFP that is generated after 100 percent of the target protein is labeled, effectively eliminating background fluorescence — generating a sharper, clearer picture.

These probes can be put in the brains of living mice and then imaged through cranial windows using two-photon microscopy.

The new research could offer crucial insight for scientists responding to President Barack Obama’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which was announced in April.

Modeled after the Human Genome Project, the objective of the $100 million initiative is to fast-track research that maps out exactly how the brain works and “better understand how we think, learn and remember,” according to the BRAIN Initiative website.

The research was supported by funding from National Institutes of Health (grant numbers GM-083898, MH-086381, GM-083898 and GM-060416).

More than 70 representatives from USC Annenberg gathered to receive awards, present papers, attend panels, lead panels and network with peers through June 21.

The international conference accepts submissions from academic institutions around the world on topics that redefine the communication industry. This year, academics from 804 institutions in 61 countries will be in attendance.

“ICA is an exciting conference because it attracts communication scholars from all over the world,” said Evan Brody, ICA presenter and PhD candidate. “There are a lot of sessions, so it is a great chance to hear what other scholars are researching and discussing.”

Based on data visualization by University of Minnesota doctoral student Rodrigo Zamith, USC will be the second-most represented institution at this year’s conference, with 45 unique authors. The University of Texas has sent 48. According to Zamith, papers can have multiple authors. The term “unique author” in most cases refers to the one who led the work. In terms of all authors, USC ranks fourth with 67.

USC Annenberg faculty and students won multiple awards and will be presenting 60 papers, four of which won top paper recognitions.

Associate Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser won the Outstanding Book Award for Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. The book examines the role of branding in everyday lives and, according to the award committee, “is a well-written and nuanced analysis with great examples and interesting implications.”

In addition, Cara Wallis PhD ’06 won the James W. Carey Media Research Award for her dissertation-turned-book, Technomobility in China: Young Migrant Women and Mobile Phones.

Six other Trojans received top paper distinctions for their submissions.

“This year only 36 percent of the submitted papers and panels were accepted,” Brody said. “I felt very flattered when I found out my paper was chosen. It is a great honor to be recognized by your peers.”

Brody’s paper, “My Gay Is Great! The Heteronormative Gaze of Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys” analyzes how gay men are understood and depicted in modern televisual contexts. Brody, whose submission was chosen as Top Student Paper in the gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender studies division, was the first of a dozen participants in an extended session titled “Challenging Transitions: Representation, Bodies, Identities and Policy in LGBT Studies” on June 18.

PhD candidates Theo Mazumdar and Laura Alberti, along with Professor François Bar will present their paper, “The Viewertariat as News Frame-Builders: Real-Time Twitter Sentiment, News Frames and the Republican ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Debate,” in the challenging communication research division on June 19.

Afterward, Assistant Professor Mike Ananny will present his paper, “Imagined Networks: How International Journalism Innovators Negotiate Authority and Rework News Norms” in a session titled “Networks of Journalism: New Linkages and New Actors.” The paper, co-written by Adrienne Russell of the University of Denver, was chosen as one of three top faculty papers.

Clinical Assistant Professor Kimberlie Stephens will present her paper, “The Institutionalization of Genetically Modified Food: A Longitudinal Semantic Network Analysis,” at the “Top Papers in Organizational Communication” session on June 20. Professor Janet Fulk will be the respondent for the session.

In addition to the award winners, USC Annenberg’s top two administrators also made the trip.

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III participated in a preconference sponsored session titled “China and the New Internet World.”

Larry Gross, vice dean and School of Communication director, served as ICA president from 2011 to 2012. As a current member of the ICA board of directors, Gross will welcome new members and participate in strategic meetings throughout the week.

In addition to his duties as a board member duties, Gross will participate in a session marking the 35th anniversary of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk’s 1978 assassination titled “Harvey Milk’s Queer Inheritance.” The session will be held on June 21. Later that day, Gross will chair a session on Robert Craig’s 1999 constitutive metamodel of communication.

Professors Kwan Min Lee, Dmitri Williams and Peter Monge will also be in attendance. Lee and Williams serve on the ICA board. Lee is the communication and technology division chair; Williams is chair of game studies and Monge served as ICA president from 1997 to 1998.

On July 1, Anthony Senagore will be leaving his position as professor in the Keck School and chief of colorectal surgery at Keck Medical Center of USC to accept a tenured position as chair of surgical disciplines at Central Michigan University School of Medicine.

Rohit Varma left his position as associate professor of ophthalmology and has accepted the chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

And Eila Skinner has left her post as associate professor of clinical urology to become chair of the Department of Urology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Colleagues said all three will be missed. Vaughn Starnes, chair of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at the USC hospitals, said that while he wished Senagore had stayed, he knows that his new colleagues in Michigan will be in good hands.

“Dr. Senagore has demonstrated a skillful balance of leadership, administration, educational and research roles during his time at USC and has been a role model for all,” Starnes wrote in a memo to the surgery faculty.

Ronald Smith, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, praised Varma’s research.

“He was a particularly productive clinician and scientist,” Smith said. “He’s one of the world’s leading ophthalmic epidemiologists today.”

Skinner had been a member of the Department of Urology for more than 20 years.

“She was a leader in our bladder cancer team and also on the national scene,” said Inderbir Gill, chairman and professor of the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology and founding executive director of the USC Institute of Urology. “Her selection as chair of urology at Stanford is definitely a feather in her cap and also ours.”

Smith said the appointments reflect well on the Keck School. He noted that among graduates from the ophthalmology department training programs, there are 10 sitting chairs in the United States and another 26 outside the country.

“One of the measures of excellence of any academic medical center is the success of their graduates and alumni,” he said.

Students worked with government clients, including the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Research Bureau and the Little Hoover Commission. They also worked with nonprofit clients, such as Price Charities, the Child Welfare Initiative, Community Health Councils Inc., the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Smart Growth America and Consejo Consultivo del Agua.

Christopher Weare, research associate professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, who co-teaches the course, noted how the students applied a range of new methodologies to their projects, extending far beyond what they had learned in their formal coursework.

“What is particularly impressive about these practicum projects is understanding the breadth and flexibility of the students’ analytic capabilities when they’ve gone through this program,” he said. “It both stretches the students and shows their ability to do the analysis that’s most appropriate for any particular problem.”

The students credited both their clients and USC Price with giving them the space to operate as real-world professionals.

“My anticipation for the practicum in general was thinking that all clients were going to have a very hands-on approach,” said Catherine Omalev, whose student group examined public safety realignment for the Little Hoover Commission. “But that wasn’t the case with many of the projects, and that was a great thing — that definitely brought freedom and ownership to our project as well.”

Omalev and fellow students Aubrey Farkas, Carl Svensson and Kimberly Bailey evaluated Assembly Bill 109, the October 2011 legislation that shifted the responsibility of low-level offenders from California state prisons to county jails. The group discovered that counties received grants of varying sizes to accommodate the influx of inmates. However, the funding formula didn’t account for a county jail’s capacity, fiscal ability or level of support from community-based organizations.

Another group of students tackled an equally vexing social problem for the Child Welfare Initiative. Denesa Moore, Gwendolyn Forrest, Hanyu Xue and Lacy Kuester identified model practices and approaches to help the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services and other interested parties address barriers to foster youth employment.

“Foster youth fare worse than nonfoster youth peers across the board,” Moore said. “So they have lower high school graduation rates, higher unemployment rates, and higher arrest and incarceration rates. You see it all. This is why Child Welfare Initiative really asked us to do this — to try to mitigate the unemployment rate.”

At the request of the Congressional Research Service, another student group concentrated on a very different employment-related issue: policymaking about people’s retirement savings decisions.

Retirement savings plan participants face a daunting array of decisions.

“The first is whether or not to participate and, if they participate, how much to contribute to the plan and how to invest those contributions,” said Alice Ip, who worked with fellow students Beatrice Fuchs, Colleen McKinney, Orkun Erkus and Peter Thomas. “And finally, when they retire, they have to decide how they will withdraw the value of their account balance.”

Students give their practicum presentation at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. (USC Photo/Deirdre Flanagan)

In the face of such complexity and ambiguity, people often avoid making any decisions at all. So the group found that options such as targeted auto-enrollment in retirement savings plans can encourage better preparation for retirement.

Some of the students’ research is well on its way to being put into practice. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 asked a student group to study the reasons why many industrial facilities, such as auto wrecking yards and recycling plants, don’t obtain the proper storm water permits, which regulate the discharge of pollutants into bodies of water.

“The rate of nonfiling is still very high, at least 50 percent by most estimates,” said Oswin Chan, whose student group included Lisa Rakha Goldstein, Stephan Noori and Ying Jia Huang. “The regulatory environment provides little to no incentive for facilities to file.

The EPA suspected that excessive permitting fees might be the main disincentive to compliance, but the students discovered a much more complex situation. Given that there are no inspection programs focused on nonfilers and no immediate penalties for being unpermitted, there are no real negative consequences to being out-of-compliance. In contrast, compliance is expensive, inconvenient and even risky since it makes the permitted facility more likely to incur legal action by environmental groups.

Client David Smith shared these results at a national meeting of the water permitting branch chiefs.

“I was impressed by the students’ level of thinking on it,” Smith said.

“Policy analysis research is actually something we need help on, and this is a new way for us to get some of those needs filled,” he added. “And doing projects like this is a way for students to get their head in the door a little bit … it’s a win-win.”

Another win-win occurred when Price Charities asked a group to explore the issue of creating new park space in the San Diego neighborhood of City Heights.

“Our research showed that community engagement is really the driving force behind our parks,” said Ashley Downend, who collaborated with Alexandra Ferguson, Dominique Clark and Rachel Lipton.

The students also revealed the recreational, social, economic, environmental and aesthetic benefits of providing more park space. And when it came to recommending potential locations for a skate park, the students’ research actually validated some of the land acquisition decisions that Price Charities had already made.

“Their findings aligned with some of our thoughts of which corner we were looking at, so that was a good confirmation,” said Becky Modesto, director of university relations for Price Charities. “And the students were wonderful. Their presentation was really professional.”

Matthew Hervey, executive director of Price Charities, added, “From our perspective, doing everything we could to improve the experience of the student and the learning process was our focus. To get anything meaningful in addition to that was like whipped cream and a cherry on top.

“From the oral presentation, the slide presentation, we very much received quite a bit of information that is that whipped cream and cherry on top,” Hervey noted. “So there’s definitely a positive on both sides.”

In addition, through the experience of serving as real-life consultants, students not only acquired key lessons, but they also encountered difficult challenges from the professional world — for example, employees leave their jobs, organizational priorities shift and information isn’t always accessible.

“Part of the value of the practicum is that it does often emulate what happens in a career, which is that unexpected things happen, and one has to be able to adjust accordingly,” said Juliet Musso, Houston Flournoy Professor of State Government, who co-teaches the course. “The students were very professional and really hard-working and creative in the way that they adjusted to these kinds of challenges.”

Comprised of 47 industry leaders, local and state elected representatives, port and airport executives, and academic experts, the newly established committee will advise the secretary on a wide range of freight transportation-related topics, including the implementation of new freight transportation requirements; the development of a national freight network and strategic plan; development of measures for freight performance and conditions; development of investment, data and planning tools; and legislative recommendations.

Giuliano, who was appointed as an expert advisory member and not as a representative of any particular freight interest, has an extensive scholarly record in transportation policy.

The USC administrator’s research has examined the impacts of public transportation policy on the performance and outcomes of public transport services; the effects of regulatory policy on freight transport system performance; and the financing and implementation of major freight infrastructure projects. She has also followed the evolution of federal policy, having written on the implications of a changing federal role.

By participating in the advisory committee, Giuliano said her biggest hope would be to develop a strong national freight policy.

“An efficient and sustainable freight system is essential to the national economy and therefore a critical responsibility for the national government,” she said. “Today we do not have what I would call a national freight policy, and this has all sorts of implications. Essential improvements — from a systems perspective — do not get done. What does get done is the result of ad-hoc, one-off arrangements that may or may not contribute to the efficiency of the national system or solve the highest priority problems.”

The advisory committee members will offer guidance to improve the department’s freight transportation policies and programs. Their collaboration will serve to foster involvement and compliance with proposed plans, and will promote the enactment of larger policy initiatives. Each member is expected to serve a two-year term and meet at least three times per year. The first meeting is scheduled for June 25.

In addition to Giuliano, two other members of the advisory committee are affiliated with Metrans. Fran Inman of Majestic Realty and Randy Iwasaki, CEO of Contra Costa Transit, both of whom serve on the Metrans advisory board, were also appointed.

The establishment of the committee comes at a critical time with regard to freight transportation. While significant investments — about $1 billion over the past four years — have been made by the U.S. Department of Transportation in projects that primarily involve freight, efficiently serving current and future freight demand will require new approaches.

The cover is accompanied by a description of the building and the various programs that it houses.

USC’s old student health center was built as an infirmary in 1949. In the past 20 years, as USC transitioned into an increasingly residential university, the number of visits to the center nearly tripled to about 90,000 students per year.

To meet this growing demand, USC opened the new five-story, 101,000-square-feet Engemann Student Health Center in January. The center was made possible by a lead gift of $15 million from longtime supporters Roger and Michele Dedeaux Engemann ’68.

At the grand opening ceremony, Executive Director Lawrence Neinstein, USC professor of pediatrics and medicine and senior associate dean of the Division of Student Affairs, called the center “a dream come true” and thanked the Engemanns for their vision and generosity.

“We will create a healthier Trojan community and help students complete their academic endeavors and go on to lead successful, happy and healthier lives,” he had pledged. “With all the meaning I can muster — because this is an emotional moment for me — with all my heart and soul, thank you.”

Neinstein also acknowledged the facility’s five-star Yelp rating, which still holds strong today.

“Wow this place knocked my socks off!” one reviewer wrote. “A new health center was desperately [needed] by the USC community so I’m so glad that our school finally found the money and space to get it done. I am extremely pleased with the results.”

Another reviewer commented: “One of my favorite buildings at USC. I could not agree more with the previous reviews because it truly is a work of art — pristine, new, welcoming. Most importantly, there are so many medical services offered here.”

The Student Health Center has consolidated more than 16 services into one location, such as primary and urgent care, laboratory, radiology, counseling services, dental services, and physical and occupational therapy. It also houses specialty services, such as dermatology and acupuncture.

In the context of the current IGM exhibition, Aging People/Aging Planet, by artists Mary Lou Dauray and Orna Makleff, the forum will feature presentations on the importance of preserving memories through oral history, sparked by the screening of the documentary film Citizen Tanouye, co-directed by Robert Horsting and Craig Yahata. Discussion topics will include Alzheimer’s/dementia research and treatment, music therapy for Alzheimer’s/dementia patients, caregiver support, the effects of cross-generational interaction (seniors and preschool children), and new technological therapy options.

“The concept of the program is to provide a ‘one-stop’ resource for attendees who have recently become caregivers or who are considering the impact of these conditions for a loved one,” said Lynn Crandall, director of the IGM Art Gallery. “A key goal is to inform those in attendance of the new approaches and technologies being explored [combining arts and sciences] for Alzheimer’s/dementia treatment. For our medical experts and support care professionals, it is an opportunity to learn of advancements in research and therapies, to share innovations and to form partnerships with other professionals.”

Presenters, in order, will be:

• Robert Horsting, oral historian/filmmaker, on recording memories through oral history.

• Freddi Segal-Gidan, physician associate and gerontologist; assistant clinical professor in the USC departments of neurology, family medicine and gerontology; director, Rancho/USC California Alzheimer’s Disease Center; and senior staff, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.

• Joshua Grill, researcher, Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, University of California, Los Angeles.

• Frances Kakugawa, Alzheimer’s caregiver, support group founder, poet and author.

• Stacie Dawes, licensed marriage and family therapist, Pacifica Senior Living in Northridge, Calif., presenting the “Music and Memory” program.

• Kanako Kusano, health promotion specialist, Keiro Senior HealthCare, and Phyllis Chang, program coordinator for “Memories in the Making” of the Alzheimer’s Association, California Southland chapter, presenting the “Memories in the Making” program.

• Anh Tran, community relations manager, One Generation Day Care, presenting cross-generational care (seniors and preschool children).

• Doug Nelson, co-founder and chief technology officer, and Zubin Levy, co-founder, MultiSensory Systems, presenting a patented interactive, immersive system that integrates three-dimensional sound, aroma, full body vibration and optional visual imagery, to help maintain psychological well-being and minimize stress.

For more information or to RSVP for the event to be held from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 2250 Alcazar St. in Los Angeles, contact Robert Horsting at natto41@sbcglobal.net or call (818) 913-0640. Admission is free.

Whedon took on the adaptation of the Shakespeare play like a do-it-yourself passion project, employing money-saving techniques that students have practiced for years.

Following an advance screening of Much Ado on June 4, the film’s co-producer and editor Daniel Kaminsky ’07 spoke to students about the drastic difference between micro- and big-budget filmmaking at an event moderated by Professor Michael Peyser.

Before The Avengers had even wrapped production, Kaminsky explained, Whedon was already moving forward on Much Ado through Bellwether Pictures, his independent studio.

“Joss had just come off one of the biggest movies ever, and it was important for him to be able to do content outside of the studio system just to be able to make his own stuff,” Kaminsky said. “So we had to make it incredibly low and be aware of how much we were spending.”

Like many budding student filmmakers, Whedon shot the film at his home, assembled a cast and crew from people he had previously worked with and fit the entire feature into only 12 shoot days.

“It really came together. He [Whedon] and his wife, Kai [who also produced the film], just had this drive that we were going to do this,” said Kaminksy, referring to the film’s lightning-paced production. “When you have that sort of maniac mentality, people will get behind you.”

Kaminsky, who graduated with a degree in critical studies, worked as an assistant at several companies before landing a position as Whedon’s assistant, his first project being The Avengers. Of the stark difference in the two films’ budgets, Kaminsky joked, “We figured we had The Avengers last year, so this was the next logical thing.”

Much Ado About Nothing, which opens nationwide on June 21 following a limited release, connects a cast, including Amy Acker (Cabin in the Woods), Alexis Denisof (Angel) and Nathan Fillion (Castle), with old English speech and black-and-white cinematography in a contemporary setting. The film’s microbudget meant the cast had to learn fast and work quickly.

“Because we were moving so fast,” Kaminksy said, “we really only had one or two takes before moving on, so it was really imperative that everyone nailed their lines, and they did a fantastic job.”

Leading the research project will be CTM Chief Strategy Officer Josette Bonte, who joined the institute last year.

“We are delighted that YouTube, Warner Bros., Fox, Cisco, Qualcomm, Alcatel-Lucent, Seagate and PwC will join forces with CTM on the ‘Future of Media’ and allow for a 360-degree view of the evolving media ecosystem,” said CTM Executive Director Lucy Hood. “This initiative will combine academic research and best practices from the world’s leading media entities to share world-class corporate expertise in the fields of communications, technology and media.”

In addition, Deborah Bothun, leader of PwC’s U.S. Advisory Entertainment, Media and Communications practice, has joined Qualcomm’s Bill Davidson as board chair at CTM. Bothun, who joined the board in 2009, assists PwC clients in adapting to the changing content and distribution marketplace. She is an adviser to Women in Film and serves on the New York Philanthropic Advisory Board for UNICEF.

“I think that the institute can play a key role in thought leadership across the communications, technology and media sectors,” said Bothun, a key force in launching “Future of Media.” “CTM’s consortium research allows partners and competitors to find a balanced, neutral forum for the exchange of ideas, business models and evolutionary scenarios.

“No topic is more important to the entertainment, media and communications sector than the ‘Future of Media,’ she added. “CTM offers corporations in the arena an unbiased yet sophisticated view of the evolution of consumer behavior and the implications for their businesses.”