Reel obsessions

Aiming for exposure, SDSU filmmakers focus on eye-catching projects, hollywood connections

San Diego Union Tribune
Story by Angela Ashman
STAFF WRITER

April 9, 2000

If there's one thing SDSU senior Tyler Spangler has learned about making movies, it's that such words as "running smoothly" or "perfection" do not exist in the filmmakers' vocabulary.

At 3 a.m. in a cold parking garage, the batteries for his car bomb ran out; a week before shooting, his lead actor dropped out; one of his cameras mysteriously fried itself to a useless condition; and it rained on the day he planned to shoot outdoors.

But the 25-year-old Spangler -- like many of the Hollywood-dream hopefuls who will graduate this semester from San Diego State University' s film program -- is driven to make movies, and if it means staying up for days straight, he' ll do it because he loves what he does.

"The ones that do the best are just obsessed," said Mike Real, director of San Diego State University' s school of communications. "They want to make films -- it's all they care about.

"They drive you crazy and they drive themselves crazy. But, boy, do they get the stuff done. They learn a lot and before they get out of here, they're making wonderful stuff. And just when they get really good, and you'd like to keep them around longer, they finish and move on."

For the last quarter-century, the school of communications has restricted the film program to 200 students each year because of its popularity; aspiring moviemakers flock to the undergraduate program, eager to earn a bachelor's degree in applied arts and sciences for television, film and new-media production (TFM).

And why shouldn't it be popular? SDSU has been turning out filmmakers for five decades, and its impressive list of alumni includes Kathleen Kennedy, producer of "E.T," "Jurassic Park" and "The Sixth Sense"; Russ Carpenter, Oscar-winning cinematographer for "Titanic"; Gary David Goldberg, producer of "Family Ties" and "Spin City"; and Bob Badami, music supervisor/editor of "Enemy of the State," "Armageddon" and "Bulworth."

Seniors hoping to follow in those footsteps spend countless hours and thousands of dollars to make "calling card" films by the end of the semester. And after graduation, if the projects are good enough, the students might impress the right people who can help their careers.

More often than not, however, these calling cards get thrown in the reject pile with the rest of the movies that students submit to Hollywood agents and film festivals.

With the odds stacked against them, these students feel enormous pressure to create a masterpiece that will stand out from the rest. And sometimes, the obsession with filmmaking controls their lives. During the production of a film, it's not uncommon for students to skip class to catch up on sleep after a long night's shoot.

"It's not like any kind of work in college that I know," SDSU film professor Greg Durbin said. "It's more intense work and it's extremely expensive and demanding. For students to work 15-to 18-hour days is common and some definitely experience burnout."

In the case of former undergraduate Shlomo Buchler, who says he had to stay up for two days' straight working on the set of his final project, "Soledad," he finally dropped out mid-semester.

"I had to leave school to finish the film," said Buchler, 27. "Going to class wasn't convenient because I had put so much effort into it that getting it finished became the No. 1 goal."

"Soledad" was an ambitious 20-minute project, shot on 35mm film and set in the deep South of the 1880s. Most students at SDSU shoot 8-to 10-minute films on less expensive 16mm film.

His film, however, has paid off more than he imagined. "Soledad" has made it to the penultimate cut of the prestigious "Critics Week," a seven-film international showcase of short films at the Cannes Film Festival. He also has a distribution-company deal for "Soledad," is working on a feature-film script and is regularly in touch with SDSU financial supporter and Hollywood producer Gale Anne Hurd ("Armageddon," "Terminator"). Hurd offered assistance to the aspiring director after seeing "Soledad" last fall at the SDSU student-film screening at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Los Angeles.

Buchler plans to return to school one day, but for now he is going to ride his recent success as long as he can. "This has always been a lifelong dream of mine," Buchler said. "But I could never get accepted into film school. I just knew I wanted to make films, but I didn't have a portfolio."

And this is how many students end up at the TFM department: no experience, but with a lot of passion to make movies. Film senior Linda Assi, 24, began as a business and marketing major, but she couldn't shake the nagging inner voice to make movies.

"I always wanted to do this, but I didn't know what route to take," Assi said. "My parents and brothers are all in business, so I decided to be the good girl and follow Mom and Dad. But, it really wasn't for me. So a year before my graduation, I switched my major."

These days, the senior who won one of SDSU's $2,000 Gale Anne Hurd grants for her project about an African-refugee mother is keeping a hectic schedule to make a career-boosting film. So, how tired is she?

"Let's put it this way -- you drink tons of coffee. And by the time you're done, you no longer have blood in your system -- you've got caffeine!"

Assi has come a long way from her days of just dreaming about making movies. And she gives much of the credit to the school's policy of practical training.

"It's a lot of 'go mess up and then learn from it,'" Assi said. "Between the overexposed films and the underexposed films, a camera that doesn't function properly or the camera battery that dies on you and there's no place to get another one -- you just keep learning. But through it all it's really interesting.

"I guess when you're there you get frustrated, but you definitely learn not to make the same mistake twice."

Senior Keith Jones ("KJ") agrees that the program has been a good way for him to learn: "It's hands-on. We get a lot of experience making films and you can do what you want to do."

When he entered the program three years ago, he was almost finished with his degree in criminal justice and sociology. "I was taking different classes in the film department, but I always thought it was something that other people did who grew up in the industry or had the idea ingrained in them from an early age," said Jones, 31. "But then I thought: 'Hey! I'm just as imaginative as anyone else. And if I learn the technical aspects of it, it shouldn't be that difficult.' Jones plans to go on to graduate school and earn funds for his first full-length feature.

Senior Bob Clamage, 47, agrees that although SDSU may not have the same faculty and industry connections USC or UCLA have, it's not holding him back. "SDSU film school fights the same battle every other underfinanced, budget-restrained film department in the U.S. fights, which is to attract quality professors and quality students without the cachet that the upper-tier film schools have. So it's tough. But it doesn't stop you from making a good movie."

In the end, SDSU is proving that its program can mold anyone into a filmmaker as long as the student has the drive to excel.

Devoted to filmmaking, Spangler was fired from his last job for spending too much time at the set. "We were shooting a music video in Julian and we didn't get all of the shots we needed. So I couldn't show up" for work, the former busboy said.

But his decision to put in extra hours as co-director and co-editor for the music video "Hold Me Under" paid off. The video just won first place at the national Student Emmy awards held by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a major accomplishment for Spangler and the project's co-producers and 1999 TFM graduates Ron Najor and Kristin Jensen, who faced stiff competition from all the top film schools.

But that was no surprise to anyone who knows Spangler, who has always wanted to make movies. "George Lucas is probably the biggest influence for me," Spangler said. "I was in the fifth grade and I read a biography on him. And that was when I figured out that I wanted to make movies."

In the editing room at SDSU after a long day of classes, Spangler is hidden behind a computer, digitizing his senior project, "Killing Time," working with the 25-year-old Najor, who executive-produced the project Spangler received a $2,000 Gale Anne Hurd grant to make.

Najor and Spangler are known in the department as an unstoppable filmmaking team who have done all their projects together. They are playing back various shots of a clock with the reflection of the actors in it, trying to decide which angle they like best.

"I like the tilt-down more because the opening framing is better," Spangler says.

"But his head gets cut off at the end," Najor argues.

To someone without an eye for filmmaking, all the shots look good. Other students in the editing room stop to watch and give compliments. But to the award-winning students, it's never good enough.

"I'm really not a perfectionist," Spangler says after remarking that a shot in a parking garage would be better if the back wall was lighted. "We're just trying to get the best stuff we can. But maybe we are being perfectionists with this one because we planned it more and we wanted everything to come out a certain way. But even with all of our plans, things still went wrong."

Making sure things go smoothly is always an issue, especially for students who are on tight budgets and can't afford costly reshoots. Having a producer to organize costumes, food donations, cast members and shooting days is vital to any film. Jensen, 30 -- who is being sent by the Student Emmys to the Cannes Film Festival with Spangler and Najor, and has also produced Buchler's "Soledad" -- is a natural at it.

A TFM graduate, Jensen is a born producer brimming with resourceful know-how. She is now working on "Daddy G's Good Eatery," a student film for Clamage with a cast that includes about 100 extras. On the set, her focus and professionalism earn her the respect she needs to organize such a full-scale operation.

Jensen, who grew up in the industry on the sets of "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Bionic Woman" where her father worked on special effects, feels San Diego is "very filmmaker-friendly."

"My goal is to bring filmmaking to San Diego and make movies here instead of in L.A., where you have to pay fees and extra taxes to film anywhere," she says. "Also, the San Diego Film Commission is very helpful. They make it so you can film in San Diego without any problems."

Another student traveling to Cannes this year is Kati Behumi, a 1998 graduate of the TFM program. She will be there to represent her student film "In Between," about her experiences as a Hungarian immigrant caught between two cultures.

The film aired on "The Short List," a showcase for American and international short films started by filmmaker-in-residence and professor Jack Ofield. The show, which airs on PBS nationwide and locally on Cox Channel 4, is produced with the Kodak Worldwide Emerging Independent Filmmakers Program.

The film caught Kodak's attention and is one of 70 films selected from around the world to be shown at "Univers Elle Cannes 2000," a women-filmmakers showcase. Behumi's film is the first SDSU film ever to be accepted to a Cannes screening.

"I thought someone was playing a trick on me," Behumi said when she first heard the news. "I didn't think they had the right person because I was ready to shelve the film and call it history. I just didn't expect it."

Although her plans are geared more toward the theater, she is still grateful for her SDSU education.

"They try to provide the facilities and equipment you need, and if you work hard you can make as many projects as you want," she says. "At first it was overwhelming, but there is a lot of freedom to make the films you want to make."

SDSU program gets a powerful push to stardom

San Diego Union Tribune
By Angela Ashman
Staff Writer

April 9, 2000

Although San Diego State University may be too small to compete with such major-league film schools as UCLA, USC and NYU, its program is beginning to grow -- and Hollywood is taking notice.

Last fall, SDSU alumna and Oscar-winning producer Kathleen Kennedy ("E.T.," "Jurassic Park" and "The Sixth Sense") and producer Gale Anne Hurd ("Armageddon" and "Terminator") helped organize the school' s student-film screening in Los Angeles for film-industry professionals.

"It was a real treat to be able to introduce two of the most powerful women in Hollywood as the hosts of our event," said Mike Real, director of SDSU' s school of communications, about the sold-out screening at the 600-seat Directors Guild of America Theatre. "We received buzz from the industry and it was an excellent turnout. It' s what we always wanted our screenings to be."

Kennedy and Hurd' s involvement with SDSU over the last few years has added prestige to the Department of Television, Film and New Media Production. And because the women sent invitations to industry executives, the screening was especially successful: Several students were approached by agents, offered contract deals and, more important, SDSU raised its profile as a resource for fresh talent.

It also proved one thing that schools in the film-industry centers have long known: Hollywood friends are vital to student filmmakers.

Shlomo Buchler, a former undergraduate student in SDSU' s program, knows that firsthand: "I can' t tell you how many doors (the screening) opened for me."

Buchler, who received a distribution deal for his short film "Soledad," is just one of the many recent success stories from SDSU' s The Next Step Program, which aims to bridge the 150-mile gap between its students and the movie capital of the world.

Founded three years ago by professor and filmmaker Carroll Blue, the program helps students connect with industry professionals, land Hollywood internships and learn through SDSU seminars and workshops. Through Next Step, SDSU students are reaping some of the rewards usually accorded to more recognized film schools. For instance, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has given the program $23,000.

Greg Beal, the academy' s grant-committee program coordinator, said he liked Next Step because "it certainly makes it easier to connect with people. It' s easier to break into the industry if you know someone than if you know no one. So if you have a visiting-artist program and internships at your school, then your chances of finding work are going to be significantly increased."

Local film students have options

April 9, 2000

SDSU isn' t the only local school with a film program. Here are a few other schools that offer film and video production classes:

University of California San Diego

Number of students in program: 50 in the master' s of fine arts program; 269 students in the undergraduate Media program.

Degrees: Bachelor' s degree in media; and master' s degree in film.

Notable alumni: Martin Lopez, voice of 1998' s "Godzilla"; Barbara Schock, Oscar-winning filmmaker for best live-action short film, 1999' s "My Mother Dreams the Satan' s Disciples in New York"; Gary Weimberg, two-time Emmy-winning editor for HBO' s "Earth and the American Dream" and the Fox miniseries "Loyalty and Betrayal"; Jay Fukuto, vice president at MGM for animation; Josh Kushner, special effects for "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Program approach: Theoretical. "At UCSD, students are taught to think, they learn to create work on their own. Very few schools have the high intellectual rigor that UCSD has, and that gives insight into the creative process" -- Sherman George, director of UCSD Media Center.

San Diego City College

Number of students in program: 30.

Degree: Associate' s degree in video and film.

Notable alumni: Producer Kathleen Kennedy ("E.T."); producer Gary David Goldberg ("Spin City"); Lisa Lake, KGTV/Channel 10 news anchor; Dave Scott, KUSI/Channel 51 news anchor.

Program approach: Practical. "The most rewarding thing about teaching film is to watch the students develop and apply what they learn to create product" -- John Hildebrand, professor of radio/television.

Southwestern College

Number of students in program: About 200.

Degrees: Associate' s degree in telemedia; and a media-specialist certificate.

Notable alumni: Wes Irwin, head of post-production at Hearst Communication; Marion Inova, head of post-production at E! Entertainment Channel.

Program approach: Practical. "I think one of the areas we' ve been able to excel in is digital nonlinear editing. I think we' re one of the first institutions in the region to incorporate that into the curriculum. We try not to duplicate what other schools offer" -- Bob Schneider, professor in telemedia department.

-- Angela Ashman

Back to the Take 2 home page!