Category Archives: Broadcast Cinema

My most memorable film: Billy Weber on ‘Days of Heaven’

Richard Gere and Brooke Adams in "Days of Heaven" Photo by Bruno Engler. Paramount Pictures/Photofest

Richard Gere and Brooke Adams in “Days of Heaven”
Photo by Bruno Engler. Paramount Pictures/Photofest

The following piece about Art Center Film faculty member, Billy Weber, was originally published in the September-October 2013 issue of Editors Guild Magazine

Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978) was, and remains, a riveting film. From the opening montage of period stills accompanied by Saint-Saens’ musical suite, “The Carnival of the Animals” to the final shot of young Linda Manz’s character skipping off into an unknown future, the film has an emotional, almost hypnotic, pull that never lets up.

The editing is such that practically every cut brings a new flood of information, in an elliptical style in which image and naturalistic sounds take precedence over dialogue. And yet, despite the lack of normal storytelling convention, the film packs an emotional wallop unlike very many movies in history. Released 35 years ago this September through Paramount Pictures, “Days of Heaven” introduced a new style of storytelling to the American cinema, albeit one that has not been widely imitated.

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LA Shorts Fest to screen alumni and current student films

Official Selection LA Shorts Fest

Art Center’s graduate Film department will be well represented in the program of this year’s LA Shorts Fest, which runs from September 5-12 at Laemmle Noho 7 theaters. Current student, Ellen Houlihan and recent grad, Carlo Olivares Paganoni, learned this week that each of their MFA thesis projects — “Joan’s Day Out” and “Cardboard Camera” respectively — has been accepted into the prestigious festival, which also serves to qualify all its selections for Oscar and BAFTA contention. In other words, LA Shorts provides a uniquely powerful showcase for exposing up-and-coming filmmakers to industry power players.

Houlihan and Paganoni’s films represent the broad spectrum of work produced by Art Center Film students. “Joan’s Day Out,” which screens Monday, September 9, follows a grandmother (played by Sally Kellerman) who becomes a fugitive from her assisted living facility. While “Cardboard Camera,” which unspools on Sunday, September 8, features a 10-year-old boy who makes his cinematic dreams come true with few resources beyond his imagination and ingenuity. What follows are the filmmakers’ reflections on the ideas and inspiration animating their films and the challenges involved in bringing them to the screen.

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Zack Snyder Opens Dot Independent Film Festival at Art Center College of Design

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Tom Kuntz and Matthew Rolston speaking at March 16 event honoring student films from around the world

Zack Snyder at Art Center

Zack Snyder at Art Center. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

March 12, 2013, Pasadena, Calif.—Visionary director and Art Center College of Design alumnus Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300) is set to open DIFF | LA, the Dot Independent Film Festival, the premiere student-led film festival on the West Coast taking place Saturday, March 16, 2013 from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on the Art Center College of Design Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, Calif., 91103.

In addition to screening official selections in the categories of Directing, Cinematography, Writing and Editing, the event will feature presentations by Snyder and the critically acclaimed directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), Emmy-winning commercial director Tom Kuntz (Old Spice, Skittles), and legendary photographer and filmmaker Matthew Rolston (Kelly Rowland, Christina Aguilera).

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Student’s gay PSA up for Talenthouse film award

Art Center student Ellen Houlihan is up for the 2012 Talenthouse filmmaker of the year award for her public service announcement starring gay comedian Todd Glass in a homophobic role.

>In the 30-second spot, Glass plays a father whose gay son has recently committed suicide. The ad questions if there’s a difference between suicide and negligence by parents who push “archaic beliefs and misinformation” on their LGBT children.

Houlihan, a Broadcast Cinema major, was inspired to create the ad after hearing Glass come out on a recent podcast of “WTF with Marc Maron,” a revelation which surprised Houlihan and others given Glass’ brash brand of comedy.

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Bringing It All Back Home: Designmatters Students Create Furniture for India’s Low-Income Housing Residents

"Living Home: India" Designmatters students, faculty and staff in Bangalore, India last summer.

"Living Home: India" Designmatters students, faculty and staff in Bangalore, India last summer.

Last term, students in Living Home: India—a transdisciplinary Designmatters studio led by the Environmental Design department—spent their summer investigating the living needs of low-income housing dwellers in India, and then building furniture prototypes for use in the type of high quality, low-cost housing championed by Ashoka, a social entrepreneurship nonprofit and partner for the studio.

Due to the reduced scale and high occupancy rate of the housing units, the students were tasked with creating reduced scale and transformable prototypes. They also needed to make sure the furniture they designed was environmentally responsible and could be developed in collaboration with community stakeholders and local craftspeople in India.

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Emmy Fever: Alum Talents Featured on Top Nominee “Mad Men”

Congratulations to all the talented professionals who worked on Emmy-nominated shows including Alumna Ellen Freund for her work on “Mad Men”

Art Center Alumna Ellen Freund FILM 79 is prop master on the hit AMC show “Mad Men.”  The show tied with “American Horror Story” for the most Emmy nominations with 17 each.  Among the many accolades, the steamy period drama series about Madison Avenue was honored for outstanding art direction.

Freund’s credits include “Twilight,” “Night at the Museum” and “Vanilla Sky.” To learn more about her career, check out this profile that recently ran on Huffington Post.

In the story, she says “Mad Men” is definitely the biggest challenge of her career. “It is my first time on a television series and the combination of a compressed time frame, limited budget and relentless schedules are very demanding. ‘Mad Men’ requires massive amounts of research to attain the level of accuracy that creator Matthew Weiner seeks and the entire crew strives for every day. The period is fascinating and visually stimulating, making it a real pleasure to work on.”

Visionary director Zack Snyder stops by Art Center

Zack Snyder at Art Center. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

"Man of Steel" director, Zack Snyder.

Director and Art Center alumnus Zack Snyder FILM ’89 visited an overflowing Los Angeles Times Auditorium yesterday afternoon for a discussion and Q&A with Film instructor Dan Perri. Snyder, who came directly from an editing suite where he and a crew are preparing a trailer of his next film, the Superman reboot Man of Steel, for this weekend’s Comic-Con, shared with Art Center students his experiences both as a student and as a director of Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen, among others.

Here are a few highlights from the event:

Snyder on his initial “path:” When I first got to Art Center, I was pretty sure I’d make a short film and Steven Spielberg would see it and hire me to direct a feature film. That was the path I envisioned for myself. About half way through my Art Center career, I became super scared that I wasn’t going to get a job, so I put my head down and started making commercials.

On being loyal to his key collaborators: When I went in to commercials, a lot of the guys I worked with were my friends from Art Center. There’s a very pervasive culture in Hollywood of Okay, get rid of that guy and get another guy. Because maybe it’ll change, or if you don’t know what you’re doing, that’s a good thing to do. But I felt that the guys that I came up with were all super talented and I didn’t see any reason [to do that.]

On camaraderie at Art Center and beyond: When I was here in school, everyone banded together to make each other’s movies. That just seemed like the best way to do it. And that has certainly stayed with me into my career. In a more personal way, I just like having people that are close to me being involved in production. The partnership when you make a movie is so intense and Hollywood is full of people that you don’t know exactly what their agenda is. So the closer people can be to you, the more trust you have in them. Continue reading →

Art Center’s Graduate Programs Top U.S. News & World Report’s Latest Graduate School Rankings

Graduate student work will be on display at 4 Hours Solid on April 18. Photo: Four Eyes Photography.

U.S. News & World Report has released its annual Best Grad Schools rankings, and we’re proud to report that Art Center made quite a splash in its Fine Arts Schools list.

The College’s Graduate Industrial Design program ranked number two in the “Industrial Design” category; Graduate Media Design ranked number seven in “Graphic Design;” and Graduate Art ranked number 18 in “Fine Arts.”

According to U.S. News, these rankings were based on the result of a peer assesment survey—art school deans and other top art school academics were asked to nominate up to 10 programs noted for their excellence in each specialty, with the schools receiving the most nominations being listed.

Curious to learn more about Art Center’s graduate programs?

On April 18, the College will host 4 Hours Solid, its annual event at South Campus that showcases the work produced by its Broadcast Cinema, Graduate Art and Graduate Media Design departments. This year’s event will also include a preview of Art Center’s new graduate programs in Environmental Design and Transportation Design.

4 Hours Solid
Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 6–10 p.m.
Art Center College of Design, South Campus
950 South Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105

Alumnus Michael Sucsy’s “The Vow” Opens Today

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams star in "The Vow." Courtesy: Sony Pictures.

Opening in theatres nationwide today–and right in time for Valentine’s Day–is The Vow, a romantic drama co-written and directed by Broadcast Cinema alumnus Michael Sucsy.

The Vow tells the story of a newlywed couple whose life is thrown into disarray when a car accident places the wife–played by Rachel McAdams of The Notebook and Sherlock Holmes–in a coma. Waking up with severe memory loss, her husband–Channing Tatum of Dear John and G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra–endeavors to win her heart again.

“She’s an artist when we meet her. She’s kind of bohemian and has edgy musical friends. But what she remembers is being in law school, close to her family and engaged to an attorney,” said Sucsy in an promotional on-set interview of what he finds most compelling about Rachel McAdams’ character. “It’s that choose-your-own adventure thing in life, where you go left or you go right.”

Sucsy previously wrote and directed the HBO telefilm Grey Gardens about Jackie Onassis’ eccentric relatives ‘Big Edie’ Bouvier Beale and ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale.