Getting careers in motion Film students’ opportunities expanded with new partnership

BY DOMINQUE DUNGO

California Community Colleges’s new partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will provide increased access to highly competitive film industry experiences.

Media Arts Department cinema professor and Film Club adviser Ken Windrum said students could gain more opportunity and experience by doing more than just taking college classes.

“How can one say anything but good things?” Windrum said. “Getting this type of internship and any type of media industry experience I think is terrific and can get students so much more out of college.”

Film major Nash Mc Reynolds said networking and meeting people is one of most important aspects he’s learned throughout his experience.

“It’s so heavy on networking and meeting people hoping to get a job from them at some point,” Mc Reynolds said. “If you’re going to learn things, you don’t want to talk about it so much before you actually have to use some hands- on experience and learn everything. It’s awesome the academy is doing that, especially an organization that big.”

Mc Reynolds said he hopes the effects of the program paves more pathways for students in the future.

“It’s a very competitive area and career,” Mc Reynolds said. “I would hope that what comes out of it is more chances to start working and do things. Hopefully, it will come through.”

Mc Reynolds said he was raised around the film industry, so he always knew he wanted to do something with movies.

“I think when I first realized I wanted to make movies was when I was around 10,” Mc Reynolds said. “I got my first camera and I started making videos of my friends remaking old YouTube videos.”

Mc Reynolds said he hopes by 30, he’d like to be operating cameras in the film departments filming movies.

“Maybe in the next 10 years after I could be a director of photography or a director in general,” Mc Reynolds said. “That’d be a cool end goal. I like to make short little goals for myself, that way my expectations are met quicker and I feel more proud of myself.”

Mc Reynolds said community college students should take advantage of the program and get into it as soon as possible to meet people.

“It’s all about connection so if that’s one route that could lead into a connection; could lead into meeting someone that could hand you a job,” Mc Reynolds said. “Being able to talk to someone that works in the field can give you knowledge or tips because that’s what you want is to meet people.”

CSUN Television major Steve Lopez said in a Zoom interview that the partnership should allow more outreach to independent students.

“It’s great in the idea that it should allow more outreach to students within the arts,” Lopez said. “More specifically, just allowing students of underrepresented groups to get more in-depth access to the industry which was really gatekept for a really long time.”

Lopez said the impact will be present, but not as big as it’s making itself out to be.

“Other Universities such as CSUN have had partnerships with several sections of the industry and the help is great,” Lopez said. “You get more funding to get access to industry professionals, but it’s really just a small boost, and the only people who really utilize it to the fullest potential are the really forward thinking students to be honest.”

Lopez said the way he would tell students to go about such a program is to take it seriously, get into the program and apply yourself.

“Anyone who’s in that program, who’s an industry professional, talk to them and get to know the network,” Lopez said. “Some people say you’ll get a job on what you know. Most of the time when you network with people, you’re not going to get a job out of them, but at least they’ll teach you how to get a job or how to talk to people to get the job and tell you what to avoid.”

Despite her enjoyment of teaching online, Belden said that she still misses seeing her students in person.

“Daily interaction with students is something that I miss,” Belden said. “Lots of students would come to class, and I would get to see them and have casual conversations while I’m doing online office hours.”

Belden, however, was not the only professor missing in-person interactions. Math Professor Sheri Lehavi said that she yearned for bonding with her students again.

“I miss actually knowing my students,” Lehavi said. “I see these names and I don’t even know who they are.”

Levahi said that if she was given the chance, she would return to campus to teach a classroom full of students as soon as possible.

“I would be on campus today, yesterday,” Lehavi said. “I would come back tomorrow and teach in a classroom with 30 kids in there with masks and open windows.”

Belden said she would love to return to campus, but appreciates the campus’s concern for the safety of students and faculty.

“I would love to go back 100% full time,” Belden said. “I, however, appreciate the flexibility in making sure that we’re all safe. Safety really does seem to be the number one concern.”

AFT Chapter President and History/Humanities professor Brian Walsh said that he finds himself longing for that same interaction with his students.

“I miss just seeing my students in person,” Walsh said. “Now I just see a bunch of black boxes.”

“I know that there is a reengagement grid that the district has been working on and distributing,” Belden said. “The return to campus depends on what color tier the LA county is in. It looks like in the fall they’re anticipating us to be in the yellow tier, which is about 50% of reengagement.”

Pierce President Alexis Montevirgen said that with the decrease in COVID-19 cases, the campus can expect to see more classes returning.

“I ultimately want to try and make sure that we do offer and bring back as many classes as we can,” Montevirgen said.

Montevirgen also said that while the online environment works for some people, he doesn’t want the college to completely be remote.

“The world of higher education has forever changed, and I don’t think we’ll ever come back to all inperson classes,” Montevirgen said.

“What I don’t want is to justify that even if [remote learning] is working for a few, we’ll just potentially leave out a significant population of our students who may be wanting that in-person type of education.”