By Nina Metz, Special to the Tribune
August 20, 2010
Without much fanfare, Chicago has become something of a film school hub in the last few years. Even as UCLA and NYU are still the brand names to beat, the offerings in Chicago have a good shot at closing the gap. Digital media is where it's at, and these days you're just as likely to find video game designers and animators as well as filmmakers among the ranks of graduates. With classes set to start next month, I decided to see where things are headed for some of the newer programs in town.
DePaul University's School of Cinema and Interactive Media was launched in 2008, and the department added several new faculty positions this year, including director Tommy O'Haver (credits include the Anne Hathaway comedy "Ella Enchanted") who is relocating to Chicago from Los Angeles for the school year. Also on board is Chicago-based film producer Steven A. Jones ("Wild Things" and "Mad Dog and Glory").
While these kinds of hires bring real-world experience, one of the more intriguing aspects of DePaul's program is something called Project Bluelight, which gives a faculty filmmaker a budget upward of $50,000 to make a film. Industry professionals are hired and students fill out the crew.
The forward-thinking momentum is all about the technology. "It's basically film school for the new era," says assistant professor Jonah Zeiger, who thinks competing schools with longer established reputations (including his alma mater, NYU) are "somewhat encumbered somewhat by the last hundred years of cinema history, whereas DePaul in a sense kind of said, OK, we're not going to deal with celluloid. We're going digital on the professional level. There was no baggage of an earlier program."
A similar "no baggage" vibe is evident at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, located in the Loop. The two-year, high-end alternative to traditional undergrad programs was known simply as Flashpoint when it launched in 2007. Last spring, the Tribeca Film Festival inked a deal with the school to become both a financial and creative partner. "It's a very snobby business, and the truth is the Tribeca thing was a tremendous additional credential," says Howard Tullman, the school's president and CEO.
Basically, the school is a faster route for students who want careers in digital media but aren't interested in plowing through a four-year liberal arts education to get one. (It's also cheaper, roughly $43,000 for the two years compared to four years at DePaul, which can run to $114,000.) Already alumni have seen some success with their gaming company Tap Me! Games (for iPhones and the like), based here in Chicago.
Class size at Tribeca Flashpoint is kept intentionally small (about 260 are enrolled this fall), and Tullman has been using his contacts to help students network with the likes of Chevy Chase, John Woo, Ken Burns and Liev Schreiber.
"The whole business is relationships, so we bring hundreds of employers and talent of every stripe through the school, they do a session with the students and they end up becoming advocates. So by the time we launched the first group of graduates this past spring, we were able to place eight or nine students, for example, with Mark Burnett on his various TV pilots. Our kids go in and get the jobs and it's theirs to lose, whereas 10,000 other people are out there wondering how do I get my resume under the door to Mark Burnett?"
Life, or something like it
Think you can capture the human condition on film in 60 seconds or less? The Chicago International Film Festival's competition is open to anyone with a camera and a point of view. Finalists will have their submissions screened at this year's festival as well as online. The entry deadline is Wednesday. For more info go to chicagofilmfestival.com/thehumancondition.
Take it off
Filmmaker Leslie Zemeckis (wife of director Robert Zemeckis) tracked down an impressive number of former burlesque performers for her documentary "Behind the Burly Q," which runs at the Siskel Film Center through Wednesday. For more info, go to siskelfilmcenter.org.
Can we talk?
The After Hours Film Society screens "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," the 2010 doc that the Tribune's Michael Phillips called "gripping" and "guaranteed to complicate whatever feelings you have about the movie's subject." The film plays at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove. For more info go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.
Nina Metz is a Tribune special contributor. Send items for Chicago Close-up to ninametzfilm@gmail.com.