Film
grant to fund student documentaries
By
Brandy Baker
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
On July 15 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced they would
be donating a $20,000 grant to the Cal State Long Beach film and electronic
arts department documentary program for the 2005-06 school year.
HFPA made the choice after Craig Smith, chair of the film and electronic arts
department, and Alan Jacobs, an assistant professor for the department, wrote
a proposal for the documentary program and applied for the grant.
Smith and Jacobs received a call back from the HFPA and, after being interviewed,
learned the grant had been approved.
The grant is only used to support student documentaries. The amount given to
the student is based on the need and requirements of the film such as travel,
film, software and equipment. The instructors access the student’s pitch
for his or her film and then allocate the money to each filmmaker.
The grant is extremely flexible with its use and, unlike previous grants received
by the department for writing, not fixed on how it will be used.
“Each year we recruit the top [film] students who’d like to become
involved with the program and due to the lack of equipment and limited instructors,
we are highly selective,” Smith said. “We usually choose between
eight to 10 filmmakers.
We focus on upper division students only.”
Students must first complete all beginning courses for the documentary track
and, when finished, meet with the staff to work on their film ideas.
The program began about eight years ago, prior to Smith becoming chair, and
has been extremely successful.
“Our students are doing very well.
They have taken top awards among film programs in the CSU and were featured
at the recent Newport Beach Film Festival,” Smith said.
“ One of
our students participated in the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan … And
of course, there is Steven Spielberg, and many more.” |
