Cinema school should support its students

Often I wonder, if I had gone to a different school, would I still resemble the person I am now? Only recently did I realize that the answer would be no. My time at the film school, although not perfect, has definitely impacted my path to becoming a filmmaker, and that in part has to do with the short film class I took during the spring semester of my sophomore year.

As students, we were tasked with writing, shooting and editing three short films over the course of two months. Prior to this class I had never picked up a film camera, believing my passion was in writing and writing only. However, immersing myself so completely in production opened up an entirely new world of possibilities for me. I realized not only my knack for writing but also for directing, and I liked it.

Inspired by my experience during the spring of sophomore year, I embarked on writing and directing another short film that summer — this time with a full crew, partially composed of SCA students — in the hopes of making something that felt more in touch with the genre I was interested in. That experience was not only life changing but also beyond encouraging. It opened me up to the world of short films and the beauty of a medium that valued concise storytelling over everything else.

Regular readers of this column will know that by the time of this article’s publication, I will be a day away from shooting another sci-fi short film, this time set on my family’s berry farm in Oregon. The road to making this short film has been filled with its own set of challenges, from creative constraints based on funding to weather problems and problematic scheduling. It’s been quite a long, intense and exhausting three months of preparation and pre-production. Because of the filming location and the intricate details of the script, I had to fly from Los Angeles to Portland a week before shooting in order to finalize all the extra details and get ready for the entire crew to arrive on Thursday. Therefore, I’ve had to take time off from school.

Knowing the shoot date for a month in advance, I’ve had time to share this information with my professors and TAs, alerting them ahead of time that I would be out of school for a week. Of course, in the beginning of the year every student is made well aware that a sickness or a family emergency are the only acceptable reasons that excuses the absence. Knowing this, I prefaced each one of my professors or TAs with all the information that I had about the legitimacy of my shoot.

At my performing arts high school, I often skipped class under the ruse that I was “practicing for a play” — more often than not, I was just hanging out with my friends in the orchestra pit before lunch time. This time around, I’m not making up some flimsy excuse to ditch class and hang out. The short is meant to be a viable investment in my future as a filmmaker in Hollywood, in much the same way as gaining a degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

And so it came as a bit of a surprise when I received responses from my teachers who informed me that my weeklong absence to shoot my short could not and would not be considered an excused absence.

Though I know my grade won’t truly suffer in the long run for skipping this week, I was a little shocked. Shouldn’t the No. 1 film school in the world — with aims to make the most opportunities for their students — want to encourage the creativity and productivity of their students as much as possible?

After all, if its alumni are successful, it should have no qualms of touting its pedigree across high school and campus literature. The school should make special aims to encourage their students to succeed in as many ways possible instead of almost punishing a student for having the initiative and drive to complete projects as a supplement to her education.

I don’t mean this to complain about my circumstances — as I’ve said before, I wouldn’t be where I am today without SCA, but I do know that not every school is perfect, and in this area the film school definitely has room for improvement.

Minnie Schedeen is a a senior majoring in cinema and media studies.  Her column, “Film Fatale,” runs on Wednesdays.