Latest News

• May 17, 2012 Tarik Jackson from Cannes! SCA's Student Blogger Updates from France
  Production Division grad student Tarik Jackson is blogging for the School from the Cannes Film Festival. In this update, Jackson talks about his first visit out of the country to the international film festival.
  
  
• May 4, 2012 Michael Fink Goes Virtual SCA Teaches Class in Advanced Digital Effects
  From explosions, car chases and outer space, the use of green screen in production can be an excellent way to create a visual world. However, this task is hardly an easy one; it requires meticulous detail and technical knowledge to bring these stories and environments to life. For Professors Mike Fink and Peter Sollett, teaching students how to direct with a green screen and advanced visual effects while creating a world grounded in storytelling is top priority.
  
  
• May 4, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Olivia Bonin The Trojan Vision Producer gives advice before leaving SCA
  Olivia Bonin ’12, made the most of her time at SCA. The graduating senior not only completed degrees in Critical Studies and Neuroscience, but she found time to work at Trojan Vision, work with a Theatre Group and land a job.
   
  Before exiting SCA, Bonin sat down with SCA Family stories to talk about her time and to give advice to incoming students on how to navigate the tricky job market.
  
  
• May 4, 2012 So Cal in Beijing SCA Professor Jason E. Squire Lectures in China
  When it comes to the movie business, USC School of Cinematic Arts Professor Jason E. Squire literally wrote the book. Having made his mark in American film, for the past five years he has made it his business to know China’s movie business. Over Spring Break, he traveled to Asia for a fifth time to teach in the Cultural & Creative Industry Management Program at Beijing’s Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
  
  
• April 30, 2012 SCA’S IMD Reaches Uncharted Territory Leading Game Designer Richard Lemarchand to Join IMD
  Ranked the number one game design program for the third consecutive year by the Princeton Review and GamePro Media, the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division has paved the way for the innovative creation of interactive entertainment. Now, with the addition of leading game designer Richard Lemarchand to the faculty list beginning in Fall 2012, the bar has been raised even higher.
  
  
• April 30, 2012 SoCal in Newport SCA Student Films Screening at Newport Beach Film Festival
  Student films originating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts have a longstanding level of excellence and intrigue. Many of these films screen on campus as part of varying class showcases to celebrate these achievements; however, several student films are heading to coast to demonstrate their talent at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
  
  
• April 27, 2012 Marvel Avenges Norris Marvel’s Newest Film The Avengers Screens in Norris
  Marvel Studios’ newest film The Avengers is just about as massive as a film can get. Heroes are assembled, villains are challenged and cities are destroyed. However, when the president of Marvel Studios, alumnus Kevin Feige ‘95 visited with Leonard Maltin’s 466 class on April 26th, he said that he still thinks about being economical.
  
  
• April 26, 2012 Interacting with Nature IMD game Walden awarded an NEA Arts in Media Grant
  In France, cinema is often referred to as “the seventh art” because of its relatively short history compared to the other six humanities. On April 25th, video game design made a giant step on its way to becoming the eighth art when the National Endowment of the Arts announced it was providing an Art in Media grant to the video game Walden, a game. Walden was developed at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media Divisions’ Game Innovation Lab with IMD Chair Tracy Fullerton serving as lead designer.
  
  
• April 19, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Jay Gammill The Director of Free Samples sits with SCA
  It takes a truly dedicated filmmaker to take on the responsibilities of creating a feature film, whether it’s their twelfth film or their first. As the industry changes and offers more opportunities for new directors to emerge in the independent scene, these responsibilities are no less challenging and require the utmost commitment to complete. For Jay Gammill, these experiences came firsthand with Free Samples.
  
  
• April 19, 2012 Story @ SCA Director of Think Like a Man Visits SCA
  Alumnus Tim Story is known for his candor when he speaks to students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. On April 17th, the director of Barbershop, Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer visited with students in the Ray Stark Theatre for the second year in a row
  
  
• April 13, 2012 Jason Segel Keeps his “Engagement” Filmmaker visits Leonard Maltin’s Class
  Leonard Maltin’s class has hosted executives, directors, technicians, editors and countless other storytellers but, on April 12^th, they hosted a world-class puppeteer. Maltin held a panel for actor/screenwriter/executive producer Jason Segel (Popularly known for his roles in How I Met Your Mother, I Love You Man and The Muppets), director/screenwriter/producer Nick Stoller (The Muppets, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and producer Rodney Rothman (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Year One) to discuss their new film, The Five-Year Engagement.
  
  
• April 13, 2012 Ratner @ SCA Director of Rush Hour Trilogy Visits SCA
  Brett Ratner can be called many things. He’s known as a director, producer, documentarian, and philanthropist but, one thing he’s not is know for is being shy about his opinions. When Ratner visited SCA on April 11, 2012, he participated in a Q and A filled with stories, lessons and cautionary tales about his work as a filmmaker. He talked about his career, his time at NYU as a film student and why every student should take advantage of their time at SCA.
  
  
• April 13, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Joshua Dinner Reality TV Producer/Alum sits down with SCA
  Film students aren’t strangers to tackling tricky subjects. Religion has always been a topic of both interest and conflict. It can certainly be a tough topic to discuss, and Critical Studies alum Joshua Dinner ‘05 knows all about the trials and tribulations of making a reality-television series with the center being religion.
  
  
• April 4, 2012 DKA Gives Back School of Cinematic Arts Fraternity Teaches Youth
  Working in the entertainment industry certainly isn’t for the selfish. Every film, video game or media installation takes an army to produce, and collaboration is key to each project’s success. The men and women of the professional fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha have taken the concept of collaboration one step further by approaching the world of philanthropy. Recently, DKA members visited West Vernon Elementary School in order to teach short filmmaking to the next generation of media makers, or in this case, gifted fourth and fifth graders.
  
  
• April 3, 2012 SCA Students Answer “Open Call” New Series on KCET Features Student Films
  The students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts know how to make films. In the end, what vexes some of the brightest minds at SCA is how to get a film out into the world once it’s done. On Thursday, April 5th, KCET will help a handful of students out by broadcasting their work as part of their Open Call series.
  
  
• April 2, 2012 Dino and Martha De Laurentiis Honored at SCA The Legendary Producers Install an Endowed Professorship
  Everyone who met larger-than-life producer Dino De Laurentiis has a story to tell and, on April 1st, the USC School of Cinematic Arts hosted a panel including producer and widow Martha De Laurentiis, producer and daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis, director Michael Mann, director Jonathan Mostow and former Governor of California and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger
  
  
• April 2, 2012 SCA Family Stories: David Jay Lasky The Producer of Of Corset’s Mine sits down with SCA
  Although the most populous of the School of Cinematic Arts’ divisions, Critical Studies tends to be one of the most misunderstood divisions. Most assume that a Crit Studies student either wants to be a professor of a film critic. However, Producer David Jay Lasky not only challenges this perception but also proves that it is possible to use Critical Studies as a basis for a successful career as a producer.
  
  
• March 30, 2012 Phase III Building “Beamed” Up The top piece of steel of the new building placed
  “Topping off” events have become a tradition at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. When the highest piece of steel in a new building is placed, students, faculty, alumni and friends get the opportunity to sign the beam before it goes up.
  
  Beam signers for the new Phase III building included director George Lucas, Dean Elizabeth M. Daley, Chairman of the Board of Councilors Frank Price, CEO of EA John Riccitiello,  director Tim Story, Associate Dean of Research Scott Fisher, Chair of the Interactive Media Division Tracy Fullerton, Senior Vice President for University Advancement Al Checcio, Chief Product Officer at Bebo Kevin Bachus, founder of Syndicate 17 Chanel Summers, Matt Construction head Paul Matt, professor and game designer Laird Malamed, Toper Taylor, Angelo Garcia and many others.
  
  
• March 29, 2012 Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Discuss the Details Academy Award-Winning Composers visit Jason E. Squire’s Lecture
  Film is a collaborative effort requiring talented individuals to come together and make sacrifices for the greater good of the final project. One, often overlooked element is the meticulous nature of sound editing and the powerful effect it can have on the viewer.  On March 27^th, Academy Award-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross visited with Professor Jason E. Squire’s class to discuss their work on the music and sound of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
  
  
• March 21, 2012 Comedy@SCA Makes a Big Bang SCA Hosts Writers of Hit Show
  Two nerds living in an apartment talking about comic books, video games and science sounds like the average day in the life of a SCA student. When showrunner Bill Prady started The Big Bang Theory in 2007, he hit a nerve with the nerd subculture. On March 21^st, the writers of Big Bang visited with students from the School of Cinematic arts to talk about the trials and triumphs of writing for television as well as offering advice for aspiring TV writers.
  
  
• March 19, 2012 Awards Season Roundup Congrats to all of the SCA Family
  USC School of Cinematic Arts
  Alumni Nominations 2012
  
  
• March 19, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Virginia Kuhn Associate Director of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy
  It’s been a very big year for Assistant Professor of Cinema Practice Virginia Kuhn and the Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML). After more than five years of working with supercomputing centers, Kuhn recently received an award to pursue her large-scale media analytics project as part of the National Science Foundation's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). The startup allocation includes 30,000 service units on the first flash-memory supercomputer (think giant thumb drive), at the San Diego Supercomputing Center as well as one year of dedicated effort by experts at supercomputing centers around the country.
  
  
• March 16, 2012 Anatomy of a Trapeze The “Motion Capture” class in the Zemeckis Center Suspends Stunt Performer
  On the script page, “She dives through the air and PHASES through multiple floors” seems simple enough. To the trained director, line producer or VFX supervisor, these words are a nightmare. In Eric Furie’s CTAN 565L class, Motion Capture Performance, these words were a challenge, but not impossible thanks to the technology in the Robert Zemeckis Center’s Motion Capture Stage. On March 15^th, Furie’s students suspended an actress from a trapeze rig to capture an action sequence as part of a student's final project.
  
  
• March 9, 2012 Celebrity SC: CAPS Award Freshman Allison Tate-Cortese Honored by CAPAS
  Freshman film student Allison Tate-Cortese was recently named the receipent of a $9,500 award by the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) sponsored awards competition CAPAs (California Population Awareness Awards).
  
  
• March 9, 2012 Christine Lahti Gives Students “Perks” Actor/Director teaches master class at SCA
  A film set can be a scary place. Filmmakers need to worry about safety, budget, lighting and a million other little problems but, on March 7^th, when actor/director Christine Lahti visited with students as part of the Production Perks lecture series, she told them that one thing they should never be afraid of is the talent.
  
  
• March 9, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Dina Gachman The Author of Fling Girl Speaks to Students
  Recent SCA graduate Dina Gachman ‘07 has taken on two seemingly impossible tasks: breaking into the film industry and dating in Los Angeles. After graduation, instead of taking the assistant or PA route, Gachman showed unique initiative by producing her own online graphic novel, Fling Girl. www.flinggirlla.com
  
  
• March 6, 2012 Esq. Productions Makes it “Legal” Legal Experts Visits SCA
  For many students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the first step into the real world can be daunting. In addition to generating a good idea, executing the idea and getting the product into the right hands, students also have to worry about the business and legal ramifications of their creative work. Thankfully, on March 3^rd, Esq. Productions hosted a panel called Get it Right: Getting it Made Without Giving it Away at SCA to discuss common pitfalls of the first step into the real world. One theme of the morning was transparency.
  
  
• March 5, 2012 Keeping it Diverse Two SCA Alumni Selected for the Fox Writers Intensive
  Tina Mabry ’05 and Eric Nazarian ’99 are two very busy filmmakers who graduated from the Production Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Between the two of them, they have eight IMDb credits as writers, directors, cinematographers, actors and producers, primarily in the indie film world.  This May, they are going to be able to add graduates of the Fox Writers Intensive to their long resumes.
  
  
• March 2, 2012 SCA Family Stories: MediaHound The Minds Behind a New Entertainment Aggregator App Sit Down with SCA
  With the end of the semester quickly approaching, it’s that time of year for seniors to begin deciding what choices to make with their lives beyond SCA. Whether it’s choosing a grad school, working as a freelance filmmaker or anything in between, the next step is sure to be an exciting yet intimidating one.
  
  
• March 1, 2012 Games Number One USC #1 School for Game Design for Third Straight Year
  For the third year in a row, The Princeton Review has named USC the top school in the nation for studying video game design for both undergraduate and graduate programs. USC has led the category every year since the list debuted in 2010.
  
  
• March 1, 2012 Lisa Pollack Gives Students “Reality” Veteran Agent Visits SCA
  To some students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, “Reality” is a four-letter word. Years before the advent of reality television, the words Reality Ends Here were emblazoned above the archway of the building. On February 29^th, reality television agent Lisa Pollack spoke to students at a Student Industry Relations event about not being a snob against reality TV.
  
  
• February 24, 2012 Rudy @ SCA Legendary Football Player Visits Professor Hall’s Class
  It’s deep into the second semester for USC School of Cinematic Arts students. After long nights of editing, studying, writing and designing, the ability to keep moving forward can feel like a daunting task. In Ken Wannberg Endowed Chair for Music Editing’s advanced sound class on February 13th, former Notre Dame football player Daniel “Rudy” Ruettigger, an icon of motivation and effort, visited the students for a pep talk.
  
  
• February 24, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Reed Simonsen Multi-Telly Award Winner Sits Down with SCA
  Creating a student film is no easy undertaking, from gathering location permits to securing qualified actors, to each and every minute detail in between. To meet these conditions is a feat in itself; to go beyond them, remarkable. For USC SCA grad student Reed Simonsen, his recently award-winning student film Molly Goes West exemplifies this admirable effort.
  
  
• February 23, 2012 IMD Professor Earns “Cred” New Music Sharing App Adds Game Mechanics to Music
  The students of the USC School of Cinematic Arts are known for their good taste and, thanks to the work of the Interactive Media Division, promoting their new favorite bands is entering the digital age.
  
  
• February 16, 2012 Smart Power Diplomacy Gets Oriented New Program Starts with a Bang
  On February 11th, over fifty filmmakers, film experts and diplomats came together at the USC School of Cinematic Arts for the inaugural orientation of the American Film Showcase.
  
  
• February 13, 2012 SCA’S “LUV” Child Sundance Hit Comes to Maltin’s Class
  In the Sundance hit LUV, Woody, a young boy from Baltimore, is taken by his uncle Vincent around the streets of the city in order to learn what it takes to be a man. The gritty portrayal of the city is both grim and poetic which; according to writer/director Sheldon Candis ’03 is because it’s true.
  
  
• February 10, 2012 Immersing in Sundance Hunger in LA makes strong presence at Sundance
  In Nonny De La Pena’s new immersive journalism piece Hunger in Los Angeles, the participants experience a dramatic incident at a local food bank where a man collapses in line while waiting his turn. Hunger in LA marks a major push forward in the field of Immersion, which the USC School of Cinematic Arts has been on the forefront of for years.
  
  
• February 10, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Jonah D. Ansell
  The writer/director of Cadaver sits down with SCA Family Stories to talk about life after film school
  
  
• February 10, 2012 Sling Baby Wins Big SCA Alumni win Doritos “Crash the Superbowl” contest
  On the first day film school, students are told that working with babies or producing elaborate stunts is bad business in low-budget filmmaking so, naturally, when USC School of Cinematic Arts alumnus Jason Dennis ’03 decided to enter a commercial into the Doritos: Crash the Superbowl contest, the idea of flinging a baby on a slingshot came to mind.
  
  
• February 9, 2012 An Evening with David N. Weiss Leading Animation Writer Visits SCA
  Last night I got the chance to see the man who wrote my childhood.
  
  
• January 31, 2012 CELEBRITY SC: Sushi Girl The cast and crew of indie hit vist SCA
  Celebrity SC: Yesterday evening the cast and crew of Sushi Girl visited USC as part of the SCA’s 
  
  
• January 31, 2012 So Cal in Park City SCA Marks Banner Year at Sundance
  For the twelfth consecutive year, the USC School of Cinematic Arts attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Thirty-two USC alumni were featured on eighteen films with an additional four alumni and three films at the Slamdance Film Festival.
  
  
• January 30, 2012 Extremely Tiny and Incredibly Far Away SCA Professor Receives Award for Digital Cinema Microscopy
  If you need to see something very small, but it's in another city or country, and you want to see it live, and blown up to a theater sized screen, SCA research associate professor Richard A. Weinberg, Ph.D., can help. Weinberg is the project leader of a team  thatwill receive the Innovations in Networking Award in the Experimental and Developmental Applications category for " Digital Cinema Microscopy" from CENIC , the Corporation for Educational Network Initiatives in California, during their annual conference in March. His work allows the streaming of live ultrahigh resolution microscopy from USC to locations ranging from San Diego to Tokyo.
  
  
• January 26, 2012 Tartikoff’s Letters Coming to USC The Widow of Legendary Television Executive Donates Letters
  The late television and film executive Brandon Tartikoff’s vast collection of industry correspondences and effects is being donated in its entirety to USC’s School of Cinematic Arts by his widow Lilly Tartikoff.
  
  
• January 20, 2012 Sundance Live Blog! Follow us now as SCA hits Park City
  sundance.usc.edu
  
  
• January 19, 2012 A Day in the Life of Dr. Drew Casper Follow the Iconic SCA Professor
  Read the profile of SCA's legendary professor.
  
  
• January 17, 2012 CELEBRITY SC: Play Publshed MFA Screenwriter David Murray publishes play
  Second year MFA screenwriter David Murray’s play “Land O’Plenty: My Journey as the Only Boy in an All-Girls School” was recently published by Playscripts.
  
  
• January 13, 2012 Anatomy of a Game SCA's new ARG "Reality Ends Here" makes splash
  SCA Launches new Alternate Reality Game - Reality Ends Here
  
  
• January 13, 2012 SCA Family Stories: Brie DaSilveira First Year Undergrad Discusses the Transition to SCA
  The first year of undergraduate study is a daunting task. Between balancing an academic workload and a lifestyle overhaul, many incoming students to the USC School of Cinematic Arts can feel overwhelmed
  
  
• January 12, 2012 Immersing in Emerging Cities Professor Scott Fisher Unveils Interactive Project
  Dean of Research and Founding Chair of the Interactive Media Division Scott Fisher has a long record of building immersive environments for educational purposes. This past year, Fisher’s work on planned cities under sixty years old was featured at the 2011 Shenzen & Hong Kong Bo-Coty Biennale of Urbanism Architecture as part of the 6 Under 60 exhibition.
  
  
• January 10, 2012 The Wonderful Women of SCA
  Stacey Sher produces films that make waves — titles ranging from The Fisher King to Pulp Fiction, from Erin Brockovich to Contagion. But on the set of Gattaca, Sher herself was stirring the waters.
  
  
• January 6, 2012 CELEBRITY SC: SCA Power Player Matthew Quandt, Critical Studies
  USC School of Cinematic Arts Blog Profiles Matthew Quandt