IMAP Stories

Student Oscars
USC Films Take Home Top Accolades
July 01, 2008
Students from the USC School of the Cinematic Arts were rewarded for months of late nights and hard work at the 2008 Student Academy Awards, where four Trojan films took home prizes, including two Gold Medals.

Wellness Partners Game
IMD Lands $200,000 Health Research Grant
June 11, 2008
A University of Southern California research effort co-lead by Marientina Gotsis of the Interactive Media Division has received a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to explore how interactive digital games could be designed to improve players' health behaviors and outcomes.

Highly Animated
Experimental Animation Screening Crosses Divisions
June 05, 2008
If you think animators only spend their days (and nights) sequestered in dark cubicles toiling by themselves, think again. As students from the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts proved during the recent “2008 Experimental Animation Screening,” collaborating with counterparts in the School of Cinematic Arts and Thornton School of Music truly brought their animations to life.

Commencement Day
School of Cinematic Arts Honors Over 500 Graduates
May 22, 2008
Despite searing temperatures outside, spirits were high at the Shrine Auditorium on May 16, as the School of Cinematic Arts, with the help of industry giants Robert A. Iger and Brian T. Grazer, lauded its most recent graduating class and celebrated the next generation of entertainment artists and professionals.

Press Start
Interactive M.F.A. Projects Challenge Convention
May 13, 2008
This year’s Interactive Media Division (IMD) M.F.A. graduates challenged themselves to discover new technology mediated experiences that could keep pace with their imaginations. The result—an array of 11 projects that range from a videogame incorporating time travel to a new way to battle traffic congestion—are on display at the “Press Start” thesis show running from May 10 to 15 in the division’s atelier at 555 W. 23rd Street.

The World In 2050
IBM Research and Cinematic Arts Envision the Future
May 05, 2008
On the evening of April 30, five of IBM’s top research scientists joined with School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) students, alumni, faculty and members of the entertainment industry to brainstorm about the art of the possible—circa 2050. The reception and discussion kicked off a collaboration between SCA and IBM to inspire a new generation of film, television and interactive artists, as well as suggest creative directions for researchers.

TV Turns 10
Trojan Vision Celebrates A Decade Of Service
May 05, 2008
When it started 10 years ago, Trojan Vision was short on facilities, personnel and equipment, but long on the dream of what could be. A decade later, the dream has become reality, with the station serving the university, winning national awards and providing hands-on experience that has enabled students to launch their careers.

Critical Commons
Faculty Members Receive Grant To Promote Digital Fair Use
February 29, 2008
SCA faculty members Steve Anderson and Holly Willis have received a key grant from the from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to probe one of the digital era’s most pressing issues: fair use of protected assets in support of learning.

Academy Gift
AMPAS Donates $3 Million To The School of Cinematic Arts
February 22, 2008
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has donated $3 million to support the new complex construction at the USC School of Cinematic Arts marking the latest step in a relationship that began with the joint creation of the nation’s first university-based film program in 1929.

24/7 Summit
Landmark Conference Draws Global Video Experts
February 13, 2008
Video creators, scholars, activists, policy makers, technologists and entrepreneurs gathered at USC to focus on the fate and future of visual media in the 21st century during 24/7: A DIY Video Summit—a first-of-its-kind international event held at an academic institution.

Broccoli Donation
James Bond Legacy Fuels Record-Breaking 14th Endowed Chair
February 05, 2008
The Dana and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli Foundation has donated $2 million for a record-breaking 14th endowed chair at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The chair, with its holder of extensive producing credits yet to be selected, will fund a faculty position dedicated to teaching the business and practice of film producing.

Golden Age Gold
Movie Memories And More At The Warner Bros. Archives
February 05, 2008
How do you build a small family business into a multi-billion dollar industry giant? Bit, by bit, as researchers have discovered over the past 30 years of combing through the School of Cinematic Arts Warner Bros. Archives, whose contents offer a unique glimpse into the Golden Age of the Hollywood studio system.

Media Of Choice
USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy Fuses Image, Sound and Text
September 18, 2007
Since its founding, the IML has worked with over 100 faculty members at USC and beyond, in addition to scores of teachers from K-12, to hone the philosophy and the teaching methods of a literacy based on multiple media—from text to moving- and still-images, to audio files and other databased resources.

Div Docs
New Ph.D. Program Spans All The School’s Divisions
August 28, 2007
A new degree is the second doctoral track in the school, joining the Critical Studies Ph.D., which became the nation’s first Cinema Ph.D. in 1958.