Media Arts and Practice News

It’s All in Fun
Mel Brooks Speaks at Jack Oakie Masters Lecture Series
October 20, 2009
USC School of Cinematic Arts students were treated to an afternoon with Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning writer/producer/director/actor and master cat-screech expert Mel Brooks, as part of the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Masters Lecture Series.

Next Generation
Akira Mizuta Lippit Is New Critical Studies Chair
October 17, 2009
Thirty years ago, it was a different Lippit teaching at USC. Noriko Mizuta Lippit taught East Asian languages and culture and comparative literature, while her son, Akira Mizuta Lippit, a self-described "SC kid," got the lay of the land. He’d be back before long and now has the chance to further cement his family’s USC legacy as he continues his first semester as chair of the critical studies division.

Trojan Teamwork
First Team Brings SCA Alums Together
October 16, 2009
In an industry where countless opportunities come down to who-you-know, a new program has been introduced that will help Trojan alumni cultivate connections - First Team.

In Memoriam: Anne Friedberg
Internationally Renowned Visual Studies Scholar
October 12, 2009
Anne Friedberg, historian, theorist of modern media culture and School of Cinematic Arts professor, whose work pioneered the field of visual studies, passed away Friday, October 9, following a long struggle with colorectal cancer. She was 57.

Reality Ends for Old Instructional Building
First George Lucas Structure Gives Way to a Park
August 14, 2009
The George Lucas Instructional Building, cinematic home to thousands of students from 1984 until 2008, did not go quietly into that good night.

Animation Alumnus & Single Dad
Jose Olmos ’09 Makes Most of SCA
August 03, 2009
Jose Olmos ('09) is and isn't your typical Trojan. He is 41 and a single parent.

SCA Alumnus Wins Student Oscar
Film Addressing Slavery Takes Home Gold Medal
July 07, 2009
Writer/director Gregg Helvey, M.F.A. '09, has turned bricks into gold with his film Kavi, which won the gold medal for narrative short film at the 36th annual Student Academy Awards on June 13.

East Meets West
Celebrating the Japanese Publication of Squire's Book
June 18, 2009
East met West in terms of education, entertainment, global technology and a shared interest in their future when SCA Instructor of Cinema Practice Jason E. Squire traveled to Tokyo for two days of lectures and events celebrating the Japanese publication of his work "The Movie Business Book."

Interactive Showcase
M.F.A. Thesis Works Forge New Boundaries
May 28, 2009
When the Interactive Media Division presented its first master of fine arts thesis showcase in 2005, student projects set the precedent for challenging and propelling the bounds of game, immersive and mobile content. Taking place from May 9 to 15 on the Carson Sound Stage, ten titles in this year’s Look and Feel exhibit pushed those bounds to new creative frontiers.

Pomp and Circumstance
SCA Students Receive Hard-Earned Degrees
May 19, 2009
The energy couldn't have been much higher at the Shrine Auditorium on May 15, as the School of Cinematic Arts, with the help of industry greats Frank Price, Shonda Rhimes and Laura Ziskin, lauded its most recent graduating class and celebrated the next generation of entertainment artists and professionals.

Games Go Global
Susana Ruiz To Attend 2009 APRU Conference
May 18, 2009
Susana Ruiz, a Ph.D. candidate in the interdivisional Media Arts and Practice (iMAP) program, will take her unique expertise in designing games that address pressing social issues to Japan this summer, when she represents USC at the 2009 Doctoral Students Conference of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).

A Lasting Impression
Mary Beth Fielder wins 2008-2009 Mellon Mentoring Award
May 13, 2009
According to Greek mythology, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War, he entrusted the safety and upbringing of his son Telemachus to his wise friend Mentor. Though thousands of years have passed, the spirit of nurturing and inspiring others to succeed lives on in the USC Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring, which the university has conferred upon SCA Senior Lecturer Mary Beth Fielder.

Fast Talk
Students Make Most of First Pitch ’09
May 12, 2009
Representatives from 41 of the industry’s leading agencies, management firms and production companies got first crack at the latest scripts from SCA writing students on May 4, as 52 writers showcased tales from every genre during the eighth annual First Pitch event.

CU: Rian Johnson
A Filmmaker in Bloom
May 11, 2009
Rian Johnson, who seared his way into noir fans’ hearts with his award-winning debut film Brick, has sought inspiration in a new kind of criminal in his sophomore film, The Brothers Bloom starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz.

Reality Ends Here Special Offer
Limited Edition Book
April 27, 2009
Don’t miss your chance to grab a piece of history. The School of Cinematic Arts has published Reality Ends Here: 80 Years of USC Cinematic Arts, an exquisite, limited edition coffee table-sized book celebrating SCA’s 80th anniversary.

Transcending Text
Students Use Sound and Image to Shape New Meaning
April 20, 2009
Creating good cinema has always required extensive teamwork, but students enrolled in a new course at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy [IML] are taking collaboration to higher levels as they use sound, images and database materials to construct new endings (and new meanings) for a partially shot documentary about doctors in wartime Iraq.

Fest Bests
Top Animation & Digital Arts Projects Unspool at Adobe First Frame
April 20, 2009
A young girl wanders into a forest and meets a satyr, who becomes her best friend for life. Salome seduces an ancient king into beheading John the Baptist. A woman discovers the secret of her Aunt Nell when she finds an old, mechanical peep box. These stories and others were among the short animated films screened at Adobe First Frame 2009, engaging the audience that packed the Directors Guild of America Theater on March 5 with bold narratives and imaginative visuals.

World Premiere
Cinematic Arts Celebrates 80th Anniversary With All New Campus
March 31, 2009
With 80 years of history-making experience behind it, the School of Cinematic Arts celebrated the past and launched itself into the future with the unveiling of its new campus at a March 29 gala attended by university leaders, students, faculty, alumni, supporters, including filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Dean Elizabeth M. Daley and USC President Steven B. Sample.

Outside the Box [Office]
New SCA Screening Series Exposes Unexposed Films
March 11, 2009
It’s one thing to tell people “think outside the box,” but it’s another to actually show them how to do it. Thanks to the creation this semester of the Outside the Box [Office] screening series, students, alumni, faculty and other guests have that chance as they take in a unique roster of first-run films from around the globe that they might otherwise never see.

Steel Reels
Art Transcends the Ages at Rolling Stones Film Fest
February 08, 2009
In the 1960s, young people lamented the "generation gap," but four decades later the distance between the artists of that generation and the one currently learning the cinematic arts was clearly bridged during the school’s two-day film festival, The Rolling Stones On Film, held February sixth and seventh at Norris Theatre.

Digital Cribs
SCA Teams Get Real-World Experience In Cisco Contest
February 01, 2009
If you think delivering a term paper on time is a challenge, try creating a mini-documentary that goes from concept to creation to global distribution in four months.

And Action!
New Cinematic Arts Complex Opens
January 16, 2009
The past, present, and future of Hollywood converged on January 10, 2009 as faculty, staff, and students got their first look at the brand-new School of Cinematic Arts complex. Over 400 guests attended the beginning of the semester open house and took the opportunity to comb through the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg buildings, which comprise the main components of the new complex.

CU: Josh Comen
VFX Magic On An Indie Budget
January 12, 2009
Is the economic downturn getting in the way of nailing that perfect traveling matte shot in the film that’s going to catapult you to fame, fortune and a three-picture deal? Meet your new best friend, Josh Comen.

Play-Tester Number One
Tracy Fullerton Installed As EA Endowed Professor
December 16, 2008
It was a typical night at the Interactive Media Division workspace: tiny men with umbrellas stopped time, white gardens were splattered with black paint, and samurais ventured through the middle kingdom. The special part of the evening came as Associate Professor and Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab Tracy Fullerton was named the holder of the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair in Interactive Entertainment.

CU: Eric Nazarian
USC Filmmaker Wins Nicholls Fellowship
December 10, 2008
Try to imagine 5,200 bound screenplays: if you figure about an inch per screenplay, that’s a stack of brass-brad-bound dreams about 433 feet high. Now imagine being one of the five screenwriters in that 36-story pile to be recognized as the best of the bunch. If you’re having a problem picturing it, Eric Nazarian, B.A. Production ’99, winner of the prestigious 2008 Nicholls Fellowship for his screenplay Giants, can help.

Nina Foch Obituary
Hollywood Icon, SCA Lecturer, Mentor
December 08, 2008
Nina Foch, a widely respected lecturer at USC for the last 40 years and a veteran actress, whose credits stretch back to the golden age of Hollywood film noir, passed away on Friday December 5. She was 84.

Tracy Fullerton Named EA Endowed Chair
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello to Keynote Installation Event
December 05, 2008
Associate Professor and Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab Tracy Fullerton will be named the holder of the Electronic Arts Endowed Faculty Chair at a formal ceremony featuring a keynote address by John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts Inc.

SCA Strikes Back
Alien Robots Descend On The New SCA Complex
November 21, 2008
Though workers are still putting the final touches on the new School of Cinematic Arts Complex, the place is already being targeted by invading hordes of massive robots—virtually speaking, that is—as Visiting Associate Professor Eric Hanson gears up for a new live-action/visual effects class next spring.

Digital Youth
Online Time Important For Teen Development Finds USC/Berkeley MacArthur Study
November 20, 2008
Results from the most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media show that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online—often in ways adults do not understand or value.

Hollywood Hero
Weekend Fest, Major Exhibit Honor John Wayne
October 03, 2008
A century after his birth, one of the great icons of Hollywood and America was back on center stage when USC celebrated the legacy of John Wayne with a three-day film series, panel discussions and the kickoff of a four-month exhibition of the Duke’s life and times.

Alternate Endings
SCA alumnus Greg Townsend’s high-def interactive movie bridges distances
September 24, 2008
On Monday September 15, SCA treated the attendees of a networking conference at the University of California, San Diego to a cutting-edge cinematic experience — a student-made interactive HD movie entitled Alternate Endings that was streamed live from Trojan Vision over a long-distance network.

Virtual Worlds
Second Life Takes SCA to New Frontiers
September 12, 2008
For current SCA students, the four R’s have become reading, writing, arithmetic, and rendering virtual worlds. When it comes to developing this new literacy, Linden Lab’s Second Life — an internet-based platform that enables to users to interact and communicate with each other as avatars in a metaverse — has provided the school with unique opportunities for international exchange, collaboration, and experimentation.

Semper Filmmaking
Wounded Marines Train to Enter Film Industry
September 10, 2008
For service members returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the transition to civilian life can be both physically and emotionally daunting. To aid in this process, SCA screenwriting instructor James Egan has brought his extensive background in documentary filmmaking to the Wounded Marine Careers Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing injured veterans with the skills and job placement assistance needed to find jobs in the entertainment industry.

Launching Legends
Opening Day Reception Brings Newest SCA Talent Together
August 26, 2008
Entertainment history is replete with stories of partnerships that trace their roots back to the single moment when two people’s paths crossed. And so it was on August 20, when hundreds of new undergrad and grad students came together for the first time in Queen’s Courtyard to meet the faculty and staff who will shape their educational experience, and perhaps the teammates who will be with them throughout their careers.

EA CEO Joins Board of Councilors
John Riccitiello To Help Guide School
August 11, 2008
John Riccitiello, chief executive officer of Electronic Arts, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), has joined the USC School of Cinematic Arts Board of Councilors. Riccitiello will play a key role in keeping the school’s artistic and academic initiatives at the cutting edge.

Bud Browne
Alumnus Made Surf Film History
July 28, 2008
Bud Browne, USC film school alumnus and surfing movie director, died July 25 at age 96. The creator of seminal surf films such as Gun Ho!, Going Surfin’, and Cat on a Hot Foam Board, Browne was renowned for both his athletic prowess in the water and his filmmaking skills, which brought surfing to the movie-going public.

Hitchcock Contribution
Director's Family Supports SCA Complex Construction
July 16, 2008
One of the greatest names in cinematic history is playing a major role in shaping the art form’s future with the Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Foundation donating $500,000 to help fund construction of the school’s massive new educational and production complex.

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.