USC School of Cinema-Television

Ads

USC School of Cinematic Arts

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television (CNTV), is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The school offers multiple undergraduate and graduate programs. For 2006-2007, the school had 728 undergraduates and 621 graduate students.

The School’s founding faculty include Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, William C. DeMille, Ernst Lubitsch, Irving Thalberg, and Darryl Zanuck. Notable professors include Drew Casper, the Alma and Alfred Hitchcock Professor of American Film; Tomlinson Holman, inventor of THX; David Bondelevitch, President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors; and Mark Jonathan Harris, documentary filmmaker.

The program is one of USC's most competitive specialty schools, for both undergraduate and graduate programs. The BA program in film production accepts 50 students per year, while the Critical Studies department accepts 75 for its BA program, 15-20 for its MA program, and approximately 10 for the Ph.D. (three to four from outside the school, and five to seven continuing from the internal M.A. program); the BFA program in Writing for Film and Television accepts only 24 students per year. The MFA program in film directing accepts 48 new students each semester (fall and spring) and the MFA for screenwriting accepts 32 students per year (fall admittance only). The MFA program for the Division of Animation and Digital Arts accept 15 students a year, and the recently established BA program for Animation & Digital Arts accepted only 11 students out of 150 applicants for the 2008-2009 fall semester. Acceptance to any program is contingent upon review of a portfolio, which requires writing samples, creative resumes, autobiographies, and other written responses. The Animation portfolio should consist of artwork and an artist statement. The production portfolio does not require the submission of a director's reel or any film samples, allowing talented students who may have not had the opportunity or the means to create films to have the opportunity for admission. The school also has a summer film program that does not require acceptance to any of the above programs.

In April 2006, the USC Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

On September 19, 2006, USC announced that alumnus George Lucas had donated US$175 million to expand the film school with a new facility. This represented the largest single donation to USC and the largest to any film school in the world.

And recently, USC School of Cinematic Arts joined forces with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan, to create the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts (RSICA) in Aqaba, Jordan.

Facilities

Film industry companies, friends, and many of the school's famous alumni have joined forces to fund a world-class film and television complex at USC. Their gifts and ongoing support have enabled the School to build some of the top facilities and equipment of any film school anywhere, including:

the George Lucas Instructional Building
the Marcia Lucas Post Production Building
the Steven Spielberg Motion Picture Sound Scoring Stage
the Harold Lloyd Sound Stage
the Johnny Carson Sound Stage
the Robert Zemeckis Center, home of the student television network, Trojan Vision.
the Eileen Norris Theater
the David L. Wolper Center

Areas of study

Business of Entertainment (offered in conjunction with the Marshall School of Business MBA Program)
Critical Studies
John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts
Interactive Media
Producing, under The Peter Stark Producing Program
Production
Screenwriting

Accomplished SCA alumni

Notable faculty members and instructors

Distinctions

Since 1973, not a year has passed without an alumnus having been nominated for an Academy Award.
Alumni have held key creative or production positions in 8 of the 10 highest grossing movies in history.

Awards - USC Cinema Short Films

In 1955, Producer Wilber T. Blume, a USC Cinema instructor at the time, received an Academy Award for a short film he created entitled The Face of Lincoln (1955) - best live action short film. Blume also received an Academy Award Nomination that year for documentary short. Two nominations. One Oscar win for the same short film.
In 1967, George Lucas won the National Student Film Festival (NSFF) award for his futuristic Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967).
In 1970, Producer John Longenecker received an Academy Award for a short film he produced while attending USC Cinema 480 classes as an undergraduate -- The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970) - best live action short film. The film crew and cast: Nick Castle - cinematographer; John Carpenter - film editor / original music; James Rokos director; Johnny Crawford lead actor; and Kristin Nelson lead actress.
In 1973, Robert Zemeckis won a Special Jury Award at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' second annual Student Film Awards presentation for A Field of Honor.
In 2001, MFA student David Greenspan won the Palme d’Or for short film at the Cannes Film Festival for his student film Bean Cake.
In 2006, Director/Co-Writer/Producer Ari Sandel received an Academy Award for best live action short film -- "West Bank Story" (2006) made as a USC Cinema graduate school project.