TV and film production class is summer hit

Cinematographer and editor Bill Pivetta; writer and director Jay Woelfel of Studio City, Calif., and television producer Jeffery Shore of E! Entertainment are playing the roles of professors to give hands-on instruction in camera technology and techniques, the business side of movie making, and the production of reality-based TV programs.

The new class, "Narratives in Film and Television Production," is an intensive, three-week course offered in the BGSU Department of Telecommunications. "

This highly participatory class will give students some basic technical competence in the use of cameras, lenses, lighting and the professional skills needed for film and television production," explains Dr. Ewart Skinner, chair of the telecommunications department. "

We're going to make our own reality TV show, including pre- and post-production and shooting," adds class member Jennifer Blasko of Columbus, a senior telecommunications major.

Thirty students enrolled in the five-credit-hour course, the only one of its kind in the area and a first-time foray into the topic for BGSU. Once the course was announced, it only took a couple of days for it to fill up, Skinner says.

Pivetta, whose company, First Avenue Films, provides film equipment and support to independent film productions, taught the first week of class (May 19-23). He brought equipment with him that students would not ordinarily see, much less use. It included well over $100,000 worth of film equipment, including 35mm Arriflex cameras, heavy-duty tripods and lighting equipment, as well as other equipment lent by Visual Products of Wellington, Ohio.

Outside the classroom, students experimented with filming set-up shots and outdoor scenes using varying lenses and settings. Results of their work will be shown later this week at the Cla-Zel Theatre on Main Street in Bowling Green. "

What I like about the class is that it's very hands-on," says sophomore Brandon Bohland, a telecommunications major from Toledo.

By the second day of class, students had loaded film into a magazine, changed film in the necessary black bag, learned about various film stocks, filters and lenses, and actually shot film. "

Today's students have grown up in an automatic, digital world, but we want them to learn the skills necessary to compete in both the film and video worlds," Pivetta said. By learning to manipulate such variables as focal length, lighting, lenses and film stock, they will be able to achieve the results they envision, he said.

Jose A. Cardenas, chief videographer at WBGU-TV, the PBS station operated by BGSU, knows all three of the instructors and is technical coordinator of the course. A member of the Society of Camera Operators, Cardenas is also an Air Force reservist and combat photographer. "

Film is used for more things than people realize," Pivetta said in describing the many career options open to those with the appropriate skills.

This week (May 27-30) the class is being led by Woelfel, who will teach students about working with scripts, hiring actors and crew members, acquiring financing for projects and distribution of the finished product.

The final week will be taught by Shore, a BGSU alumnus and vice president of production for E! Entertainment. Shore was at the forefront of reality-based TV when, in 1996, he was executive producer of "True Hollywood Story," which became the model for the flood of reality TV shows that followed.

Cardenas and Skinner say they hope this summer's course will be the first in an ongoing, annual workshop. "

It's a long class but it's definitely worth the time," said senior Yatra Shah, a telecommunications major from Alliance. "We're learning so much."

(Posted May 02, 2003 )