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Adventures in Film Studies: “On Location in Hollywood”
In spring 2007, Colorado College offered its first-ever course in and about Hollywood — FS318 Topics in Filmmaking: On Location in Hollywood. The instructors are the authors of this story. They will offer the course again in 2008.
From left to right, the students are:
Ryan Hughes '07,
Michael Calderon '08,
Adam Liss '08,
Dakin Henderson '08,
Siena Reese '08,
Laiken Gabbert '07,
Amanda Chavez '08,
Caitlin Swan '09,
Giancarlo Bizzarro '08,
Sam Membrino '08,
Not pictured: Eryka Charley '08, Eric Phillips '08 A wall of flame surrounds the apartment complex. Smoke chokes out the sun, and thanks to a brisk wind, the fire is quickly spreading. We cram 12 CC students and their most valuable possessions into three cars, and we evacuate just as the first fire truck screams up the hill.
Welcome to Hollywood.
Taking full advantage of the Block Plan, this spring a group of intrepid CC students journeyed to the world’s media capital to study the past and present of the entertainment industry. The students arrived here wary. They’ve heard the stories. They’ve spent their lives bombarded by media culture. Movies, TV, and the surrounding hype dominate our collective cultural experience. One has only to go to the grocery checkout to recognize the oversimplifications that emerge from this eerie blend of commerce and art. Think Bennifer, TomKat, Brangelina. Most of this media culture originates in Los Angeles, a daunting human stew of freeways, shootings, glitz and glamour.
Three weeks ago, Dakin Henderson, a junior, stood outside the Mary Pickford Center at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and asked, “Who is Mary Pickford?” His question was answered inside, where walls plastered with Pickford’s movie posters herald her career as queen of the silent era. The students learned about film preservation at the Pickford Center and were treated to a screening of a Buster Keaton short from the Academy archives. They visited the Lasky/DeMille barn, where the very first feature in Hollywood was filmed in 1913. They toured The Lot, originally the United Artists studio, and saw the tunnel where Mary Pickford’s husband and business partner, Douglas Fairbanks, used to exercise naked. At the end of the first week, we asked Dakin who Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were. His response: “Pickfair.” Some things never change.
But the world marches on, so we got to know people working in the industry today. The students sat down with Jeff Stott, the producer of Rob Reiner’s movies, and learned exactly why Jack Nicholson’s head was shaved for this year’s Oscars. They practiced schmoozing at parties. They toured the sets of a new Johnny Cash spoof comedy, Walk Hard, and glimpsed star John C. Reilly vamping in his costume. On a Foley stage they saw, in gruesome detail, just how horror movie sound effects are made.
We discussed the demise of the studio system and the rise of television. The students learned that TV, not movies, is the economic backbone of Hollywood today. On the Warner Brothers lot, they toured the prop warehouse and saw sets of Friends, Gilmore Girls, and the George Lopez Show. “They call Hollywood a dream factory,” Dakin Henderson wrote after the visit. “It seems to be less like a dream, and more like a factory.” Thanks to the help of Law & Order: SVU showrunner Neal Baer, CC ’78 and current trustee, students got up close and personal with Desperate Housewives, sitting down on the set of Lynette’s kitchen with the producer, Sabrina Wind.
It turns out CC is a great film school. Maybe it’s the diversity of classes offered, or maybe the block plan simply attracts creative types. Whatever the reason, a terrific network of CC alumni exists in Hollywood today. These alums say the liberal arts education at CC taught them how to think, how to learn, and how to adapt to the boom-and-bust employment cycles that are the hallmark of the entertainment business. Special thanks to the many alumni who shared their stories with, and gave advice to, the students. We crowded into the Warner Brothers office of Aaron Shure ’88, a writer-producer of more than 100 episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond; he snapped a mousetrap on his tongue, and then let us hold his Emmy. We shared a bohemian dinner with Tim Sexton ’82, Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Children of Men, who discussed his collaboration with director Alfonso Cuaron. Over at Paramount, Tim Marx ’76, a producer/director of HBO’s Arli$$ and Entourage, showed the students how to break down a script. Entourage is junior Giancarlo Bizzarro’s favorite TV show, so that meeting was a personal highlight: “If only I’d been there when they were casting it!” The students visited agent Ted Miller ’86 at the jaw-dropping new headquarters of Creative Artists Agency, where they learned about the business of building and managing Hollywood careers - from the mailroom up. Thanks to Mary Maffei ’76, the students toured Dreamworks Animation and learned about the unbelievably complex process of creating Shrek the Third. And thanks to screenwriter Jill Mazursky ’87, the students got to spend an evening with her and her father, legendary writer/director/actor Paul Mazursky, at his Beverly Hills home. Among many jokes and anecdotes, Mazursky told a hilarious story about chasing down Federico Fellini to appear in a movie -- a lesson in the perseverance and chutzpah that’s vital in this town.
Like a Fellini film, this block has been a whirlwind. Tonight, we’re off to the opening night of the Malibu Film Festival, and starting tomorrow, the students have the weekend off to write their research papers and finish their creative projects. Says junior Adam Liss, “I still don’t know what to write about.” Some things about college students never change, either.
But our most memorable time in Hollywood might have been our meal at Bob’s Big Boy. As the apartment fire raged out of control, we left the threatened Oakwood apartments, where the students were staying, and drove down the hill to the retro Bob’s Big Boy diner in Toluca Lake. From there, through the picture windows, we watched the massive wildfire inch dangerously close to the world-famous Hollywood sign. Smoke poured off the hill, and media helicopters jockeyed with the fire-fighting helicopters. This was national news. We sat in our quiet booth and watched the chaos unfold. Glancing down, we noticed a tiny plaque: “In this booth, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro filmed a scene from Michael Mann’s Heat.”
Just another day in Hollywood.
THE AUTHORS: Clay Haskell and Dylan Nelson live in Los Angeles and teach film studies at CC. They are grateful to Susan Ashley, Tom Sanny, and Dick Celeste for their tremendous support of the course.