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The Curriculum Accepted students will take three classes while they are in L.A.: Internships in Production and Post-Production, Hollywood History and Filmmakers’ Forum. “We thought of the experience they would want to have first, and then we built the class around it,” Benedyk said. The internship class features workshops where students can work on resumes, interviewing techniques, and workplace etiquette. Guest speakers will also come in to tell students, first-hand, about the ins and outs of the current film industry. It also counts for junior experiential learning credit. The history class covers the birth and development of Hollywood as the epicenter of the film industry, as well as classic films made in the lot where they’re taking classes. They will also be able to tour studios like Warner Brothers, Universal, and Sony. For each week in Filmmakers’ Forum, students will get to hear various writers, directors, producers, editors, agents and cinematographers. The speaker schedule caters to the wide range of interests each student brings to the program. At the end of the quarter, students will attend a networking event where they will get to meet DePaul alumni and industry professionals, and make mutually beneficial networking relationships. |
The long wait is finally over. For the last month, DePaul’s digital cinema department has been abuzz with excitement and anticipation as they discussed who might be going to Hollywood for the Los Angeles Quarter. On April 15, program coordinators formally invited 30 students out of 107 applicants, to participate in this new internship program.
This pilot program was developed by Cinema and Interactive Media instructors Matt Quinn, Shayna Connelly, and assistant professor Kristyn Benedyk. The centerpiece of the ten-week immersion program is to have an internship: to work for production companies and studios in a professional capacity, in the media capital of the world.
“The best thing for them is to realize they can do this for a living,” Quinn said.
Students will intern three days a week, and take class on Tuesdays and Thursdays (see sidebar). Classes will be held on a historic studio lot, where the films “Some Like it Hot” and “West Side Story” were shot, and “True Blood” is currently filmed.
CIM Instructor Dan Klein said the experience will contextualize the last three to five years of the cinema students’ education.
“Here in Chicago, sometimes it feels like we’re teaching in theory, or we’re referring to things that aren’t necessarily tangible,” Klein said. “Getting to be in California, getting to actually interact with industry and work with industry, enables them to take all these lessons and actually apply them.”
DePaul Senior Alison Velazquez described the application process, and the wait, in one word: intense.
“It’s hard because we all know each other so well, and more or less what we are capable of,” Velazquez said. “Every day, we see each other for class, and people are talking about the program – about who might make it in, and how exciting it would be to go.”
Students were to submit a creative work that best represented who they were as a filmmaker, along with a personal statement. The coordinators were blown away by the amount of talent they were privileged to see.
“One thing that made it gratifying but also made it difficult for us was, it was exceedingly competitive,” Klein said.
Benedyk said they took into consideration how focused each applicant’s personal statement was, and they gravitated toward students who had a good sense of what they wanted to do in L.A. But this is also a chance for them to explore job options they might not have considered pursuing while in school.
As soon as confirmation letters are turned in, students will begin to apply for internships. Velazquez describes this opportunity as the lucky chance that every film student or Hollywood hopeful dreams for.
“We’re very fortunate to have this chance to show executives what we can do, in a comfortable, academic environment, with help from our professors and their network,” Velazquez said. “I mean, who gets to do that?”
Quinn explained that the internship coordinators which faculty have already contacted find DePaul students to be very appealing. Having a Midwestern work ethic and being part of a program that focuses student on getting the most out of their internship is a definite plus.
Klein said that this batch of students might be very helpful in establishing a brand for DePaul, for the type of students the department produces.
“Our students are the best advertising for our university,” CIM Associate Professor Matt Irvine said. “They are smart, kind and hard working. When a company uses our students as interns they always come back asking for more. In the city of Chicago our reputation has soared because of our students working on high-level productions like “Transformers 3,” “The Chicago Code,” “Contagion” and “The Dilemma.”
There is great optimism for the future of this program, which the team hopes to offer year-round. “It’s about seeing ourselves as global ambassadors not only of the university, but of our craft that we love,” CIM Assistant Professor Ron Fernandez said.
Velazquez said this program is really bringing the department together. They feel that to be able to be the first group to go is very exciting, that they are part of something special.
“It’s exciting to be a part of a school, a part of a program that supports these ambitious initiatives, and lets the faculty members really pursue making these things happen for the students,” Benedyk said. “It’s an incredibly supportive program.”
The estimated cost of this program is $5,000, in addition to standard DePaul tuition. The program begins on September 1.
