Faculty News - June 2009

Alan Baker's News Wire

Marsha Kinder.

The Chinese version of A Tale of Two Mao Genes, an interactive multimedia software and science education project that grew out of a collaboration between Critical Studies professor and director of The Labyrinth Project Marsha Kinder and Jean Chen Shih, a professor of molecular biology, will be officially released on July 7 in the Tsinghua University of Beijing. Labyrinth media artists Kristy H.A. Kang, Rosemary Comella and students from the Animation and Digital Arts division participated in the project. The interactive project focuses on Dr. Shih's 30 years of pioneering molecular research on a crucial pair of brain enzymes that help control aggression in mice and men. The presentation treats the interplay between biology, culture and ethical questions in science and by documenting these discoveries, also encourages young people to choose science as a career. The Beijing Association of Sustainable Development (BASD) is sponsoring the release ceremony. More...

In an unrelated Labyrinth story, Kinder wants to call attention to an article in the current Art In America which prominently features "The Danube Exodus: The Rippling Currents of the River," the installation that Labyrinth produced in collaboration with Hungarian artist Peter Forgacs. This installation is now on exhibit at the New York Jewish Museum, through August 2.

Lightspeed Design, Inc., a worldwide leader in stereoscopic 3D technology and InFocus(R) Corporation, announced their participation in the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) with the donation of a DepthQ(R) HD 3D Projector to the Center's Consumer 3D Experience Lab. David Wertheimer, Executive Director of USC's ETC said, "The ETC Consumer 3D Experience Lab works to have the most cutting-edge equipment on hand for our demonstrations and discussions with senior executives and key industry players. Lightspeed and InFocus's DepthQ(R) HD 3D Projector is a valued addition to our collection."

David Wertheimer.

Production Associate Professor Everett Lewis leaves for Amman, Jordan this weekend to teach a two and one-half week production workshop for the Royal Film Commission. Lewis has made multiple trips to Jordan over the past five years for workshops, but this may be the first time he will be the only SCA representative.

The ABC News Los Angeles affiliate KABC-TV reported that the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the USC School of Cinematic Arts is a partner in Start Strong, a program to combat domestic violence among teens. The four-year program, just launched at a local school, will teach teens about healthy relationships and avoiding abusive situations.

A significant amount of construction is ongoing on two fronts: the adjacent Lucas Building is in the early stages of structural demolition while the maintenance buildings to the west of the new complex were recently knocked down to make way for two more sound stages. The new instructional building now has all its structural beams in place and the first layer of floors have been laid along with stairways. At the two sound stages and operations building, the cement walls have been poured, the original wood reinforcements have been removed and beams are being loaded in.

Film Music Professor Jon Burlingame was recently interviewed by a Viennese film crew for a new documentary entitled Max Steiner, Father of Film Music. Professor Burlingame was filmed leafing through rare film scores and parts from the Warner Bros. classics, Casablanca and Now Voyager. The documentary will also feature a cameo by Warner Bros. Archives Curator Jonathon Auxier.

Visible Evidence, an international conference that since 1993 has brought together documentary scholars, artists, producers, curators and enthusiasts to investigate all aspects of documentary practice and culture will be held at the School of Cinematic Arts this year, running from August 13-17. Although the conference content over the years has been dictated by the prevailing interests of the participants, this year, according to Associate Dean Michael Renov, who is the program's chief organizer, there will be no theme. 

In addition to Renov who will co-chair the panel, Experimental Documentary: Present and Future, other SCA participants will include Assistant Professor Ted Braun on the panel, Genocide Survivor Testimony in Documentary Film; Critical Studies Professor Ellen Seiter who will chair the panel, Intellectual Property Law for Documentary Scholars and Filmmakers, and Critical Studies Assistant Professor Aniko Imre. Panel participants on the Cross-Cultural Pedagogy Workshop will include Renov, Seiter, Production Adjunct Lisa Leeman and James Hindman, the Chief Academic Officer of the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Art. Several SCA students will also participate on the panels. 

For information about the conference schedule and registration, click here.

Richard Weinberg.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Institute for Multimedia Literacy Visiting Assistant Professor Peggy Weil participated in The Soul of the New Machine, a new media conference held at UC Berkeley. In a talk titled Animating Human Rights: Games, Animation and Multimedia, Weil discussed interactive projects she co-created, including Gone Gitmo, a recreation within Second Life of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and Walljumpers, in which users leap over the world's border fences.

Forbes quoted Research Associate Professor Richard Weinberg about the blurring line between computer animation and live action in many of today's films. "Almost everybody is using some form of animation to tell their story," Weinberg said. "Now there's a fuzzy boundary between live action and animation."

Instructor of Cinema Practice Jason E. Squire was invited to Tokyo for two days of lectures and events celebrating the Japanese publication of his The Movie Business Book International Third Edition by Born Digital Inc. Lecture topics included the changing landscape of global entertainment, the impact of technology on the entertainment industry and the history of his scholarly work. More...

Also, the Los Angeles Times quoted Squire about product placement deals between auto companies and Hollywood studios. Sometimes deals to feature cars in movies backfire, Squire said. If the product placement is too heavy-handed, the audience can be turned off both the movie and the car, he explained. "It's a real judgment call." Finally, American Public Media's Marketplace interviewed Squire in a story on declining box office figures this summer. Strong movie ticket sales in the first four months of the year were likely connected to audiences' desire to escape economic worries, Squire said. He added that the summer movie season shouldn't be judged until the season is complete.

Jason Squire.

The Detroit News quoted Critical Studies Professor Todd Boyd about comedian Arsenio Hall. Hall was the first and last person of color to dominate the late-night landscape, Boyd said. "The legacy of Arsenio Hall stands as a benchmark."

The Washington Post, in a widely carried Associated Press obituary, remembered former Screenwriting chair and professor John Furia, Jr. Furia was a prolific screen and television writer who penned popular series including Bonanaza, The Waltons, and Hawaii Five-O, the story noted. Furia was also remembered by BBC News, The Toronto Star (Canada), CBC News (Canada) and Variety. More...

Screenwriting Adjunct Jim McGinn's stage play, Replacing Pamela, opens October 24 in Baar, Switzerland.

Production Adjunct Kate Amend is back at the Sundance Institute Labs for her fourth year as an advisor to the Documentary Edit and Story Lab which runs from June 21-28. This year, six documentaries-in-progress have been invited to the lab.

Production Senior Lecturer Bill Yahraus has received an Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences grant from the University for his film, Escaramuzas. The film looks at the sport and culture of La Charreria, the rodeo which is a way of life for many in the western U.S. and Mexico. He particularly focuses on eight-member teams of female charras called escaramuzas who perform dangerous high speed horse ballets, sustaining a centuries-old tradition of skillful horsemanship. 

The Los Angeles Times noted that Interactive Media Research Associate Professor Perry Hoberman designed the software that creates a random loop in the video art installation, "The Cooper Video Wall," which is located in the redesigned lobby of the Cooper Design Space downtown.

On May 21, Animation Adjunct Tom Sito organized and chaired a panel at Woodbury College on the 20th Anniversary of the Walt Disney hit film The Little Mermaid. The directors, art director and other key creative personnel appeared to discuss its significance to the medium and the 2D Animation Renaissance of the 1990s.

Critical Studies Assistant Professor Aniko Imre reports that her book, Identity Games: Globalization and the Transformation of Media Cultures in the New Europe, has been published by MIT Press.

Assistant Professor of Interactive Media Steve Anderson presented the MacArthur-funded Critical Commons project at the Open Video Alliance (OVA) conference at NYU Law School on June 19. The OVA is currently the leading organization for advocating open standards for free and open source technology development and media production and Critical Commons was one among several projects advocating the importance of fair use for media creators and educators.

Norman Hollyn.

Production Associate Professor Norman Hollyn reports that in addition to teaching several sessions on editing for the current CEEVN workshop, he has just signed a contract to do a fourth edition of his textbook The Film Editing Room Handbook for publication by Peachpit/Pearson early next year. Hollyn is also going to be doing a series of video podcasts with editor and teacher Larry Jordan on the craft of filmmaking, with a particular emphasis on storytelling techniques. They have a commitment for five-to-ten episodes. Hollyn is also finishing an edit on a short web piece for the American Institute of Architects about why they should feel confident about their chosen profession, even in these troubled economics times. He worked with Mina Chow at the School of Architecture. The feature Hollyn edited last year, Jack in the Box, just sold in several territories at the Cannes Film Festival.

Production Adjunct Jim O'Keeffe is currently in production as the Director of Photography on the upcoming Chesley Sullenberger documentary, Brace for Impact for TLC, produced by Dan Birman Productions. The documentary recounts the events of January 15, 2009 when US Airways Flight 1549 landed safely on the Hudson River. O'Keeffe recently wrapped as Director of Photography on a series for the Discover Military Channel called Special Ops Mission that starts airing on August 6 at 10:00 P.M.  O'Keeffe also directed a webisode for Robert Ballo and Goal Productions for the American Humane. The American Humane hopes this comedic webisode called Protecting your Ass from Harm will 'go viral' and drive traffic to their website and the important work they do.

Screenwriting Associate Professor Mary Sweeney reports that her directorial debut, Baraboo, will have its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival this Friday. It will also be presented at the Galway Film Festival which runs from July 7-12. Sweeney also wrote and edited the film.

The Herald Sun (Australia) featured Adjunct Danny Bilson and his class on storytelling for video games. As the story stated: Influential gaming developer and teacher Danny Bilson is never satisfied and constantly tells his students to dream big. "I always tell my students: Once you put a controller in somebody's hand, they are not there to watch a movie," Bilson said, "They want to push, they want to go, they want to be involved."

Institute for Multimedia Literacy Associate Director, Honors Program Virginia Kuhn and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media Steve Anderson have both received the 2009 Provost's Prize for Teaching with Technology. Kuhn has been a prominent lecturer and speaker as of late. Her recent presentions include a Five Minutes of Fame talk called Filmic Textbooks: Documentary is the New Black, at the New Media Consortium's summer conference last week in Monterey Bay; the keynote for the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges on June 17, where she spoke about the liberal arts mission in a digital culture facing difficult economic times; and a talk at the Computers & Writing 2009 Conference at UC Davis on sustainable digital scholarship in undergraduate education in world of ubiquitous computing on June 20.

Virginia Kuhn.

The feature film, Lucky Bastard, which was written, produced and directed by Production Associate Professor Everett Lewis and shot by Production Associate Professor Linda Brown, will premiere at the LA Outfest next month. It has also been accepted to the Philadelphia Qfest.

Institute for Multimedia Literacy Post-Doctoral Fellow Patricia G. Lange presented the paper, "How bad videos are actually good: Exploring parodic displays of technical competence on YouTube" for the Visual Communication Studies division at the International Communication Association Conference, in Chicago. At the same conference, she also was invited to serve as an expert panelist from the Language and Social Interaction subdivision to speak on the theme of technology. The title of her presentation for the panel was "Interactional Materiality and the Consequential Contexts of Technological (Re)Production."

Three hundred and ninety-four SCA undergraduates, graduates and Ph.D. Candidates received their degrees before hundreds of family and family at the May 15 Commencement ceremony in Shrine Auditorium. Producer and alumna Laura Ziskin ('73) gave the keynote address and told the graduates that even though entertainment delivery methods may change and grow, "The power of the medium will remain unassailable because you all will make it so." Graduate Screenwriting alumna Shonda Rhimes ('94) received the Mary Pickford Alumni Award from endowed chair holder Doe Mayer and she encouraged students to enjoy the moment, every moment and "whatever you do, be original." Dean Elizabeth Daley presented the second-ever SCA Honorary Alumnus award in recognition of his contributions to the school and the film/television industry to a surprised Frank Price, a USC trustee and chairman of the SCA Board of Councilors. Associate Dean Michael Renov presented the Staff Recognition Award to Facilities and Operations director Doug Wellman for his work on the new complex. Dean Daley reminded the newly minted graduates that there was a tradition of following closely in the footsteps in those who came before and it was now their responsibility to be the next leaders. Following the commencement, there was a reception for the graduates, families, friends and faculty in the SCA courtyard.

In spring 2008, SCA student Stephen Boman developed an idea for one of his classes, based on his experiences as an organ transplant coordinator while an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. His SCA instructor was Trey Callaway, an adjunct and also producer of CSI: NY. The in-class pitch was heard by a network executive visiting the class who arranged for several prominent writers, producers and directors to participate in launching the project and were able to get CBS Television to commit to a pilot script and then a pilot. On the day after he graduated in May, Boman learned that his show, Three Rivers, would be on the CBS fall schedule, airing on Sunday nights at 9:00 P.M.  

On June 10, Dean Elizabeth Daley announced in a message to all faculty and staff that Akira Lippit had agreed to succeed David James as Chair of Critical Studies department. Akira Lippit's teaching and research focus on four primary areas: the history and theory of cinema; world literature and critical theory; Japanese film and culture; and visual cultural studies. His published work reflects these areas and includes two books, Atomic Light (Shadow Optics) and Electric Animal: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife.

New Animation and Digital Arts Chair Sheila Sofian reports that a sizable number of their students have received awards and commendations at American and international festivals over the past six months. The long list includes:

Animation faculty Sheila Sofian, Christine Panushka and Kathy Smith along with M.F.A. student Juan Camilo Gonzalez are screening their films in Muestra De Animacion at Universidad Central in Bogota, Colombia.

Associated Person:

Alan Baker