Film School of the Week: California College of the Arts

by MovieMaker Staff | Published June 4, 2007

Thanks to the digital revolution, the tools of the moviemaking trade are now easily available to everyone. And while these advancements have created a new wave of moviemakers able to utilize the technology, that does not mean that all of them are necessarily able to bring together a cohesive and compelling movie. That’s where an education becomes useful--and the California College of the Arts steps in.
Beginning in the fall of 2008, the school will launch a new all-digital graduate film program, which, much like the school’s earliest classes, will be used to teach concepts based on the latest technological advancements. “Ultimately we are approaching digital [technology] as a tool with new aesthetic possibilities,"Â explains Academy Award winner and CCA program chair Rob Epstein.

In 1907 cabinetmaker Frederick Meyer founded the California College of the Arts to educate students on the trades of the Arts and Crafts movement--a movement developed in response to the new technology of the Industrial Revolution. German-bred Meyer began with $45 in funds, three teachers and three classrooms. Today, CCA students roam two campuses and study 19 different undergraduate program--ranging from sculpture to the written word--and six fields of graduate work. Digital, narrative moviemaking is the next logical step.

“In keeping with the goals of the college, we see exciting possibilities for a narrative film program within an arts context,” says Epstein. Plus, “we will be ahead of the digital tsunami that is about to hit every film program, as well as the film industry--if I hasn’t already.”

Applications for the first semester of CCA’s graduate film program are due later this year. For more information, visit www.cca.edu.

Sound Off: The moviemaking world is still abuzz with word of the impending “digital revolution.” Where do you think this revolution will take us next? Let us know in the “Comments” section.