The Los Angeles Film Studies Center
Influencing Hollywood From the Inside Out
WHEN THE LOS ANGELES Film Studies Center
(LAFSC), a program of the Council for
Christian Colleges & Universities, opened in 1991, its goal was to influence
the content
of Hollywood films. But it wasn’t long before
the founders — including James Chapman of the Seattle Pacific University Theatre
Department — concluded that influencing content began with influencing the
people
who control the content. Today, LAFSC’s goal is to prepare Christian professionals
for a
high-impact presence in the film industry.
“The Hollywood experience has been
a
blessing as we and our students watch God
at work,” says Doug Briggs, director of
LAFSC. “It’s exciting to be part of what he is doing in this terribly influential
medium.”
Located within a few miles of Warner Brothers, Universal, NBC and The
Walt Disney Studios, LAFSC has close to 150 of its former students working in
the movie and television industries. Melanie Sellers Knox, a LAFSC graduate now
completing
her theatre degree at SPU, took a job with New Line Cinema in 1999. One of her
assignments as a post-production coordinator
was to watch each of the popular “The
Lord of the Rings” movies more than 20 times to ensure the consistency of color
and sound.
“The requirements were stringent,” says Knox. “Security for the films was very tight, and perfection was required in everything we did. It was
a delight to work so closely with such a monumental film project and the people
behind it.”
She believes strongly that Christians
belong in Hollywood. “They keep other people in film thinking. Christians in
film serve as a reminder that the values expressed in those flickering images
do matter.”
Last year, two Seattle Pacific students — Ben English and Joshua
Paget — were selected for the intense, one-semester LAFSC program, designed for
university juniors and seniors. They were taught by working film-industry professionals.
And like every student there, they earned semester credits through a nonpaying
internship with filmmakers, agents or those involved in film production and
distribution.
English interned at Panavision and worked with the camera equipment
he hopes one day to operate. Paget, an SPU English major, is interested in screenwriting.
During his internship with Big Idea Productions, creators of the popular "Veggie
Tales"
characters, he read scripts submitted by
hopeful freelance writers. “It encouraged
me in my own writing,” he says, “but I recognized that it is easier to critique
than
to produce quality.”
Paget enjoyed the LAFSC faculty members, who help students
view themselves
as on a mission to engage the Hollywood
culture. “We learned how to enter the culture and not offend it, how to assimilate
ourselves in the hope that we can influence
Hollywood from the inside out.”
Briggs says the project is working. “We sense
a spiritual emptiness that has grown in Hollywood, particularly since 9/11. There
is a search for meaning that is making more
people open to the Gospel. We’re also encouraged by the growing national ministry
of people praying for those working in Hollywood. We know we have more hope for
change through prayer than through boycott.”
— BY CLINT KELLY
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