Students at the University of Texas at Austin now have a uniqueway to learn about film production. With a new production companyconnected to the university, students are not only getting theopportunity to major in film, but also are getting the opportunityto work on commercial feature films productions.
Burnt Orange Productions will produce films for profit incollaboration with the University of Texas Film Institute and givestudents an opportunity to work alongside professionalfilmmakers.
The company will produce three films a year. Two films a yearwill be made as “in-house” productions with budgets between$500,000 and $1 million and allowing faculty and Burnt OrangeProductions talents to have creative control. The company also willproduce one “co-production” film a year, with a budget between $1million and $3 million and professionals taking the key creativeroles.
For both types of films, students will take on roles in twolevels.
Erin Geisler, the public affairs coordinator for the College ofCommunication at UT, said students can serve in two levels — anapprentice or as an intern.
“An apprentice is someone at the graduate level working as anapprentice alongside a professional,” Geisler said. “Interns are atthe undergraduate level. It is different for an undergraduatestudent. Their course load makes it pretty difficult for them tohave a meaningful experience. Interns can work more along the linesof being a production assistants, doing any odd jobs on theproject.”
Geisler said although Burnt Orange is giving students greatopportunities, the students are not producing their own featurelength films just yet.
“These films were written by professionals,” Geisler said. “Inorder to submit a script, it must go through an agent or a lawyer.It must be submitted through the proper channels.”
According to their Web site, Burnt Orange currently is allowingstudents to submit professionally written and formatted scriptsthrough a supervising professor if the script was written forcourse credit.
Geisler said students most likely will not be able to apply forpositions with Burnt Orange.
“It will be very difficult and competitive to get an internshipposition on a project,” Geisler said. “It will be students who areseniors. There will not even be an application process. It will bestudents who proved themselves and distinguished themselves.”
The company has announced their first three films indevelopment, “Austin Angel,” “Dot” and “The Marfa Lights.” The FilmInstitute hopes to attach 20 to 25 students to each project.
Braxton Wittenburg, radio television and film senior at UT atAustin, got involved with Burnt Orange Productions through the helpof one of his professors.
“I evaluated scripts,” Wittenburg said. “I read them andanalyzed them, and tried to look at them objectively, notnecessarily what appeals to me but what would appeal to a generalaudience.”
Wittenburg plans to become a professional screenwriter when hegraduates and said UT has prepared him well.
“The screenplays I read weren’t very good at all,” Wittenburgsaid. “I could easily point out flaws and discrepancies in thescripts. I could tell many were written by people not specificallyeducated in screenwriting.”
But LSU students who want to major in film are not so lucky, theUniversity currently does not offer a major in film and PatriciaSuchy, director of the audio-visual program, said the Universitywill not be having a film school anytime soon.
“A film school usually is a pre-professional program,” Suchysaid. “You are talking about a whole new college. I don’t see thathappening here.”
But Suchy said she feels a film program for undergraduatestudents might not be the best decision for students.
“An undergraduate film program in my opinion is not a goodidea,” Suchy said. “It winds up being vocational education. I am astrong believer in liberal arts curriculum and most film schoolsfeel the same way. Students need classes in English, history,philosophy and science to have something to make their filmsabout.”
Still, the University plans to offer students more filmcurricula this fall.
With a grant using the technology fee, Suchy has expanded theUniversity’s digital video production equipment and students cantake five classes using the equipment in expanded labs.
Two sections of the Communication Studies class Introduction toFilm, two sections of English Interpreting Discourse, andIntroduction to Audio-Visual Arts will integrate digital videoproduction into the required coursework.
Suchy said students in Baton Rouge do have opportunities to beinvolved in films.
Suchy said the Louisiana Film Commission Web site and the NewOrleans Video Access Center Web Site offer students listings ofupcoming productions looking for talent.