96.5 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

FILM—And the Winner Is …

William Toutant Title: Dean, CSUN College of Arts, Media, and Communication Age: 52 Education: B.A. and M.A. in music history and musicology, George Washington University, and Ph.D. in music theory and composition, Michigan State University Most Admired Person: My wife Career turning point: Taking my first administrative position here as acting chairman of the art/three-dimensional media department Personal: Married, no children csun dean william toutant leads a film program recognized as the best in southern california The last couple of weeks have been busy for William Toutant, dean of the Cal State Northridge College of Arts, Media, and Communication. The May 18 dedication of Manzanita Hall, the 65,000-square-foot facility that will house the cinema arts department’s production and sound studios, had been in the works for months. What was not expected was the announcement a few days before that the college had received the IndiGo Award for Excellence from the Association of Independent Feature Film Producers. The award is given to what the organization has deemed is the best film-training program in Southern California. In winning the award, CSUN beat out USC, UCLA and the American Film Institute worthy opponents by any stretch of the imagination. But, according to Barry Collin, president of the independent film producers association, “Analyzing the programs taught, faculty projects, job placement and balance of focus on academics and practical training, it became clear that one academic institution best filled the criteria.” Consequently, Toutant who started his career as a composer and music professor before becoming a college administrator and his staff have something to brag about. Question: According to a CSUN-commissioned survey, 76 percent of your film graduates are working in the entertainment industry. What does the industry see in your graduates that it might not see in those from some other schools? Answer: There are two kinds of applicants who apply for jobs. Those who get it and those who don’t. To get it means understanding techniques, working as part of a team and being concerned about the quality of the final product rather than your role in producing it. We make them work as a team. It is nurturing, we do help, but we give them a taste of what it’s going to be like when they get out of here. Q: In a business that is founded on the old clich & #233;, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” it’s really that easy? A: One of the things our students absolutely do know is that they have to network. We try to provide opportunities for them to be able to. One of our teachers teaches a class on the lot at the CBS Studio Center. (CBS Studio Center president) Michael Klausman is a CSUN alum. He was with a class there one day and, when he brought them back to the classroom, he said, “If any of you are graduating, give your resume to your professor and I’ll look them over and see if we can use you.” You can’t buy something like that. Q: What do students preparing for careers in the entertainment industry learn here? A: They’re going to learn more than just how to make every camera shot work. We tell our students: learn what you want to say in a film. Thousands and thousands of filmmakers can make a technically competent film, but how many of them have something to say? We’re not telling our students to take a very narrow focus, we’re telling them to study issues, study cultural issues, make a statement with your films. Q: How do you manage to beat competition like the film programs at USC, UCLA and the American Film Institute? A: I’ve known the quality of what we do for some time, but I don’t really consider us competition because they’re graduate programs, we’re undergraduate. We received that award for being very well rounded. Nevertheless, in an industry that is difficult to get into and hard to stay in, it’s very encouraging. Q: Still, you must be doing something right. What is it? A: We started thinking about how to make this all work together. The department of radio, television and film they’ll probably want me to call it cinema arts shares this same building with the department of theater; it always has. It wasn’t really until we became one college that we started thinking, doesn’t it make sense to offer a course in acting for the camera? And offer it at the same time that radio, television and film offers its directing course? And it’s because of the broad base we give our students. We’re an undergraduate program, yet by the time students finish their undergraduate degree, they’ll get something in the can. Our students start working with film very early in their careers. They use 16-millimeter in their sophomore year. Q: What has it been like to win this award? A: This has been a dean’s dream come true. It’s been hectic, but it’s a good hectic. Q: Is entry into the CSUN film program as competitive as it is for the other schools in the Los Angeles area? A: We have 750 majors in the radio-television-film department. We’re doing it all with undergraduates. That means a student can come out of high school, want to be a filmmaker and get into our program. I’m very proud of that. That doesn’t mean that every student who wants to can get in. You have to meet criteria. And you have to pass a series of courses that are very rigorous. But we are willing to take students in and prepare them for our program. Q: What kind of salaries can graduates taking entry-level jobs expect? A: Take traffic management, for instance. That’s not the glamorous part of the industry, but it’s where the jobs are. Our media management salaries start in the $30s. These are the people who make sure the budgets make sense, make sure that what goes on at 8:03 is not what’s supposed to go on at 8:06, that there is not a 10-second blank screen on your television. Q: At the moment, the cinema arts program at CSUN is going through some heady times. Besides this award, the department is moving into a new $18 million facility. Is this all part of some long-range plan? A: It was, but it was well into the future. In many ways, the (Northridge) earthquake was a blessing in disguise. I’m very proud of everything this program has produced, especially since the earthquake. You know, we have students who have spent their entire college careers in trailers. I think as we move into this facility, and as proud as I am of getting this award, we’re going to do much better in the future. Q: What kind of challenge does advancing technology pose for you? A: It’s very difficult to keep up. We’ve got a little bit of an advantage now because we have to equip a new building. It’s an opportunity to deal with the latest equipment. We need to teach students the theoretical concepts and the techniques involved rather than how to use a particular piece of equipment. The equipment is going to change almost as soon as you master it. We need to train students who can master each new piece of equipment and each piece of software as it comes along. We want them to deal with this piece of equipment and the one that comes after that, and the one that comes after that. Q: As an academic administrator, how do you adjust to changes in the industry quick enough to continue supplying it with talent? A: I have to be sure I have good people, a good staff, who can say this is how the industry’s changing. I have six academic departments, I can’t be an expert in all of them all at once. Q: Southern California universities are often criticized for being too close to the entertainment industry and neglecting the role of critical observer academe has traditionally taken on. What do you think of that? A: That’s not true at this institution. We did a program on African American filmmakers recently. It was a rigorous, critical look at the difficulties that African Americans have had. Several important people in the industry were here to talk about what it’s been like, and they didn’t gild the lily. I think you have to be constructively critical of any industry you prepare students for or else you don’t improve the industry. You won’t find our faculty saying everything produced is fine. There are none of us who can’t stand some criticism. Q: What should a student know by the time they graduate from CSUN’s film program? A: I want to make sure students are well educated, well prepared and are good thinkers, good citizens, ready to make a contribution to their community and the industry they work in. A great filmmaker who has nothing to say really isn’t worth much. I want our filmmakers to say, “I’ve got a great film I want to make.” Q: Why do you continue to do what you do? A: There are certain rewards to being an administrator. There are times when you go home at night and realize you made something happen for students that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

Featured Articles

Related Articles