VCU news

By Tom Gresham

A man walks with halting steps, kicking at the rubble at his feet. A torn overcoat hangs over his slumped body and strands of gray hair poke haphazardly from his head. He looks around with wide, disbelieving eyes at his abused surroundings, a trash-strewn courtyard that shows evidence of a past fire – ashes on the ground, burn marks on the walls. The man seems ready to crumble to the cement mid-stride.

Then, somewhere nearby, a voice shouts, “Cut,” and James “Ike” Eichling, a Charlottesville-based actor with years of film and TV credits, stops walking. He allows a brief grin to lighten his face, and five people appear around him, some attending to the camera that has been tracking Eichling’s heavy steps and others approaching him to discuss the emotions he has just displayed. He pulls off the coat, a nuisance on a near 100-degree day.

Eichling is the lead actor in “Gutted,” one of eight student-made films shot this summer in the 3-year-old Cinema Program in VCU’s School of the Arts. The summer intensive sequence is a central aspect of the cinema curriculum. Students earn 15 credits for the eight-week session, which is occupied with long hours of film production at locations throughout Richmond and beyond. Students work on films during the school year, too, but the summer period brings the lessons of the fall and spring semesters into sharp focus, allowing students to act on the theories and technical skills that they have learned with the kind of singleness of purpose difficult to find in the crowded academic year.

The Cinema Program will present the best of the summer films on Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St. “First Cut” will be a juried program with films selected by judges that include Jonathan Rosenbaum, the renowned film critic and past selection committee member for the New York Film Festival who is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Art History at VCU; Peter Kirkpatrick, founder and longtime programmer of the VCU French Film Festival and professor of French at VCU; and Rita McClenney, vice president of industry relations and film in the Virginia Film Office. Judges also will determine award-winners among the films in six categories. The rest of the student films will be screened on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater. Both events are free and open to the public.

Although the Cinema Program is young at VCU, it already is producing some exemplary work and fast becoming one of the notable cinema programs on the East Coast. Among the class of 2010 – the program’s first graduating class – Nate King won the Virginia Screenwriting Competition, Andrea Murphy won an award at the Female Shorts: Film & Video Showcase and Steven Vagias won Best in Show and Best Narrative awards at the Virginia Student Film Festival. Other new graduates are already involved in productions of commercials and other film work.

The Cinema Program approaches filmmaking as both an art form and a commercial process, instructing students on the storytelling techniques of creating a good film while providing practical training into the nuts and bolts of actually getting it made. The point is to prepare students for entrance into the world of filmmaking.

“We’re teaching them that it is not a contradiction to be an artist and also to operate in a professional manner,” said Rob Tregenza, director of the Cinema Program. “In fact, we’re teaching them that’s a requirement in the arts, especially in the performing arts.”

Eichling will appear isolated on camera in “Gutted,” a film about a distraught man at the end of his rope, but as he walked through the courtyard dozens of eyes followed his every movement and change in expression. VCU student film sets resemble professional ones and operate under union rules. Students handle every off-camera job on a film – writing the script, handling the producer and director responsibilities, managing sets and costumes, applying makeup, operating and maintaining the complex equipment, scouting and choosing locations, editing the films, even providing on-set food services.

The Cinema Program keeps enrollment down, admitting only about 20 students per class, which allows every student to have a major job on multiple productions and gain the experience they need.

Tregenza said most students come to the program hoping to become directors without understanding the full scope of the mechanics of film production. They then begin to work on several films in a variety of capacities, learning to view the making of a film from all angles.

“Our belief is that the more they know about the whole gamut of jobs then the better they will be be as directors and the better chance they will have to work in one of the many other roles on a film set,” Tregenza said. “There are a lot of fulfilling opportunities in cinema other than just being the director.”

The best students see opportunity in the myriad productions, volunteering to help on classmates’ projects for the additional experience and putting the work over individual ambitions.

“The shoots help us understand how to work together as a group and the importance of a collaborative effort in filmmaking,” said Laina Kaffenberger, a cinema student and the director of “Idiolects,” a short film shot this summer. “It’s not about just working on your own and doing your own thing. It doesn’t work that way.”

Kirk Kjeldsen, an assistant professor, said students learn to embrace their roles, whatever they might be. The set designer on “Gutted,” for instance, worked with a local grocer to find 150 dead fish for a scene (Eichling plays a fishmonger) – the kind of telling detail that can be critical to building the atmosphere of a film.

“They can attack every aspect of this,” Kjeldsen said.

Between takes of “Gutted,” Eichling drifted toward a tent that had been raised on the set. Inside, the film’s camera operator sat over the controls of a Power Pod, a large remotely controlled camera mounted on a crane. During the filming of the scene, the camera operator had moved the camera with a system of wheels, tilting and panning the camera without breaking a sweat, watching the results on a screen. The camera dropped in above Eichling, swung in close to his face and then backed away again, lifting ultimately to shoot the sky above him.

Charlie Harris, a local key grip in the film industry who is a frequent visiting instructor at VCU, owns the Power Pod and brought it to the set. Eichling was impressed to see such an advanced piece of technology on hand for a student film.

“That is a really big deal,” he said.

VCU cinema students routinely have access to top-flight equipment. In fact, the use of 35 millimeter film in workshops and in two of the student films each year is a point of emphasis in the program. The opportunity for student filmmakers to work with 35 MM film – the format most often used in major motion pictures – has become increasingly rare in undergraduate programs with the rise of less expensive, more accessible digital filmmaking cameras.

Tregenza said the emergence of digital technology has been a boost for neophyte filmmakers, providing them with an opportunity to shoot exhaustively without cost concerns, but he said shooting digital can also lead to bad habits, including a failure to plan and consider every shot before arriving on set. The care required in 35 MM leads to better ideas, Tregenza said. In addition, he said, 35 MM has been the benchmark of quality in filmmaking “for over 100 years.”

Cinema student Michael Bryant, who directed last year’s 35 MM production, “The Persistence of Everything,” said he feels fortunate to have worked in that format, especially having researched other college programs and their resources.

“It’s amazing that we get this chance in an undergraduate program,” he said. “It gives us a big advantage.”

When VCU launched the Cinema Program three years ago, Tregenza, a well-regarded cinematographer and director, was the only full-time instructor. He’s since been joined by Kjeldsen, a writer, and Mary Beth Reed, a writer/director. In addition, visiting instructors such as Harris, cinematographer Art Eng, sound engineeer Billy Britt, director of photography Andrew Giannetta, writer Megan Holley and the French director Claude Miller offer their insight, often on the set of the student films or in workshops. Holley, who wrote the film, “Sunshine Cleaning,” even employed several former and current VCU cinema students on a recent Richmond shoot of a short film she is making, giving them valuable work experience.

“Our faculty are well-rounded artists and professionals,” Tregenza said. “And the adjuncts that we use are working professionals with experience in Los Angeles and all over the East Coast. There is a high level of instructional quality here now.”

The Cinema Program requires its students to pursue a second major to ensure that they have a diverse, full college education. It puts pressure on their time-management skills. Still, Bryant said, working late nights and weekends on film projects “doesn’t bother people. Everyone is excited all the time about what they’re working on.”

Kaffenberger agreed, saying the program has been a challenge worth taking.

“It is time-consuming and difficult but I love every minute of it,” she said.