(Steven Spielberg, Dean Elizabeth M. Daley, USC President Steven B. Sample, and George Lucas at the dedication of new USC School of Cinematic Arts.)Part One of our tour of the new USC School of Cinematic Arts!
By Terry Keefe & Alex Simon, Photography and Videography by Gregory Weinkauf.
Back at the turn of the 90s, when we attended what was then known as the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, we always considered our institution the best film school in the world and it was an easy argument to make. Buildings and production facilities with the names of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Johnny Carson, Harold Lloyd, and Marcia Lucas formed the centerpiece of the physical campus, and when these were dedicated back in 1983, it made international news. A somewhat forgotten fact of university cinema studies is that majoring in film wasn’t always considered to be a legitimate pursuit by many, but suddenly, the most state-of-the-art section of the USC Campus was its film program, a department which had previously shared space with the Trojan Band in a space known as “the stables.” It was a great school, no doubt, but in fairness, there were other strong contenders for the title of best in the world at the time, including NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the venerable American Film Institute, on the graduate level. But after recently attending the dedication of the new campus of what is now known as the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA), it was obvious that it will truly be difficult for any other school to compete with USC in the near future, at least facility-wise, because the new buildings which were unveiled to us were futuristic and a little mind-blowing. And there are still several more under construction.
(A majestic statue of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. stands in the center of the new SCA.)
Prior to the dedication, the press were given guided tours of the newly completed Steven Spielberg and George Lucas Buildings, which face each other and form the walls of a spacious courtyard, designed as a place for students to gather. In the middle of the courtyard is a dynamic and gorgeous statue of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., a founder of the original film program at USC, which now gives film students their own version of Tommy Trojan, the famed warrior statue in the middle of the main USC campus. The Spielberg and Lucas buildings are each four stories tall, in addition to an underground level which houses post-production facilities. The two buildings contain within them a combined 137,000 square feet of educational, production, and administrative space. To break that down into detail some more, there are 10 classrooms, 19 conference rooms, 8 screening rooms, 6 editorial labs, 3 mixing rooms, 9 sound editorial rooms, and 3 picture editorial rooms. The spacious lobbies with high ceilings of both buildings are designed to be natural exhibition spaces, as well as ideal locations for receptions. And there is even a Coffee Bean in the lobby space, where George Lucas and Steven Spielberg themselves had the inaugural coffee at the dedication. The halls of the buildings are lined with magnificent film posters from the private collection of George Lucas, including classics such as Fort Apache, which starred fellow USC alum John Wayne, as well as more modern classics such as Ed Wood, scripted by USC alums Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, who were also in attendance.
(Below, the George Lucas Building and the Steven Spielberg Building.)
The estimated time for completion of the other buildings in the new complex is August of 2010 and these will include four enormous sound stages. Also ready for its debut shortly will be the Animation & Digital Arts Building, as well as another structure which will be the headquarters for the school’s Production Services Building.
More to come in PART 2, including more pictures of the campus and video of the dedication speeches!
By Terry Keefe & Alex Simon, Photography and Videography by Gregory Weinkauf.
Back at the turn of the 90s, when we attended what was then known as the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, we always considered our institution the best film school in the world and it was an easy argument to make. Buildings and production facilities with the names of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Johnny Carson, Harold Lloyd, and Marcia Lucas formed the centerpiece of the physical campus, and when these were dedicated back in 1983, it made international news. A somewhat forgotten fact of university cinema studies is that majoring in film wasn’t always considered to be a legitimate pursuit by many, but suddenly, the most state-of-the-art section of the USC Campus was its film program, a department which had previously shared space with the Trojan Band in a space known as “the stables.” It was a great school, no doubt, but in fairness, there were other strong contenders for the title of best in the world at the time, including NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the venerable American Film Institute, on the graduate level. But after recently attending the dedication of the new campus of what is now known as the USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA), it was obvious that it will truly be difficult for any other school to compete with USC in the near future, at least facility-wise, because the new buildings which were unveiled to us were futuristic and a little mind-blowing. And there are still several more under construction.
(A majestic statue of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. stands in the center of the new SCA.)Prior to the dedication, the press were given guided tours of the newly completed Steven Spielberg and George Lucas Buildings, which face each other and form the walls of a spacious courtyard, designed as a place for students to gather. In the middle of the courtyard is a dynamic and gorgeous statue of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., a founder of the original film program at USC, which now gives film students their own version of Tommy Trojan, the famed warrior statue in the middle of the main USC campus. The Spielberg and Lucas buildings are each four stories tall, in addition to an underground level which houses post-production facilities. The two buildings contain within them a combined 137,000 square feet of educational, production, and administrative space. To break that down into detail some more, there are 10 classrooms, 19 conference rooms, 8 screening rooms, 6 editorial labs, 3 mixing rooms, 9 sound editorial rooms, and 3 picture editorial rooms. The spacious lobbies with high ceilings of both buildings are designed to be natural exhibition spaces, as well as ideal locations for receptions. And there is even a Coffee Bean in the lobby space, where George Lucas and Steven Spielberg themselves had the inaugural coffee at the dedication. The halls of the buildings are lined with magnificent film posters from the private collection of George Lucas, including classics such as Fort Apache, which starred fellow USC alum John Wayne, as well as more modern classics such as Ed Wood, scripted by USC alums Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, who were also in attendance.
(Below, the George Lucas Building and the Steven Spielberg Building.)
The estimated time for completion of the other buildings in the new complex is August of 2010 and these will include four enormous sound stages. Also ready for its debut shortly will be the Animation & Digital Arts Building, as well as another structure which will be the headquarters for the school’s Production Services Building.
More to come in PART 2, including more pictures of the campus and video of the dedication speeches!
Great destination to be at.Since the advent of the moving picture, Hollywood has surely had a fascination with movies and movie stars.
ReplyDelete