Good news for the film industry - UGA's Grady School of Journalism climbs to #2

[ATLTJL]

The bigger point is one that JPD made...

How does having a quality journalism school benefit the film industry? It's a completely different set of skills.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

The bigger point is one that JPD made...

How does having a quality journalism school benefit the film industry? It's a completely different set of skills.

There is some overlap and some differences. The school does a great deal of media management research, audience research, teaches communication law, and has one of the top broadcast news programs with a decent amount of equipment that leads to alot of students getting physically involved in production.

They are the home of the Peabody awards, while specifically not allowing feature films, are a well known award for most things in radio and television. A large part of our film industry is actually television production.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

There is some overlap and some differences. The school does a great deal of media management research, audience research, teaches communication law, and has one of the top broadcast news programs with a decent amount of equipment that leads to alot of students getting physically involved in production.

They are the home of the Peabody awards, while specifically not allowing feature films, are a well known award for most things in radio and television. A large part of our film industry is actually television production.

That logic sounds a bit tortured. The film industry is probably more interested in GSU's new project funded by the Woodruff grant than a good ranking of a school of journalism. Journalism doesn't fuel the film industry other than to fulfill a desire for more reporters for Variety. And I'm not convinced that journalism is a legit major to break into the industry. Chef's modus operrandi is to pore over UGA and Tech news releases in order to praise UGA and Tech to undermine GSU. Chef, spend that time reading science journals. Knowledge of UGA and Tech activities won't advance your academic career.

[ATLTJL]

I know a few people who broke into the film industry in LA.

There are multiple ways in. However, the most common way in does not seem to be going to a great film school or learning the necessary skills. Seems to me the usual route into the film industry is good old fashioned paying your dues...finding someone who can open that first door for you and then work long hours doing terrible work like hauling cable, clearing sets, and getting coffee. The industry seems to favor people who work their way up from the inside.

I have no problem with that, and it's my big beef with the film industry. Instead of brining low level PAs with them from LA, why not hire some hungry Georgians and give them the opportunity to learn the business from the inside? Even if you go to a fancy film school, nobody gets a job as a DP or director straight out of school, you have to do stupid assistant work first. And that's the door I want to see opened for people who live here. I don't care so much about schools and training programs, I want to see people who have the interest and drive given opportunities, the same way they are in LA.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

That logic sounds a bit tortured. The film industry is probably more interested in GSU's new project funded by the Woodruff grant than a good ranking of a school of journalism. Journalism doesn't fuel the film industry other than to fulfill a desire for more reporters for Variety. And I'm not convinced that journalism is a legit major to break into the industry. Chef's modus operrandi is to pore over UGA and Tech news releases in order to praise UGA and Tech to undermine GSU. Chef, spend that time reading science journals. Knowledge of UGA and Tech activities won't advance your academic career.

You can call those arguments tortured, but they are reality and you're not exactly offering much of any other arguments yourself.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I have no problem with that, and it's my big beef with the film industry. Instead of brining low level PAs with them from LA, why not hire some hungry Georgians and give them the opportunity to learn the business from the inside?

What makes you think that "low level PAs" are from LA, and that they aren't hiring Georgians? I obviously can't speak for every production, but in my so-far-limited experience, I've met a lot of Georgia-based PAs and even a few ADs. A lot of the LA PAs are also children of the upper-level types.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

You can call those arguments tortured, but they are reality and you're not exactly offering much of any other arguments yourself.

If they really cared about all that UGA offers, they'd be shooting more in Athens. Giving out awards is nice, but the radio hall of fame is in Chicago so they don't seem to be pulled to Georgia by the Peabody. Film and related industries are more interested in students that actually performed in theater and got some "real world" experience under their belts, not a ranked journalism degree. UGA's journalism program is not going to be a draw on Hollywood. Students with related internships, apprenticeships, and creative writing experience will move to the top of the resume stack over any UGA journalism grad. It's the ranking of the Grady school that is supposedly the good news for Hollywood.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

If they really cared about all that UGA offers, they'd be shooting more in Athens. Giving out awards is nice, but the radio hall of fame is in Chicago so they don't seem to be pulled to Georgia by the Peabody. Film and related industries are more interested in students that actually performed in theater and got some "real world" experience under their belts, not a ranked journalism degree. UGA's journalism program is not going to be a draw on Hollywood. Students with related internships, apprenticeships, and creative writing experience will move to the top of the resume stack over any UGA journalism grad. It's the ranking of the Grady school that is supposedly the good news for Hollywood.

You don't really have a clue what you are talking about. I know many people personally that graduated from that college and are working in various positions in the television and film industry.

Shooting location has very little to do with with the actual city the college is in. There are UGA graduates all over Atlanta, but the college is still in Athens. (c'mon mathman, at least use some basic reasoning with your arguments!) Graduates of the Grady College have ended up in media industry in many different places nationally and locally. With CNN, Turner Studios, Weather Channel, amongst other companies located here in Atlanta graduates have ended up in many different places.

The problem your opinion seems to suffer from is you are forgetting this is an actual industry. It isn't just writers, actors, and lighting grips. There are project managers, ad sales reps, legals consultants, managerial positions, etc... as well.

Of course even with that said... if you want to take script writing class, you do that in the telecommunication department in Grady College. The same department that is in charge of the Peabody Awards. You can attempt to be dismissive of this as you wish, but it is widely considered to be the most prestigious awards in electronic media, which are both sister industries of the movie business.

When Hollywood first came to Georgia one thing Atlanta got a decent amount of credit was there was actually a real tangible local labor pool to pull from. (Although the labor pool wasn't big enough for how much it has grown). That labor pool largely came from parts of the television industry that was headquartered here and was attracting talent from schools such as UGA.