• Make Room for Television • Animator from Down Under • Star Screenwriters Teach SCREENWRITING COORDINATOR JIM BURNSTEIN INTERVIEWS EMMY AWARD- WINNING WRITER DAVID POLLOCK AS PART OF TERRI SARRIS’ ADVANCED TELEVISION STUDIO PRODUCTION COURSE. Photo: the Michigan Daily, Kimitsu Yogachi FROM THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR when we graduated thirty-four concentra- riculum can better assist students in reflect- tors, and you have some sense of the ex- ing on and working in a technology that pansion of the Program. promises to radically alter our sense of the Film and Video has grown in other signifi- “visual” in the twenty-first century. We will cant ways: students from across the Uni- be working with the College over the next versity are enthusiastic participants in new year to discuss long-range plans, includ- courses and new programs, such as our new ing senior hiring and expanding our gradu- minor in Global Media Studies. Supported ate offerings. by the Gindin Visiting Artists series and Finally, Film and Video faculty and staff the Donald Hall Collection,our continue to display a remarkable sense of screenwriting courses are continuing to teamwork. That collegiality provides our excel in preparing students for professional students with an important role-model, and writing careers in the field. Along the way, it also makes our unit a truly collaborative Photo: LS&A, Bill Wood LS&A, Photo: many of them win Hopwoods, the community. I hope the vitality of that com- Newman prize for Dramatic Writing, the munity is reflected in the following pages. In this newsletter, our unofficial “annual re- Sweetland fellowship and the UTA prize With all good wishes, port” to all our friends, alums, and inter- (see page 5). The summer Festival of New Gaylyn Studlar, Director ested observers, we hope to give you a Works continues to break ground during Program in Film & Video Studies sense of what the faculty, staff, and students Spring Term with staging screenplays, in- of Film and Video Studies have been do- cluding some by our students. FACULTY UPDATE ing since our last newsletter. No doubt, like Our faculty has grown. Sadly, Professor Ira every unit in the College of LS&A, we are Gaylyn Studlar was named the Rudolf Arnheim Konigsberg retired, and we feel his absence busy. But merely being busy doesn’t always Collegiate Professor of Film Studies, making her keenly, but we have had the good fortune guarantee that students are getting a bet- one of eight faculty members in the College of LS&A to secure some extraordinarily talented ter education. I’m proud to say that the to be appointed to endowed or titled professor- new faculty members. Recent hires include Program in Film and Video Studies is busy ships in 2000. Her co-edited volume, JOHN FORD Kristen Whissel (American film history), in the right ways, in ways that positively MADE WESTERNS, was published by Indiana Uni- Bambi Haggins (Television Studies), and impact our students’ education. We have versity Press in March 2001. Recently, Professor Frances Gateward (diaspora cinemas, Asian more majors then ever, almost two hun- Studlar gave a public lecture sponsored by the cinema). dred as of Fall 2001. In 2000, ninety Film College of LS&A entitled “Marlene Dietrich and the and Video concentrators received Bachelor We have hired a production faculty in digi- Erotics of Holloywood Classicism” to a packed of Arts degrees. Compare this to 1997, tal media,Chris McNamara,so that our cur- house in the Michigan Union. Professor Ira Konigsberg Retires from Film & Video but not from Film Studies! Since his retirement, Professor Emeri- million dollars.Choosing carefully tus Ira Konigsberg has started a sec- and judiciously, he finds himself pres- ond career as a consultant and expert ently engaged in two similar projects. witness for infringement and copyright At the time of his retirement, he pub- cases in the film industry. He recently lished two essays, “Children Watch- consulted and testified for the plaintiff ing Movies,” in the Psychoanalytic in a case conserning the 1996 Arnold Review; and “The Art of Technology: Scwartzenegger film, Jingle All the Way, The Contours of Space in the Science which resulted in the jury deciding Fiction Film,” in Space and Beyond: The against 20th Century Fox for nineteen- Frontier Theme of Science Fiction, ed. Gary Westfahl. He has recently revised his essay, “Motion Pictures” for a new edition of Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of Professor Konigsberg’s retirement American Literature, which is soon to be party was held in the F/V Library. published. Professor Emeritus Ira Ira was presented a framed Bergman poster and an inscribed plaque. Konigsberg’s present writing project is a book on important infringement and copyright cases in American Film history. Nancy & Ira Konigsberg Television Studies, Production, and Writing find new life in FILM & VIDEO STUDIES Make Room for Television Television is the most powerful communi- immersed in the genre by being required cations medium in the world and the study to write, direct, produce and theorize about of that medium is rapidly becoming an in- situation comedy. To further their under- tegral part of the Program in Film and standing of the process, Sarris and Haggins Video. Under the guidance of Terri Sarris received a grant to spend a week in Los and Elaine Loeser, television production Angeles, observing the production process David Pollock, visiting guest writer of TV’s Frasier, M*A*S*H, and writing, respectively, have become of a current situational comedy from table The Carol Burnett Show and many others, plus films like Bad Boys and Toy Story 2, directs our television writers in writing well-established segments of the Film & read to taping. ”Being asked to actively in- the half hour comedy format. Mr. Pollock’s extensive profes- Video curriculum. Since the fall of 2000, terrogate the sociocultural issues in sional history in television writing gives the Film & Video when the program welcomed its first per- television studies discourse during the cre- writers a real world perspective. manent television scholar, Bambi Haggins, ative process will pose a significant television studies is experiencing a renais- challenge to the students,“ asserted sance. Haggins. ”However, it is the kind of chal- “The advantage and the challenge of tele- lenge that will undoubtedly impact the vision studies come from the fact that kind of media makers they become.“ studies bring a wealth of knowledge about Writing for Television is in its third year. the medium into class with them-after all, In this course, the students learn how to with very little effort on their parts. They write an original hour length Drama within have been able to watch television for most a highly structured framework. In televi- of their lives,” stated Haggins. “Therefore, sion many writers work on existing shows; one of the goals in a television studies the characters, milieu, location and story course is to help students think about how arc are already in place. The student writ- they watch television and think about TV ers are required to write spec scripts. To shows as texts – and as cultural artifacts, if do this, the student must know the show: John Rich, Producer of All in the Family and LS&A alumnus, you will – that reflect and refract Ameri- know the storytelling structure of an ex- spoke to Ms. Haggins Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary can popular culture and society at large. In isting show, know the kinds of stories that American Television class in March 2001. other words, we want them to ‘read’ tele- show tells, the voices of its characters, how vision or, more aptly, to become aware of to pitch the show, and ultimately, to write the reading processes in which they are al- a script so that it is an exact match for the ready engaged.” show. They strive to find stories that come Haggins hopes to expand television stud- from life, not from other television and ies beyond the current offerings of film. The course works the professional American Television History and Race and way— from an idea to a pitch to an out- Ethnicity in Contemporary American Tele- line to a fully imagined beatsheet, and only vision. Currently, she and Terri Sarris are then to a script. developing an integrated studies/writing/ production course for the winter of 2002. Students in the intensive seminar will be Viewing stations increased in DHC 2 number from four to ten. n: ctio tru ue! ns Iss Co xt er Ne Und in Donald Hall Collection Expansion: ails Det the Film & Video Library takes on second space. 1 PRODUCTION AT MICHIGAN University of Michigan expands Film and TV Production offerings editing. The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts have full time TV engineer- ing, staging and lighting staff that keep the studios functioning in top shape. The TV studio classes have been host to prominent television writers and directors John Rich, David Pollock, and the late Alan Rafkin. American Gangster, directed by Dikran Ornekian & Christopher Cousino; Produced by Rylend J. Grant American Gangster Director of Photography: Andrew Short, Sound designer: Richard Kryszko, and 1st Assistant Camera Laurie Chakel Term End Screenings At the end of each school term the Pro- The Film and Video Program provides stu- gram in Film and Video Studies hosts a se- dents a well-integrated curriculum of the ries of public screenings of the work history, theory, and practice of moving produced in the advanced production images. The University of Michigan’s Film classes. The work, which ranges from 16 and Video production classes put film stud- mm narrative films to experimental videos ies into practice, with hands-on courses to computer animation, is presented in an from beginning to advanced levels in the auditorium with state of the art projection areas of 16mm film, single camera digital equipment.