Friday, January 19, 2001

UCLA Joins British and Australian Institutions to Create an Online Film School By DAN CARNEVALE The University of California at Los Angeles announced a partnership Thursday with British and Australian institutions to develop an online film program that will be offered all over the world. The new program is called the Global Film School, and will be a for-profit institution. The Australian Film, Television, and Radio School and the National Film and Television School of Great Britain will work with the U.C.L.A. School of Theater, Film, and Television to create the new program. Its first courses are expected to be available online in six months. This week, the University of California Board of Regents gave U.C.L.A. final approval to participate in the project. University officials said the project is unique in providing actual film training online, rather than the theoretical courses offered by other online programs. Courses will offer training to beginners as well as professionals, said Robert Rosen, dean of the U.C.L.A. film school. The worldwide demand is huge, Mr. Rosen said, adding that since November, 90,000 people have expressed interest in taking courses. "Virtually everyone wants to have the ability to make moving-image works, for an array of reasons," he said. Stephen Bayly, director of the National Film and Television School of Great Britain, said that with more films and animation being produced for the Internet, demand for film producers is growing. "The entertainment industry itself is becoming increasingly global," Mr. Bayly said. "It's the Internet, really, that is driving us to create this." In many countries, people who want to take film courses have no access to them, Mr. Bayly said, adding that the new program will let them take courses online. "It's a global marketplace," he said. The courses will use a mix of high- and low-tech approaches. For some, students will mail in videocassettes. For others, students will create and send films digitally. The new institution will consist of four sections, or zones. The first zone will offer media-literacy courses at no charge and will concentrate on elementary- and secondary-school students. The courses will instruct children in the use of film equipment and in understanding the basics of media. The second zone, for "open learners," will offer courses similar to existing extension courses. These low-cost courses will require no previous qualifications and offer no certification. The third zone, for aspiring filmmakers, will offer courses ranging from the general to the specialized. The fourth zone, for professionals, will cover high-level training for registered professional filmmakers. Getting the program started will cost $25-million to $30-million -- paid for by private investors. The three institutions will combine their efforts to run the new school, with an international coordinator at U.C.L.A. acting as a liaison. Each institution will assess the quality of the program's content, and will have veto power over anything it doesn't approve of. "We're going to create an enormous talent base for which there's an increasing demand," Mr. Bayly said. "New filmmakers and new storytellers are needed all the time." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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