Zack Scott’s words were final and precise: “That’s a wrap!”
Cheers and shouts rang out from the Flagstaff film crew, exuberant and ready to celebrate the end of production of Scott’s short film, shot last month mostly on the campus of Northern Arizona University, his second production since he graduated from Sedona Film School (SFS) last year.
And it’s a wrap for SFS as the school ends 14 years of cultivating aspiring filmmakers like Scott who came to Arizona from around the country to attend, many of whom have advanced to successful filmmaking and production careers.
While it appears bright for SFS graduates, the future is uncertain for SFS. It will close its doors late this month so its economic potential and viability can be evaluated. And its close will effectively end the partnership SFS had with NAU’s School of Communications, which offered its Electronic Media and Film students a Minor in Independent Filmmaking with credits earned while attending SFS for one semester.
Known as an intensive, hands-on institution, SFS was a nine-month accredited certificate program offered through the Yavapai College Sedona campus that provided students a chance to learn the art of filmmaking through workshops and lectures from industry experts and applied learning through cutting-edge technology.
Scott is among 233 who graduated from the film school since it opened in 2000 and one of many in Flagstaff and the Verde Valley who lament SFS closing its doors. “It’s such a unique program and to see it disappear is a shame.”
NAU Professor Paul Helford said a fair number of students attended SFS and its popularity and potential was gaining momentum at NAU. “It’s really a shame,” Helford said of the school’s close. “It gave students an opportunity they wouldn’t have had otherwise with the intensity of a semester in which every class is devoted to producing a film. It’s that intensive instruction that makes it so valuable and successful.”
SFS had recently expanded its relationship with the Sedona International Film Festival, offering technical workshops to students as part of its 2013 festival. Its partnerships with the SIFF and NAU increased the windows of opportunity for SFS students who sometimes transferred to the university to earn a bachelor’s degree after their academic year in Sedona.
The main component of SFS was the requirement for students to write and direct a short film they could use as an access key to the professional world.
It is what former student and 2002 graduate Jeremy Hawkes submitted to NBC, his short film from SFS earning him a job producing commercials for the television network. He attributes his experience at SFS as the catalyst to the success he achieved as a Los Angeles producer. “I never picked up a camera in my whole life before I went to the film school,” said Hawkes, who returned to Sedona to teach at the school in 2003.
The closing of Yavapai College’s SFS will be a job loss for Hawkes, who headed the school’s Narrative program, as well as for Bryan Reinhart, who first joined the school’s faculty when it opened in 2000 and led its Documentary program.
Reinhart worked on movies in Los Angeles and Arizona after he graduated from Chicago’s Columbia College Film School. When he realized he wanted to focus purely on documentary filmmaking, he moved to Sedona and joined forces with Yavapai College in its Digital Media Arts department.
It was about this time when the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking, now SFS, was established. It was born from screenwriter Dan Gordon, whose son Zaki, an independent filmmaker, died at the age of 22. The school’s name changed to SFS about two years ago when Gordon ended his affiliation there.
The impetus for the school was to create an environment where students could learn script-to-screen production at an affordable price and allow them the financial freedom to continue their professional filmmaking career.
SFS tuition for the nine-month program was $5,200 for in-state and $13,000 for out-of-state students – a value compared to many film schools around the country, which can reach upward of $50,000 or more, Reinhart said.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished over the years,” he said. “We’ve taken this little school and had students come in from all over the world and go on to major achievements. We had two that were on the short list for the Student Academy Awards,” affiliated with Hollywood’s acclaimed Academy Awards, “and others earn prestigious medals and awards for their work.”
One film creating a lot of buzz is by SFS graduate M.L. Lincoln, who expanded her thesis project into a full-length documentary called “Wrenched,” screening in theaters across the country. “The work is probably some of the best to come from our students,” Reinhart said of her directorial debut.
In turn, Lincoln lauds the school as “an amazing resource with an amazing group of people.”
For her feature film about controversial environmental issues, Lincoln interviewed Robert Redford and worked with Academy Award winning producers and Hollywood insiders. It will be screened at the SFS Student Shorts Film Festival, the culminating showcase of thesis films for SFS graduates like Scott whose recent production “The Man to Call” also will screen. The festival is May 23, 24 and 25 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Sedona.
Many SFS graduates have made significant contributions near and far, raising social awareness through film and spotlighting Sedona and the surrounding cities as a viable arena for film production.
Former students Dot Reidelbach and Laurie Allen were featured on Larry King Live and Oprah for their documentary “Banking on Heaven,” about polygamous leader Warren Jeffs; SFS graduate Katja Torneman’s film “Anna, Emma and the Condors,” about a family’s fight to save California Condors, won the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children’s Video; and graduate Jamie Taucher’s “Sea of Change” was an Official Selection of the 2008 Global Peace Film Festival.
Along with NAU’s support, allowing students to use its campus for filmmaking, Reinhart said students collaborated with the local community to film in places like Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde and Sedona Heritage Museum, among other locales in the Verde Valley and Flagstaff.
Wildlife park public relations director Ashton Powell said the students’ presence will be missed. “It was a great experience to have them here and it brings awareness to Sedona and highlights our community,” she said. “It’s too bad we’ll be telling students, ‘Don’t come here, go somewhere else, like L.A. or Canada for film school, we don’t offer this anymore.’” FBN
By Josette Kubin
Flagstaff Business News