President's Blog

Photo Credit: Cole Smothers

On Saturday, March 27^th Director and Film student Gregory Zobel with the support of Director of Photography and Visual Journalism student Hannah Singleton, film editors and students Hayden Johnson and Chris Okula, as well as a group of student and faculty volunteers worked together to film approximately five one hour episodes of the cable access show currently titled, “Brooks Institute Spotlight.”

Among the lineup of student and alumni films profiled for the first five episodes were:

“Une Vie Mervielleuse” by Sean Broadbent

“Revelar Los Enlaces: A Brooks Institute Student Documentary of Chile” represented by Jeff Johns, Amanda Reyes and Marina Dominguez

“Morton” by Johnny Bishop

“Jessica” by Brent Rumble

“Valhalla” by Jacob Strunk

“Cabbie” by Glynn Beard & Steve Gelder

“Broken” by Doug Conant

“Heard” by Mia Shimabuku

“D. On Darox and Linda the Fox” by Melina Pizano and Simara Sousa

“Pique” by Hayden Johnson

“Spare Me!” by Chris Okula and Gregory Zobel

With the pilot episode expected to be complete this week, School of Film Program Director Glynn Beard will present it to Community Access Partners of San Buenaventura (CAPS) to receive a time slot on cable access. The group expects to deliver an hour of programming per week after the pilot premieres.

Filming for the next series of episodes is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 24^th at Brooks Institute’s Ventura campus and will feature more Brooks Institute student and alumni films.

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"Rodeo" Image by Emma Fernelius

Brooks Institute presents the grand opening of “Revelar los Enlaces,” a student-developed documentary of Chile. The documentary, which chronicles the country’s people, life and culture, will premier as a multi-media presentation April 8, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Granada Theater in Santa Barbara. Immediately following the premier, an exhibit and artists’ reception displaying the students’ documentary prints will be held at Brooks Institute’s Gallery 27.

As the premier date approached, the Feb. 27, 2010 earthquake in Chile became a focal point for the documentary group. With relief efforts underway, the students at Brooks Institute teamed up with Direct Relief International, a California-based, non-profit organization that provides financial and medical support to those in need. All proceeds resulting in the sale of the book and DVD will be donated to help the people of Chile. The students also will be collecting donations and conducting print auctions at the three gallery opening events.

“Chile now has a home in my heart,” said visual journalism student and documentary co-producer Jeff Johns.  “I realized we have an unbelievable opportunity to use these products we created to gain attention, awareness and relief for the victims of this horrible earthquake. By turning our opening events into fund raising opportunities, we have high hopes of raising funds to immediately impact those in desperate need.”

Each year, the visual journalism program of Brooks Institute offers an international documentary trip for interested Visual Journalism, Professional Photography, Graphic Design and Film students. The class, which is staged in a different international location each year, is limited to the strongest applicants. In November and December 2009, the 16 selected students and instructor spent seven weeks in Chile. Upon their return, the students created projects to showcase their experiences from this documented trip, including a multimedia presentation, a print exhibition, Web site, book and a DVD.

Following this grand opening event on April 8 will be a special screening and multimedia presentation at Brooks Institute’s Ventura Campus Saturday, April 10 from 6 – 10 p.m.  A screening and print show will also be held at the Marriott Ventura Beach Thursday, April 15, from 5 – 7:30 p.m. Each event will be unique as the students bring their Chilean experience to Southern California.

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Go behind the scenes of film production with Brooks Institute students David Graves, Matthew Bobbitt, Robert Woodward, Robert Deltour, and Andrew Hreha. See Huxley Park behind the scenes Episode one: The Beginning.

Visit Huxley Park.com each Wednesday for a new ”behind the scenes” episode and follow the production from beginning to release!

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Photo Credit: Nina Gomez

Recently the Commercial class in our School of Film pitched the idea to me to make a short film explaining Brooks Institute’s Red Dot Policy. This policy was developed a very long time ago at Brooks to ensure that all students use our industry-current equipment and modern up-to-date facilities in a professional, safe, respectful and dependable manner.

Best of all, the students asked me to “star” in this video!

How could I turn down an opportunity to launch my big-screen career – especially after reviewing the script?

This film will be featured during our orientations to help students better understand the Red Dot Policy. No doubt the film will receive some laughs (whether intended or not!) while communicating to our new students key aspects of the policies and procedures used to check out equipment and reserve facilities.

Special thanks to the great film crew (below). They were well organized, professional and, best of all, fun to work with!

From Left to Right: Producer, Taylor Erickson; Director of Photography, Danielle Sandoval; Brooks Institute President, Dr. Roger Andersen; Sound Specialist/Actor, Eric Guerrero; and Director, Jared Alden (Not pictured: Editor, Dan Simmons) Photo Credit: Nina Gomez

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