The short list

Imagine the chance to speak with Francis Ford Coppola, one of
the godfathers of filmmaking, about his directorial choices.
Imagine sitting in a small room with Baz Luhrmann as he reveals
what it was like to work with Nicole Kidman, or with Jason
Alexander as he discusses what he went through to create the
character of George on “Seinfeld.”

Opportunities like this are often just that ““ products of
the imagination.

But for students in the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television
and Digital Media, programs called Master Classes often bring the
chance to get more than just a little face time with some of the
industry’s most talented artists. The classes, which are
intended to be interactive workshops with famous directors,
editors, designers and actors, have been growing in frequency since
the creation of the UCLA Master Class series almost seven years
ago.

And although the Master Classes bring unparalleled opportunities
to Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media students, at least
for now, they won’t be publicized much to the rest of
campus.

“It’s a teaching experience. It’s not
entertainment; it’s more that the students really learn
something,” said Dagmar Spira, manager of special events and
alumni relations for the School of Theater, Film, Television and
Digital Media and coordinator of the Master Class series in the
film department. “When we had Francis Ford Coppola, I’m
sure that we could have filled easily the Freud (Playhouse), but he
didn’t want that. He wanted to talk to our students, because
they’re film students and they know about film. We want an
in-depth learning experience.”

Spira contrasts the Melnitz movies series, which often has
Q&A sessions with industry talent, to the Master Classes, which
are intended to be more focused.

“We want to avoid big Q&As ““ (that) usually is
“˜What is your favorite model?’ kind of stuff,”
Spira said. “It’s really more a presentation by the
director or the person we invite, so that the students really learn
about the craft. That’s one reason that usually we do not
invite the public to these classes.”

Joining such big names as Coppola, Anthony Hopkins, Steven
Schwartz and Alexander Payne (who have all taught Master Classes in
the past) is Dante Ferretti. Ferretti, a prestigious Italian
production designer who has collaborated on such movies as
“The Aviator,” “Cold Mountain,”
“Gangs of New York” and several Federico Fellini films,
is rumored to be up for an Academy Award this year for his work on
“The Aviator.”

“There are crossovers a lot now, like Dante Ferretti for
the costume designers and the production designers, and so this is
of course great when we have somebody who is of interest to the
whole school,” said Spira.

“A lot of design, regardless of the specific specialty or
field, follows a very similar creative process,” said Jane
McKeever, a graduate student in sound design. “I find the
Master Classes very helpful, because you can take another
person’s experiences and processes, like Dante, and apply
that to your own personal creative process and use that to help you
evolve as a designer.”

Bill Ward, a UCLA theater professor, said the real advantage of
a UCLA Master Class is that students can ask questions about their
craft, which can be both intellectually and emotionally stimulating
for the audience as well as the guest speaker.

“When you’re working in the profession, you
don’t ask questions. You’re told what to do,”
said Ward. “So when you got a student saying, “˜Wait a
minute, why did you do that,’ well, nobody ever asks why,
they just say “˜Do this, do that.'”

Ward was introduced to the idea of a Master Class in the
mid-1960s as a graduate student at UCLA, when two then-unknown guys
came into one of his classes and gave a 45-minute presentation of
their new musical, “Hair.” Since then, Ward has
realized the essential value of incorporating a Master Class into a
student’s learning experience.

“Often a guest will come in and say, “˜Well, have you
read this? Have you read that? Well, you have to.’ It can be
on the syllabus that you’re supposed to read that, but when
you’ve got somebody who’s enormously talented or
successful saying, “˜That’s how I got my job, you need
to do that,’ it really helps,” Ward added.

In addition to the Master Class series, faculty in the School of
Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media will periodically bring
their friends to their classes, such as Professor Joe Olivieri, who
brings his friend and former classmate Annette Bening into his
acting classes.

“She often says to the students, “˜Look, you’re
an actor, I’m an actor, in this room we’re all actors
together.’ Everything is fair game,” said Olivieri.

“It’s a very frank, open, inspiring
forum.”

The success of Bening’s visits to Olivieri’s acting
classes comes from her willingness to talk about her craft to
students who are trying to learn it.

“She always says, “˜Any questions you ask me, I will
answer. Nothing is off-limits,'” Olivieri added.
“The students are always very respectful of that and never
ask trivial questions because of that.”

Still, no matter who gets the opportunity to question such
talents as Bening, it is hard to deny the interactive element of
the Master Classes is more than just helpful.

“When somebody can take the theory and apply it and then
point to a specific example and show you how they used that, and
that they got an Oscar for it, that really opens people’s
eyes,” Ward said.

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