Squashed between “Conversations with History” and
“A Prologue to Chaucer,” an episode of “UCLA
Next” aired nationwide last Tuesday on the UCTV station.
“UCLA Next,” a half-hour documentary-style show, is
produced by a television production class. Hidden in a theater
classroom in one of the northernmost buildings of North Campus, the
roughly 10 students in the class meet twice a week atop an
unusually long staircase on the second floor and around a few
corners down a narrow, white hallway.
In the class, students pitch ideas for the show and then
produce, write, and direct the episodes, which air nationwide via
satellite on UCTV, or on channel 23 or 36 in Los Angeles.
Eighty percent of the “UCLA Next” class is composed
of graduate students, though according to Professor Julie Ann
Sipos, undergraduates are also welcome.
“The class is a great opportunity for undergraduates who
are trying to get into the film school,” Sipos said.
“(It) can give undergraduates a relationship to the
department.”
Second-year student Nate Verbiscar-Brown, who hopes to major in
film, found out about the “UCLA Next” TV show through a
flier.
“I didn’t even know it existed,” he said.
“I’m eager to learn anything about film.”
The high percentage of graduate students gives undergraduates
the opportunity to learn from their expertise. According to Sipos,
“UCLA Next” is one of the few classes in the department
in which undergraduates can work closely with graduate
students.
In addition to learning technical aspects of television
production, students end up having a piece of material that can be
used to get a job, said Ben Harris, a graduate student currently
taking the class.
Harris is in the producers program at UCLA and said he has
mostly focused on film production but that television is also
appealing.
Harris said that in television, a producer takes on a lot of the
responsibilities that a director would have in a film.
The “UCLA Next” course returned in the fall of 2004
after being absent from the airwaves for one year, as there was no
money to fund the class for the 2003-2004 school year. Prior to
2003-2004, “UCLA Next” had been funded by the
university. Barbara Boyle, the chair of the Department of Film,
Television and Digital Media, attributes the withdrawal of
financial support from the university to funding cutbacks.
According to Boyle, funds for the current 2004-2005 class came in
the form of a Challenge Grant of $25,000. And though the grant runs
out at the end of this year, Boyle is optimistic that more money
will come,
“I always think I’m going to find the money,”
she said. “Television is a viable alternative to
film.”
Boyle also said one reason the course is left open to non-film
majors is to crew it properly, as it takes a lot of grunt work to
get some of the more technical aspects of the show running
properly.
“I regarded the 2003-2004 year as a chance to re-conceive
“˜UCLA Next.’ It was not a course that served our
department very well,” Boyle said of previous years.
“It was not a course taken primarily by our writing and
directing students.”
But Tara Youngblood, a writer who wants to work as a
writer/producer after graduation, is taking the course while
working towards her MFA in screenwriting.
Youngblood practiced pitching her idea for a “UCLA
Next” episode during a recent class. She hopes to do a story
on how black art students survive in higher education.
Because of low enrollment this quarter, only two episodes will
be made this winter that will air in the spring. Three episodes
were made fall quarter, which aired on UCTV and can be viewed
online. Past episodes have covered a range of topics from
“How to Make it in Hollywood” to a show about UCLA
basketball traditions.
“UCLA Next” does not track its ratings, and though
audience is considered when creating episodes, Boyle explained that
while finding an audience is important, the “passion of the
filmmaker” should be the main goal of the course.
“I am a teacher; the last thing I am concerned with is
audience” Boyle said. “I’d like (“UCLA
Next”) to be relevant to contemporary university
life.”
Though getting high ratings is not the main goal of “UCLA
Next,” based on previous episodes, Sipos believes the show to
be best geared toward upscale, educated young people between the
ages of 25 and 49.
“We’re not going to be sitting here doing NASCAR
racing,” Sipos said. “Our students here are not our
primary viewers; they are a very small percentage. (Undergraduates)
are like a drop in the bucket to how many (potential) viewers we
have.”
“My parents watch it in Orlando,” she added.