Author Archives: Frances Sun

For most UCLA students, finals week means pulling all-nighters in a last-minute attempt to learn 10 weeks’ worth of material. For actor and third-year philosophy student Colin Bain, however, finals week last quarter consisted of 14-hour days on the set of crime drama “Cold Case.” Bain’s eight-day shoot happened to fall on the same week […]

Everything is politics. And in the glamorous industry of filmmaking, sometimes it’s not just what you do or how well you do it; it’s mainly who you know. For late German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, this was a lesson learned the hard way. An actress turned director turned photographer, Riefenstahl was a woman of many talents. […]

After the ceremony for the 49th annual Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards Competition on Nov. 1, UCLA has good reason to boast. Once more, one of its own won first place, as well as this year’s monetary prize of $15,000. The win marks the third consecutive year in which a UCLA graduate student has received the […]

It’s not unusual for a college or university to be more than an academic environment for students. For screenwriter and alumnus Scott Kosar, UCLA was the safe haven that changed his life. “When I entered (UCLA’s graduate screenwriting program), I came in at a time in my life after many years of taking the low […]

Having just received the Spotlight Award from the School of Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media this year, graduating film student Jared Drake is eager to start a career in directing among Hollywood hotshots. For starters, “Sand Dune Water Worms,” his short film, will be shown at the Directors Guild of America Theatre. Drake is […]

While most students were on campus studying for midterms in mid-May, graduate film student Tim McCarthy was in Cannes, France, enjoying a little limelight at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival where his short film, “The Rick,” had its first public screening. “God, it’s hard to describe,” McCarthy said. “It was fantastic. I had never screened […]

Those who ordinarily could care less about Greek mythology may find themselves showing a bit of interest on Friday. Wolfgang Petersen’s much anticipated blockbuster, “Troy,” is based on Homer’s “Iliad,” the epic story of the Trojan War. With Brad Pitt as Achilles, Orlando Bloom as Paris, and Diane Kruger as Helen, the players in this […]