USC John H. Mitchell Business of Cinematic Arts Program

From everyone here at the Industry Relations office and our student workers, we want to give a huge thank you to our very own SCA Internship Coordinator Kellie Malone for putting on the fantastic SCA Industry Week 2023! Industry Week proved to be full of exciting entertainment-related panels, delicious catered food, and important career lessons for everyone who participated. Thank you Kellie, and thank you to those who came out and supported Industry Week (more posts to follow covering the events!).

COURSE HIGHLIGHT:
CTPR 385: MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

Now offered for incoming freshmen, CTPR 385 is BCA’s opportunity for students to delve into physical production of filmmaking. Taught by Joselito Seldera, Barry Bogovich, and Kim Ray, students are paired in teams to create semester-long projects, working on everything from casting, lighting, directing, and editing. 385 is a great chance for students to experience creativity and production—tools that will later shape their business decisions in the entertainment industry.

This week, our sophomore internship class had the opportunity of talking with Director of Learning & Organizational Development Paul Tranchese and agent Jon Rosenblum at the WME campus! This hands-on discussion covered everything from career insights, life advice, and the ins and outs of WME's culture and work. We want to thank Paul and Jon for giving their time and we hope all of our sophomores enjoyed the experience. WME

Congratulations to BCA junior Candace House, who serves as Co-Executive Director of USC’s Black Student Assembly (BSA) and created the university’s first Black Career Fair, featuring 17 major companies (Disney, Sony, Paramount Global, Boeing, NFL, Deloitte) across a variety of fields. This accomplishment broke ground for Black students and was a major success for over 300 attendees!

USC Cinematic Arts | School of Cinematic Arts News February 27, 2023 BCA Student Breaks Barriers with Inaugural USC Black Career Fair, Featuring Top Companies By Benjamin Pola Makai Singleton talks to representatives from The Walt Disney Co. at the Black Career Fair. (Photo/Greg Hernandez) As Black History Month got underway, the USC Black Student A...

We want to thank every one of our 120 students who came out to our BCA & SCA Networking Event last week! We were able to introduce several BCA students to other SCA students in different disciplines, and our hope is that this event fosters new networking and creative opportunities between students!

We are delighted to announce our next student spotlight, BCA senior Sijia Du! Aside from being a student for the past four years, Sijia has become heavily involved in the world of gaming, leading to a position at Playstation following graduation this spring. We are so happy for all the impressive work she has done thus far, and are proud to see what she does in the future after her time at USC.

We are so pleased to announce our next faculty spotlight, Kim Ray! As a professor of CTPR 385 (and a USC alum!), Kim uses her experience as a filmmaker and creator to teach students about production procedures, operations, and techniques. We are so happy to have her as part of this program, and we look forward to seeing all the work she will continue to do outside of the classroom.

On behalf of the first-year CTPR 385 class, we just want to give a huge thank you to writer and executive producer Melinda Hsu Taylor for coming in to talk about production safety and the process of becoming a showrunner! Since our first-year BCA students now learn about physical production, it is vital for them to understand the basics of on-set safety. We also want to thank the Sarah Jones Film Foundation, which specializes in fostering on-set safety through awareness and accountability.

We are pleased to introduce our next student spotlight, BCA junior Stephanie Cheng! As well as being an Applied Analytics minor, Stephanie is working as a Performance Media Group intern at Sony Pictures Entertainment this spring. We are so excited to have her be a part of this program, and we cannot wait to see all the incredible things she does moving forward.

Introducing our FIRST Faculty Spotlight, Mandi Brooksbank! On top of being a Manager of Business & Legal Affairs over Scripted Series at Netflix, Mandi also serves as the professor of BCA course CNTV 428: Fundamentals of Entertainment Law & Dealmaking. We are so happy to have her as part of our wonderful faculty, and we look forward to seeing her continual success in the industry. Cheers to celebrating our faculty members!

*New year, new student spotlights!* Please get to know and give a warm hello to BCA sophomore Annie Fox! We are excited to hear about her upcoming internship at Seven Summits Pictures & Management, and cannot wait to see all the other amazing opportunities our students are involved in this spring. Let's make this a great one!

Continuing our BCA Student Spotlight, please say hi to junior Judy Jiang! She has had the remarkable opportunity to intern for A3 Artists Agency, harnessing many important skills taught in the BCA course load. We are so excited to be highlighting our amazing students from all cohorts, and will be looking for more participants in the spring. Happy Holidays, everyone - you deserve a much needed break!