Filmmaking is like a muscle. If you continue to use and tone it, it becomes agile and adaptable. It lands you gigs and garners awards. This is certainly the case with Dodge College faculty who continue to exercise their filmmaking muscle on top of teaching full-time.

“The best way to know about directing is to direct,” says
Professor John Badham
. “I love being able to keep up with all the technology, all of the new actors, all the various ways of doing things.”

Badham spent the fall filming his fifth episode of The CW hit television show
Supernatural
, starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. The series follows two brothers as they pursue demons, ghosts and other supernatural beings. In the episode
The Vessel
, Badham had to direct as if the majority of the show took place inside a submarine during World War II.  Channeling his more than 20 years’ experience, Badham was able to apply techniques used in previous projects to give viewers the sense that the actors were inside an actual submarine diving, maneuvering and holding steady deep below the ocean surface – and he did it all with just the camera.

martha-coolidge-directing-angie-tribeca


Fellow directing
Professor Martha Coolidge
is also no stranger to episodic television. She has directed episodes of
Madam Secretary
,
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
, and, most recently,
Angie Tribeca
, which presented a unique set of challenges. Coolidge directed the episode
The Ventriloquist
starring a real ventriloquist. The challenge was to direct the ventriloquist, a comedian but not an actor, while he was both acting and throwing his voice.

This past fall, Coolidge’s filmmaking muscle took her to Poland to direct the feature
Music, War and Love
, a love story set before, during, and after World War II, slated for release later this year. Whenever she can, Coolidge brings students to her set, or guest speakers to her class, so that they benefit from her experiences and connections.

“Part of being movie professionals, our being current and working, is extremely important for the education of our students and the reputation of our school,” says Coolidge.