Rachel Karten graduated with a degree in Film and Television Production in 2003. Since graduating, Karten has been working in publicity. We asked Rachel about her career and what her professional role as a publicist is like. Q: How and why did you move from film production into publicity? A: Honestly, I sort of fell
For the third installment of Chapman University alumni directing for PlayStation Emerging Filmmaker Program we have Taylor Maxwell (MFA/DR ’13). “It was a rollercoaster,” says Taylor about the experience, and adds that, “it was really exciting.” Taylor shares that he had been let down in the past, having been so close to shooting on a
Ashton Avila completed her MFA in 2017 and through a series of fortunate events was hired for the PlayStation Emerging Filmmakers program to direct a pilot show, Two Roads. Avila made sure to network at her previous employments and through a relationship was contacted for an opening for director. Over the next two weeks her
Sarah Wilson Thacker (MFA/DR ’13) and Jamie Clevenger (MFA/FTP ’12) directed and produced, respectively, The Many Lives of Ayn Winters pilot for PlayStation’s Emerging Filmmakers Program. The program called for original stories through a competition with creators, and once five ideas were selected, Sarah was hired on to develop the screenplay. Sarah was the first
Being passionate about what you do means that you will go wherever opportunities present themselves—even if that means traveling over 8000 miles to get there or just jumping into a project for a short time. Spanish cinematographer Dani Sanchez-Lopez (MFA/FP ’09) took his talents to Asia when work was limited in Los Angeles. And he
In most senses, filmmaking and tabletop game design are worlds apart. Ben Kepner graduated from Chapman with a degree in film production in 2013, and at the time didn’t know that tabletop game design was a viable career path. But six years later, after a few lucky encounters and a lot of hard work, landed
Former students of Harry Ufland step up to emulate what the late professor gave them every semester; the chance to network with industry professionals. Elise Laplante’s ’13 reason for helping, “was to honor Harry’s memory. Harry was my first mentor in the business and I wanted to celebrate his spirit by helping current students connect
As a proud alumni of the Dodge Film School Creative Producing class of 2015, I have become a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy Foundation. I’ve sold feature films internationally and domestically, and my work online has reached over 80 million viewers. Through my work as a Producer, I began
I remember my very first film’s public show. It was in 2005 as part of the student thesis-festival at Cleveland State University. Together with my film school classmates – I organized a small film event, consisting of several thesis films from our final production class at CSU’s film program. Our goal was to get together
While I was on a shooting hiatus with my last film, In Football We Trust, I lived in Israel/Palestine for 7 months on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, which I had been awarded after graduating from Chapman University. While there, I taught film, mentored local filmmakers, assisted NGOs launch media advocacy projects, and continued my post-graduate
Featured Image: Filming in Peruvian Andes for YouTube Red series, “Ultimate Expedition” Four years ago we caught up with Derek Helwig (BFA/FP ’05) and his experiences since graduating. Now we have the pleasure of welcoming him to the Chapman family as a professor for the newly created course, DOC 116, Introduction to Television Production: Location.
Every so often, we’ll be spotlighting alumni and what they are up to these days. These Q&A sessions will give you a bit of insight into where the world has taken them since graduation. This week, the spotlight is on Ela Alyamac (MFA/FTP ’00) who co-directed her new feature film Lost Birds. Lost Birds is about an Armenian Village