TRAil of A TERRoRisT - Point Park University

he’s not Jesus’ real father (a fact he discovers in a veryentertaining scene on the “Givaldo Rivera” show)—waswritten, directed, filmed and performed by six PointPark University film students, including Jeremy Clemmer(who plays God) and Lou D’Ambrosio (who plays theyoung man kidnapped by Joseph).“Twice a year, our student-run cinema society hosts the“24-hour film festival,” explains Clemmer. “Basically thereis a prompt toward your film’s subject matter. Studentsthen form their own groups and have a total of 24 hoursto quickly make the film. I love the improvisation ofideas and jokes, since we also tend to act in everythingwe film. The final film is a testament to hard work andhaving fun.”•••Like the 24-hour film festival, Point Park’s newscreenwriting major will encourage collaborationand out-of-the-box thinking to create an engagingstory. Housed within the Department of Cinema andDigital Arts, the new major—with a planned launchdate in fall 2009—will build on the current curriculum’sexisting strengths, broadening and expanding what waspreviously a concentration in screenwriting.“We diversified the course offerings so that studentscan learn how to write for television, documentaries,interactive media and the Web—in addition to featurefilms,” says Fred Johnson, chair and associate professorof cinema and digital arts, and director of the newscreenwriting program.“Our hope is to train filmmakers and screenwriters whorecognize that good storytelling is essential to goodfilmmaking,” Johnson says.He explains that, in addition to a focus on creativestorytelling, the program will emphasize collaboration,providing students with the opportunity to see theirscripts produced as films. “Screenwriters will havethe opportunity to make films and work with actors,so they can better understand how the directors,cinematographers, producers, editors and actors workwith the scripts they write.”•••Seniors Clemmer and D’Ambrosio both feel likethey’ve been lucky to see their work brought tolife at Point Park. In addition to the films they’vecompleted through the student cinema society’s 24-hourfilm festival, they worked with other students in theirconcentration (screenwriting for Clemmer and directingfor D’Ambrosio) to produce short films in their junioryear, as part of a class assignment.“It was an eye-opening experience, almost like simulatingthe real world of film production,” says Clemmer.This year, the big project for screenwriting studentsis a full-length feature script. Clemmer is half waythrough his—a “sci-fi comedy drama” about a loner whodiscovers a parallel dimension.“You’re writing the script with, hopefully, the task ofeither selling it or producing it into a movie,” Clemmersays. “It’s one thing to graduate with a diploma that saysyou’re a screenwriter, but if you never actually writeanything, you’re not a writer.”•••That’s not a problem for Clemmer, who’s had ampleopportunities to hone his craft. He’s completedseven short scripts and three feature-length scriptsto date. Clemmer also landed an internship last summerreading and reviewing scripts for Intrinsic Value Films/Red Giant Media in New York City.Like Clemmer, future screenwriting majors will haveplenty of opportunities to write while they’re at PointPark—but, with one big difference. Thanks to thestructure of new major, they’ll start right away.“In many other programs, students spend two yearstaking core courses and undergraduate requirements.This forces them to sit on the sidelines waiting to dowhat they love,” says Johnson. “One big advantageof both the cinema production and screenwritingbachelor’s degrees at Point Park is that students startto work in their major the first semester at school.Filmmaking and screenwriting are complex crafts, andthe more time students can work within their discipline,the more prepared they’ll be to produce quality workwhen they graduate.”D’Ambrosio agrees.“I really feel like the cinema program has been a big helppreparing me for my future,” he says. “The program hereis set up to give you very well-rounded knowledge whenit comes to filmmaking. Then, once you have these skills,you can decide which direction you’d like to go for thefuture.”And, for promising young filmmakers like Clemmer andD’Ambrosio, there’s only one direction to go: Up.www.pointpark.edu 13