Fest to screen OCC films

Jim Carnett

Seven student films, created by Orange Coast College film and video

majors, will be screened April 24 at the 2005 Newport Beach Film

Festival.

The film fest runs April 21 to 30.

The seven OCC films will be shown at noon at the Lido Theater, at

3459 Via Lido in Newport Beach. Tickets will be available at the

door. Titles of the films are “Duck Hunted,” “Clarity,” “The Family

Plan,” “Fifty Years of Filmmaking,” “Intrigue,” “Premonition” and

“Satisfaction.”

“More than 30 student films were submitted for consideration for

the film festival, and we selected seven,” said Scott Broberg, OCC’s

film and video department coordinator. “These films represent work by

our beginning and advanced students.”

Student films are being screened at the festival for the second

year in a row, said festival executive director Gregg Schwenk, who is

an Orange Coast College alumnus.

“OCC’s film/video department is second-to-none,” Schwenk said.

“The caliber of students in the department is outstanding.”

Though not as glamorous as the famous film schools at USC and

UCLA, OCC’s film and video program has established a reputation for

producing graduates with a solid grasp of the technical side of movie

and video making.

“Our program is totally hands-on,” Broberg said. “While we teach

film theory and appreciation, all students in our introductory

courses have a camera thrust into their hands during the first week

of class.”

“Intrigue,” a 15-minute suspense film about a young girl who faces

a difficult decision in life, is one of the seven student films at

this year’s fest. It was created by Steve Russo of Costa Mesa and

Dave Nguyen of Fountain Valley. Russo and Nguyen shot the film last

fall as a project for their Electronic Field Production class. Russo

worked on the film as director and producer, while Nguyen was a

producer and editor.

Russo and Nguyen said they were overwhelmed when they were

informed by Broberg that their film had been selected for the

festival.

“I let out a shout when I heard the word,” Russo said. “We’re very

excited.”

Both Russo and Nguyen plan to pursue careers in the film industry.

Russo will transfer next fall as a film major to Chapman University,

and Nguyen will transfer to UCLA.

OCC’s film and video program moved into a spectacular

5,200-square-foot campus facility two years ago. The facility

includes four Avid editing bays for advanced students; a community

editing room with nine stations for beginning students; a 35- by

45-foot television studio with four wide-screen digital cameras and

wide-screen technology; a control room that mimics a network control

room in Los Angeles or New York; a machine room that serves as the

electronic heart of the film and video facility; and a 35-seat

screening room with digital wide-screen projection and Dolby Surround

Sound for screening student projects and commercial films.

“With this facility, we rank in the top 5% of community college

film programs in the nation,” Broberg says. “In fact, with the

exception of USC and UCLA, we’re vastly ahead of most four-year film

programs in the state.”

About 1,100 students enroll in OCC’s film and video classes each

semester.

AVIATION TECH PROGRAM ACQUIRES JET ENGINES

OCC’s aviation technology program recently acquired two General

Electric jet engines the United States government originally

purchased for $1.95 million each.

The high-tech engines are powerful TF 34-GE-400B engines used on

the Navy S-3 Viking anti-submarine aircraft and the Air Force A-10

Warthog battlefield surveillance aircraft. Nicknamed “The Hoover”

because of its distinctive vacuum-cleaner sound, the engine weighs

1,400 pounds and has 9,275 pounds of thrust.

The engines were purchased for just $600 by Rodney Foster, chair

of OCC’s aviation technology department.

“Our students now have the opportunity to work on state-of-the-art

turbofan engines,” Foster says. “Very few aviation programs in the

country are able to provide students with access to that type of

technology.”

More than a hundred students are enrolled in OCC’s aviation

technology and its airframe and powerplant technology programs. Some

80% of the aviation technology graduates go to work for the airlines

after completing their OCC studies.

Orange Coast College offers the only airframe and power- plant

technology program in Orange County; the only avionics program in

Southern California; and the only helicopter school in California,

Arizona and Nevada.

OCC’s aviation department offers certificates in airframe,

powerplant, airframe and powerplant technology, avionics, helicopter

theory and maintenance, airline travel careers (flight and ground),

aviation and space, space systems, and turbine transition.

For information about the department, phone (714) 432-5987.

* JIM CARNETT is senior director of community relations at Orange

Coast College. He writes the biweekly On Campus at OCC column. Reach

him at jcarnett @occ.cccd.edu or by calling (714) 432-5725.