Old-fashioned filmmaking

When Larry Riggins’ students sat on the floor of Orange Coast

College’s production studio last Wednesday, reeling celluloid into

their cameras, they were following in the tradition of great

directors over the past hundred years.

Among young filmmakers, though, they were a distinct minority. In

the age of digital video, when a director can shoot scenes an

infinite number of times, few up-and-coming auteurs are willing to

pay for actual film -- and to master the discipline that comes with

it.

“It is a possibility that no one in this class has ever touched

film before,” Riggins said amid the noise of cameras whirring and

clicking. “You can’t check right away to see if your shot came out.

It teaches that planning is very important as a writer and director.”

For the first week of fall semester at OCC, planning was the

assignment for members of Film Production, the most advanced film

class at the college. Students, who checked out cameras in pairs or

groups, will have to come back this week with a reel’s worth of dolly

shots, tracking shots, fast motion sequences and other cinematic

staples.

And they didn’t get much more than one take.

“It’s a lot harder than putting in a cassette tape,” said Holly

Garland, 21, of Westminster, as she fumbled with her camera.

The film production class touches on the artistic aspects of film,

such as directing and screenwriting, but also covers the technical

side. For the first week of class, students learned how to load

cameras and read light meters, which determine how bright or dark a

shot should be.

The final project in the course is a six- to 20-minute film that

students must pay for themselves, save for the equipment provided by

the college. Riggins said the most expensive film students have ever

made was a $20,000 World War II drama in which the filmmakers rented

rifles and uniforms.

Garland and her fellow group members -- Luis Flores, 23, Darrell

Calvert, 22, and Joe Gordon, 23, all of Huntington Beach -- have made

movies before as students at Marina High School, but this fall marks

their first foray into celluloid. Calvert said the group hopes to

make a psychological horror film for its final project.

“We don’t want to do cheesy latex unless we have to,” he

explained.

David Branson, 18, of Anaheim Hills, said he joined the OCC class

after watching some of his friends in a film production class at

Chapman University. He appreciated the chance to make a film in the

classic medium.

“I was introduced to 16-millimeter film over there [at Chapman],

and I wanted to learn more about it,” he said.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Michael Miller visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa

area and writes about his experience.