ShanghaiTech University has announced its new exclusive three-year consulting services agreement with the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) to develop and present a continuing series of professional filmmaking workshops in Shanghai and Beijing, and at SCA in Los Angeles. Amongst the workshops being planned for professional and aspiring Chinese filmmakers are those in motion picture and television producing, directing, screenwriting, and animation. The ShanghaiTech programs, with support from the Shanghai Municipal Government, aims to upgrade the skills of early and mid-career Chinese film and television creators.
These non-degree workshops will begin in March/April and will range in length from two weeks to ten months, set primarily at ShanghaiTech University, with occasional modules to be held at USC SCA and Beijing. The courses will be taught by full and part-time SCA instructors as well as by entertainment industry professionals. Each program will be designed and specifically customized for the ShanghaiTech participants.
This new agreement represents the second consulting services relationship between the two universities. Most recently, they completed a successful 3-month special screenwriting project.
Vice President and Provost Yin Jie confirms ShanghaiTech’s strategic vision of the program:“The program is in the same vein of ShanghaiTech’s commitment to incubating creative talents in China. And we hope it would make a significant contribution to the country’s film industry on the rise.”
Dean Elizabeth Daley of USC School of Cinematic Arts noted,“"We are very pleased about continuing to work closely with ShanghiTech and look forward to watching them innovate as media makers in China’s growing marketplace."
A preparatory survey for the producing program was distributed last month to working professionals in the Chinese film industry. Many topics related to the producing process are mentioned, including the development of genre projects, post-production for big-budget films, as well as global distribution of Chinese films. These topics will be covered in the producing program, which aims to start in late March or early April.
The programs have announced a nation-wide call and is accepting applications. The application deadline for the producing program is March 11, 2016.
The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts is one of the leading media schools in the world. Founded in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1929 over 85 years ago, the USC School of Cinematic Arts has fueled and mirrored the growth of entertainment as an industry and an art form. The School offers comprehensive programs in directing, producing, writing, media studies, animation and digital arts, production, interactive media and games, all backed by a broad liberal arts education and taught by leading practitioners in each field. Its more than 13,000 alumni are among the world’s most distinguished animators, scholars, teachers, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, sound experts, video game designers and industry executives. Since 1973 not a year has passed without an alumnus or alumna being nominated for an Academy Award or an Emmy.
ShanghaiTech University is a small-scale research university of academic excellence jointly established by Shanghai Municipal Government and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), officially approved to open on September 30th 2013 by China’s Ministry of Education. ShanghaiTech is actively engaged in the globalization of education and has extensive collaboration with UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, MIT etc. in the field of training of faculty, course sharing, joint degrees, student exchange, academic exchange and joint research. The ShanghaiTech-USC Joint Film Programs are short-term non-degree professional training programs initiated by ShanghaiTech University in association with the School of Cinematic Arts of University of Southern California (USC SCA), in the hope to contribute to the booming Chinese film industry by incubating creative talents and professionals that would produce solid, industry-standard film works.