Liberty University debuts first round of classes in new film school

Down the hall from Liberty University's cinematography class, Hollywood veteran Stephan Schultze surveys a storage room packed floor to ceiling with video cameras, computers, lights and sound gear the makings of a movie set.

Since Liberty announced plans for a film school last May, the school has invested nearly $1.5 million in professional equipment and has recruited Schultze who has credit lines in such movies as The Abyss and Tremors to lead the program.

The gear that we use is the same gear that youd find on The Hobbit, if you walked out onto the set. The same cameras, the same lighting gear, so the students wont have to relearn anything, said Schultze, executive director of the Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center at LU.

This semester, Liberty debuted its first round of film classes, which are prerequisites for the major. Demand was high, and each course reached its maximum capacity of 60 students.

Come fall, Liberty will launch the full-fledged major, a two-year program that will train students in directing, screenwriting and cinematography. Liberty plans to accept about 40 students in its inaugural class, and eventually expand to 160 students.

During the first year, students will produce and direct a short film and write a full-length screenplay. They also will learn how to produce films for non-conventional and emerging platforms, such as cell phones and YouTube.

The second year culminates in a large-scale theatrical project and a film festival. Students also will be required to write a business and fundraising plan for producing their own screenplay.

By the time they graduate, theyll have a reel, Schultze said. Theyve got a screenplay thats really polished and well written. Theyve got a business plan ready to go. Theyve got a short film to start sending around to festivals and theyll have worked on a feature film.

The goal is to produce well-rounded graduates who can pursue a broad range of careers, from big-budget movies to nonprofit documentary work.

Schultze brings more than a decade of experience from Hollywoods film industry.

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Liberty University debuts first round of classes in new film school