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By Erika Perez
By Erika Perez
California is known for its film and television industry throughout the world and Riverside City College does not fall short in its own contribution to films.
The Fifth Bi-Annual RCC Film Festival, co-sponsored by the Riverside School for the Arts, will be held on June 5 at the Digital Library Auditorium with the doors opening at 6 p.m. and the show beginning promptly at 7 p.m.
“Two hundred people were in attendance in December,” said Assistant Professor Bud Tedesco, regarding the festival held at the end of last semester.
According to Tedesco, attendance at the festival is generally family, friends and interested parties who somehow or another learn of the event.
The atmosphere is very casual, “No red carpet or bright lights,” Tedesco said.
“I have had people call to inquire about submitting their films,” Tedesco said, “It is restricted to RCC students only. That would be a full-time job.”
Students from the Film, Television and Video program, both the beginning and advanced film production classes, have spent the entire spring semester producing their films which will be presented at the festival.
Program student Danny Chase is excited to see the reaction to his short film production which is part live action, part claymation.
“The class is very time consuming,” Chase explained, “. . . many hours can be spent on editing alone.”
The process of producing each film ,which is the foundation of the course, is the reason for why the class is so time consuming.
“This is my second time taking the class and although the structure is the same with lectures and guest speakers being presented, each semester is different for students because you are working on different projects, ” Chase said.
The class explores the process starting from story ideas being approved to creating shooting scripts, story boards and shooting schedules as well as keeping to a budget and applying for filming permits with the city.
City permits are needed for shooting within the city and are granted at no charge to student film makers by the city.
Detailed permit applications are submitted to the city and the wait time is generally two weeks for permits to be issued.
If shooting outside of Riverside City limits, but still in the county, the charge is still waived thanks to an association with the Inland Film Commission.
Additionally, students who shoot their short or feature films using motion picture film must have it processed and developed.
This process requires traveling to Burbank two times, one for a drop off and one for a pick up.
The festival will screen 15-20 short films produced by students in the beginning film production class.
These films are shot using motion picture film and are one-minute in length.
The short films are “silent” productions with no dialogue, but include narrations and music.
Also five to six feature films produced by students in the advanced film production class will be screened at the festival.
The feature films are a bit longer in length, ranging from 5-12 minutes, can be shot on motion picture film, digitally or in high definition and can include actors and dialogue.
Films are directed by the writer of the script using a crew made up of classmates.
During the festival, various scholarships are awarded for various categories.
Some of the categories for short film awards include Best Short Film, Best Short Film Directing and Best Short Film Editing.
Feature film award categories included are Best Feature Film, Best Shooter and Best Sound.
A panel of five industry professionals; a producer, sound mixer, lighting director, writer and cinematographer, screen the films and selects the recipients of the awards.
Scholarships are sponsored by the Riverside City College District Scholarship Foundation.
Various donators, including Riverside School for the Arts and Dr. Wiles Veterinary Clinic, contribute to fund the scholarships.
Tedesco, an ABC television producer for 20 years, was enjoying retirement when he was approached in 1988 to begin a television program at RCC.
Film courses were added approximately 3-4 years ago creating the need for the film festival.
Tedesco, along with Associate Professor Sharon Gillians, co-teach the FTV courses involved in the festival.
Gillians also teaches an online writing course as well as a hybrid digital media survey course for RCC.
The FTV program includes classes in television, film, audio engineering and motion graphics.
Future festivals hope to add offerings produced in other courses.
Categories hoping to be added include the fall semester’s weekly news program, Inland Valley News, and the spring semester’s magazine show, Inland Valley Magazine.
This event is free and students, faculty and visitors are welcome to attend.
For information regarding the program, its courses or the film festival you may contact Professor Tedesco at (951) 222-8352 or Professor Gillians at (951) 222-8309.
