By David Seaman | Echo
Thatcher Ritz is a senior film and media production major. He is also studying this semester at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, which incorporates film classes with internship experiences to create positive Christian influences in the industry. Ritz took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about his experience.
Echo: What is your schedule like?
Thatcher: I have an internship Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I have class on Tuesday and Thursday. It's pretty good. I have three classes, one of which is an elective. I'm taking Faith and Artistic Development in Film, which is the Center's version of Taylor's Media, Faith and Culture class, and Hollywood Production Workshop, which would be Narrative Filmmaking at Taylor. Everyone has an elective, and I chose Narrative Storytelling. It focuses on story, which I'm really excited to do. One of the films I helped out with is called "Dinner and a Mime."
Dinner and a Mime from Micah T on Vimeo.
I wrote ("Dinner and a Mime"). It took a while to get that, but we got it. The second elective possible is the screenwriting class, which I don't know a whole lot about. The last one is Professional Acting for the Camera, which I'm taking and auditing. Students get paired up and pick up a scene to act together, trying to make the most believable performance that you can. It's a pretty simple class, and auditing is a pretty low commitment. Usually they don't let students audit during the semester, but only four people were in the acting class so they were like 'there's plenty of room if anyone wants to.' So I did! That's my schedule.
Echo: Is Narrative Storytelling your favorite class so far?
Thatcher: Possibly. It certainly has been the most engaging so far. We did the filmmaking ourselves with four people and took around two weeks. We took a class time on Thursday to suggest script ideas and we unofficially chose which was best, and last time it happened to be mine! We spent the next week after that in pre-production, working on planning for the shoot, casting, new drafts. We were able to shoot all the footage for "Dinner and a Mime" in one day, which was awesome.
Echo: How is shooting for your projects? Did you run into any difficulties?
Thatcher: We had to get clever with our lighting scenes because of the actor's schedules. We had to shoot all the night scenes first. What we ended up doing was black garbage bags over the windows so it would look like it was night. We shot the movie in reverse, using blue lights to light up daytime scenes. We're kind of proud of the fact that we shot all the daytime scenes at night and nighttime scenes during the day! So we shot it all in one day, which was irregular, and we spent the next few days just editing it. We shot a movie in two weeks essentially. The class is finally done, and I'll miss it.
Echo: What about your other classes?
Thatcher: For our Hollywood Production class it's a bit more rigorous. Each person has their own assigned role. There are three movies being shot over the course of the year by three different groups. I was chosen to be a sound designer for one group, and we're going through five weeks of tutorials on how to perform in each group. Finding new sound effects to match to videos. I don't like sound design, but I'm having fun. Everyone's doing their own thing. The final production just came through, and I'm happy with it. For Faith and Artistic Development we have short reflections we have to write. Pretty much every other week we watch a movie and just talk about it. Not too hard. Just so-so in being engaging.Echo: What is your internship?
Thatcher: My internship is called Retrofit Films. It has a really cool website. They specialize in digital-based media. All the scripts they've had me review are sci-fi and horror things, and I've had a really good time doing that. It's right up my alley. They produce branded entertainment, such as existing television shows and movies. It's for a practicum, so I'm receiving college credit and I'm learning. It's neat.
Echo: Any interaction with Taylor alumni?
Thatcher: I haven't met too many. I haven't interacted much with the (Taylor Hollywood internship) program.
Echo: Do you have to be a film major to go to the Center?
Thatcher: No. We have all sorts of majors. Jeremy Paul is the other Taylor student here, and he is a senior Professional Writing major. If you're interested in writing for film it's a great place to learn.Echo: What can students expect from the program?
Thatcher: Students coming to Taylor might be surprised how little is worked out for them. I'm paying lots of money to go to Taylor, but now that I'm buying my own food, I wonder where all that money I spent on room and board is going. California is a pretty expensive place to live. I get my own plane reservations, my own shuttle to get to the Center, but once you actually arrived things started making sense. You use your own transportation for everything; I don't have a car so I walk or hitch with somebody.
Also, stereotypes are not correct at all for the area. Traffic is not as bad as New York, and the GLBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Questioning) community are not as obnoxious or obvious as we are led to believe. No rain, pretty costly and a beautiful 60 to 77 degrees most days.Echo: Since you are in L.A., have you met any famous people?
Thatcher: I've seen more than I met . . . We did meet (the person who played) the Silver Surfer (in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"); he came by and talked to us. His name's Doug Jones. I got a picture with him. We went to the Hollywood Bowl and saw Julie Andrews. She looks even younger than she was in "The Princess Diaries." She greeted us all and I freaked out. She was with John Williams, who was having a concert. He was directing his philharmonic, and he directed his greatest hits.
I also think I saw Brad Pitt at Subway. I can't confirm this because I was by myself and I didn't want to stare, but it looked like him. Out here it quite possibly could've been. I thought I saw Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but it was just a lookalike because he was filming in Australia (for a new Hercules film). Which makes sense because because if you have "The Rock" in your name you'll probably make a Hercules film.
