LAUSD’s new magnet film school gives students hands-on experience in the entertainment industry

Kate Sequeira/EDSOURCE

A second-year student at Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet recorded a scene for a group project.

Kate Sequeira/EDSOURCE

A second-year student at Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet recorded a scene for a group project.

Freshman Aiyanna Randolph, who wants to be a screenwriter, is inspired by her neighbor, the producer of the ABC show “Black-ish.”That’s why she chose to travel eight miles from her Los Angeles neighborhood to attend Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet High School in downtown Los Angeles.

“I really enjoy writing stories, filming scenes and stories for us,” Randolph said of her experience at the school so far. She also hopes Magnet — part of Los Angeles Union University — will provide as many opportunities as possible for the industries she wants to work in in the future.

Roybal Magnet teaches students how to become screenwriters, producers, directors, cinematographers and more through the school’s curriculum and its collaborations with the biggest names in Hollywood. Now in its first year, the Magnet Project has shifted from a previous focus that also included music to now focusing solely on the film industry. So far, 140 students are enrolled in grades 9 and 10, with plans to extend to grade 12.

The Roybal Magnet, launched by the Creative Artists Agency and actor George Clooney, also aims to help diversify Hollywood away from an industry that used to be predominantly white and male.Build a pipeline of primarily Latino and Black youth talent to better reflect the city’s demographics Always a focus magnet founder clooney and such Advisory Board Member Don Cheadle and Mindy Kaling.The school is just a few miles from some entertainment industry venues Main studio.

“We want to change the face of the set,” Clooney told U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, during a visit to the school in January. “In our Los Angeles industry, there are 60,000 jobs that aren’t writing, directing, and acting. There’s a lot of work out there, and we want to change the way sets work.”

While Magnet isn’t the only film-focused company in Los Angeles, the level of industry involvement and support is said to be unique.

The school has partnerships with Disney, Warner Bros., the film crew union IATSE and more, exposing students to opportunities within the industry. Students visited studios and professionals of various crafts visited schools.For example, students in the make-up class took a course with a face contouring specialist last semester to develop their foundational skills.

“It was nothing but a very positive experience,” Principal Blanca Cruz said. It is important, she said, that industry leaders and experts in the various fields of film “have a responsibility to help prepare our future”.

Any student from LAUSD can apply for the Film and Television magnet like any other magnet in the area. When the program was first offered under the broader music and filmmaking curriculum, most students were from the school’s local area, but that has been changing, Cruz said.She expects the program to grow to 200 students next year as it expands, a trend that will continue over the next few years, in stark contrast to the district’s student population drop in enrollment.

For Emhoff, spouse of Vice President Kamala Harris, the school’s partnership model is one that all industries should emulate. He toured the school with Cardona to discuss how the federal government can help as the industry pushes to expand the program to other parts of the country.

“We can do it with nurses, we can do it with technology. We can do it across the country with a lot of different things,” he told the school’s founders and officials. “Not only are you helping the community here, our productive community, but you’re really setting the stage for helping the entire country.”

As Cardona and Emhoff toured the classrooms with the school’s stakeholders, a short video was played on the computer, showing the school’s first term student work.

In addition to the movie posters that line classroom walls, there are lists listing dozens of locations that exist in the movie. They are there to remind students of the possibilities that lie before them.

In their initial film classes, students get to experience everything the industry has to offer. Students start with film history and create their own mini-video projects. For example, in teacher Brittany Hilgers’ introductory film class, students made a horror film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. After studying the original film, the students participated in and directed and acted by themselves.

This semester, Hilgers students are focusing on writing, with the goal of completing a short film by the end of the year. Writing is an important foundational skill in the industry, according to Hilgers, who was a writer in the film industry before switching to teaching English a few years ago. She hopes to eventually teach intensive television writing classes.

“I just want to give my students opportunities, and that’s what this place is about: exposure and direct exposure to the entertainment industry,” she said. “I didn’t get it in high school or even college, so it’s a really rare opportunity.”

The first two years at magnet are designed to expose students to as much of the industry as possible so that they can choose a more targeted study path in the final two years. The craft track will see them delve into art direction, hair and makeup, and costume design, while the post-production track will focus on editing, special effects and animation. The technical path focuses on cameras, lights and sound.

For sophomore William Grandberry, Special Effects Has caught his attention. He says he enjoys learning film basics and finds it fun to experiment with different types of shots, from wide-angle shots to close-ups to high angles. He wanted to create sculptures for films.

“It’s a great environment,” he said. “The community around the school is great, especially the teachers and staff. They’re always checking on you to make sure you’re doing your job.”

In the program, movies are also integrated with standard high school subjects. First semester, teacher Manuel Gochez introduced a documentary project to his 11th grade American History class.Students used the production and editing techniques they learned in film class to create a Movies about the Roaring 20s. A documentary specialist from the History Channel, one of the school’s partners, visited the class and briefed students on everything from brainstorming to editing.

“They took a lot of their research skills from that, whether it was the historical research they were doing, or how they found those images and videos for the documentary,” Goches said. “They learn this in my classroom, and then they can apply that knowledge outside of my classroom when they go to college.”

This semester, he will work with Students produce monthly 30-second mini-documents about lesser-known historical figures. For example, February would focus on Black History Month, and April might focus on climate awareness to coincide with Earth Day.

Currently, the school is also working to connect students to the industry through summer jobs, according to Cruz. So far, students have toured production studios and heard from speakers who work on stage sets and behind the scenes, but the summer internship will be an opportunity to really immerse themselves, she said.

“We can see what openings are available in nearby studios for high school students,” Cruz said. “Assistant to assistant, maybe? Those are small examples, but they’re very important. Our kids can do that now.” “

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