CONNECTICUT FILM SCHOOLS

"Quinnipiac University likes to call itself the School of Storytelling," boasts Rich Hanley, Graduate Program Director of Journalism and E Media at the School of Communications. "We have it all here - high end Avid and Final Cut Pro, state of the art studio equipment, cameras, everything. But it all comes back to the truth that if you don’t have something to say, you have nothing. There’s no point. So we consider the story the beginning and the end."

David Donnelly, Interim Dean of the School of Communications agrees, but he will take it a step further. "It's not just our outstanding access to equipment. It's access to great teachers. It's access to who can teach them how to write engaging stories, when to use the bells and whistles of which we have a lot, when not to use them. Its quality, and not just technical quality, that is the emphasis of our school. Using the latest technology to tell intelligent, compelling and engaging stories."

Teachers are at the core of Quinnipiac's curriculum. They are chosen, say both Donnelly and Hanley, for their ability to bring professional experience and experience and insight into the classroom.

William "Liam" O'Brien is one such instructor. His extensive Hollywood career spans a broad spectrum of industry placements -- as Assistant Director or as Unit Production Manager or as Line Producer for Universal Studios, Orion, Indie film shoots all over the world, various television productions. He has written and directed for Discovery, Turner, Audubon and National Productions, and he has been a producer at CBS News. As an Associate Professor of Communications at QU, Prof. O'Brien teaches Screenwriting, Directing and Television and Film Pre-Production and Post-Production.

For O'Brien, teaching, he says, "is all about encouraging students to make every mistake while it is still relatively painless to do so and in learning from those experiences, to never repeat the same mistakes. With determination, good humor, good sense and a mastery of aesthetics, ethics and craft, a student at Quinnipiac can excel in this industry."

He credits Quinnipiac with offering a broader liberal arts education than most film school environments. "Our in-depth pre-professional hands on training demands both mastery of the craft of film and television production and an understanding of the aesthetics of the communication arts."

Like Hanley and Donnelly, O'Brien is quick to point to the quality of teaching that goes on at Quinnipiac. "Unlike larger schools, Quinnipiac's students and faculty interact daily in an environment where every student has a real opportunity to learn and to do."

Rebecca Abbott, award-winning documentary filmmaker and postproduction specialist, is one such faculty member. Rich Hanley credits Abbott with having enriched the School of Communication's ability to provide meaningful education to their filmmakers by creating a marriage between Communications and the Drama Department. Abbott says that though she did create the first links, the success was at least in part a result of serendipity.

"With the creation of the School of Communication in 2000, there was a new focus on the School's own particular curriculum, which included broadened understanding of what a good education in video production required. A course in film form and aesthetics was added to the major, and several production 'tracks' were identified, including one in narrative production."

"One really fortunate -- and coincidental -- development was the hiring of Crystal Brian as a full-time drama professor, and the creation of a drama minor, both of which happened at around the same time. I linked up with her immediately, and we started collaborating on courses involving acting/directing for camera."

Like Yale and Wesleyan, QU emphasizes interdisciplinary study, analysis of history, understanding of the context within which film and video exists. Says Hanley, "It's critical for students to understand the history and the landscape and to see where they fit."

"A sense of ethics is critical," says Dean Donnelly. "We want to make sure our graduates have a keen sense of ethics and an awareness of the power of the media. Our graduates should help to provide a good influence in the world, and they must be cognizant of their responsibility to serve the society they are reflecting."

Carla Stockton is celebrating her fifth year as the other half of Bagel Fish. She and partner Daniel Fine are in development on their first feature BAGEL KING and have a second, TOO MUCH OF NOTHING, ready to roll as well. When not fundraising, Ms. Stockton writes for IMAGINE, works on her short stories and screenplays, and teaches Acting, Acting for the Camera, and Screenwriting at Bagel Fish headquarters in New Haven. In February, Bagel Fish will produce a celebrity reading in tribute to Sidney Lumet, which Daniel Fine will direct, at the Director's View Film Festival in Stamford, Ct.