| Behind
the Silver Screen With Reeves Lehmann
by
Jacob M. Appel
The
film program at the School of Visual Arts has changed dramatically
since Reeves Lehmann attended college in the 1970s. “Back then
there was a much, much smaller student population,” he recalled.
“We were also a very mature group of students—many of us, like
myself, were coming out of the service, coming back from Vietnam.
And the war was still going on, which created a whole different
climate.” At that time, “most of the student-made films were about
relationships, some were documentaries.” Maybe because of their
personal experiences, the students tended to stay away from political
subject matter. “If I can recall,” observed Lehmann, “I don’t
think any of the films had any relation to the war. We just didn’t
go there with our films.” At that time, access to faculty and
equipment was also much more limited. According to Lehmann, “Back
then you had a choice of five advisers. Now you have the entire
faculty of the film department available to be film advisors.
Back then there were twenty-five to thirty instructors at the
school, now there are one hundred thirty just in this department.”
All of these faculty are working professionals and experts in
their fields. Students in the Department of Film, Video and Animation
can now specialize in directing, cinematography, editing, and
screenwriting. The driving force behind these changes has been
Lehmann himself, whose fourteen years as chairman of the department
have seen a revolutionary transformation of the program.
 One
of Lehmann’s first innovations as chairman was the establishment
of a film festival, the Dusty Awards, to show the thesis projects
of the school’s undergraduates. “During the festival,” explained
Lehmann, “we have people from the industry come here for a private
screening of all the work, and they judge the films and make the
selections for the most outstanding screenplay, cinematography,
film, what have you. We keep that under wraps and then the finale
of the film festival, which is actually an awards evening, is
where we announce those winners and that’s where they get their
Dusty.” The festival, open to the public, is attended by in excess
of three thousand people. “For an undergraduate film festival,”
noted Lehmann, “that is absolutely amazing.” The school invites
prominent figures from the film industry to present the awards.
This year Arthur Penn (Little Big Man, Bonnie and Clyde) handed
out the directing award. Other recent presenters included screenwriter
David Kepp (Spider Man, Panic Room), actor/director Mark Rydell
(On Golden Pond) and horror directors George Romero (Night of
the Living Dead) and Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream).
“It’s quite an evening,” declared Lehmann. “And they don’t just
give out the awards, they impact inspiration and hope to the students.”
The event is underwritten by such industry mainstays as Kodak,
Sony and Technicolor. Proceeds from the screenings are used to
fund the thesis projects of up-and-coming students, which can
often cost between $8,000 and $25,000.
Another of Lehmann’s innovations was the hiring of a film festival
coordinator to encourage students to compete for external awards
in a highly competitive industry. “There are now hundreds of film
festivals across the country,” explained Lehmann. “It’s important
to have a film festival coordinator students can go to for advice,
not only on determining which festivals their film would be suited
for, but also how to prep their film and all the other support
materials that go to these festivals.” In recent years, School
of Visual Arts students have twice won the Motion Picture Academy
Award for Students and have also garnered the Eastman-Kodak Cinematography
Award and the prestigious Director’s Guild of America—East Award
for Outstanding Filmmaking.
One of the distinguishing features of the School of Visual Arts
program is its emphasis on acting. “There is no other film school
in the country that I am aware of that requires all students,
regardless of whether they plan to be directors, cinematographers,
editors, or screenwriters, to take acting classes,” explained
Lehmann. “That’s very important to us. Aside from a good script,
performance can either make or break your film. An understanding
of what an actor goes through, and having the language and the
respect and being able to collaborate with the actors, is vital.”
Another defining characteristic of the program is the students’
unfettered access to equipment. “We are probably the most well-equipped
film school per capita on the East Coast, maybe in the country,”
noted Lehmann, “and we do not put any restrictions on access to
equipment. Once they learn how to use the equipment, the students
can access it as often as they need it for their productions,
which doesn’t happen at a lot of other schools.
The most significant transformation in the film department during
Lehmann’s tenure has not been only curricular, but technological.
The advent of digital technology has substantially reduced costs
for many students; approximately sixty percent shoot their final
project, a ten to twenty minute film, on digital video. But even
those who choose to shoot on film, for which there remains a preference,
have benefited from the digital revolution. “There are students
who still shoot on film and there are students who go to the digital
side,” explained Lehmann, “but both, regardless of how they shoot,
end up editing in the digital realm. There is no more hands-on
film editing anymore.” Lehmann admits his own preference for film,
noting that the “immediacy” of digital video can’t compete with
the “warmth” and “clarity” of the traditional medium. “The problem
with digital, still,” added Lehmann, “is that on the large screen
it only looks good if you have the most expensive projectors.
But who’s going to pay for that at all these theaters across the
county?” You need someone knowledgeable to show a digital video;
film, in contrast, can be “supervised by the popcorn kid.”
Lehmann is himself an avid cinema aficionado. He worked for several
commercial houses, making documentaries, before he arrived at
the School of the Visual Arts. His favorite director is France’s
Claude LeLouch whom he praises as “a true romantic” who “loves
cinema” and “whose passion for film making you can see in his
movies.” LeLouch began his career as a cameraman and gained fame
for such films as “A Man and a Woman,” “And Now My Love,” “Happy
New Year,” and “Bandits”; many of his films have been remade by
American directors. Lehmann readily urges students and any lovers
of cinema to watch LeLouch’s work. Lehmann’s favorite film, “The
Holy Mountain,” which he describes as “genius in its storytelling,”
may be a more difficult challenge for movie buffs. It was directed
by the Chilean-born Alejandro Jodorowsky and first shown in New
York City in 1973. Lehmann obtained his personal copy of laser
disk from a friend, filmmaker Roy Frumkes (who is also a fan of
A.J.), while visiting Japan; the work has never been released
in the United States. And maybe this magical film is symptomatic
of the dilemma that Lehmann has spent his career trying to remedy—the
plethora of remarkable films that never make it to mainstream
theaters and are never exposed to widespread audiences. Needless
to say, one of the principal goals of the film program at the
School of the Visual Arts is to give its students who have worked
so hard, as much opportunity as possible to display their work
to the industry and general public.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express
consent of the publisher. © 2003.
|
