Series give students skills for TV and film

New Cal Lutheran ventures put actors on camera

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The cast of "Metro General" includes Kelvyn Holmes, Christopher Clyne, Malissa Marlow, Johan Karlsson and Michael Berquist.

Photo: Brian Stethem

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – April 16, 2015) California Lutheran University has begun producing two video series to give students experience to help them launch careers in television and film.

The public is invited to free screenings of “Metro General,” which features the work of about 60 students in front of and behind the camera, in Preus-Brandt Forum on the Thousand Oaks campus. All four 30-minute episodes will be shown at 8 p.m. each night from April 30 through May 3. The series is a dark comedy appropriate for people 13 and older.

Four episodes of the original web series “Rogues of LA,” which features about a dozen students and alumni, are available online at roguesofla.com.

Students from the Theatre Arts and Communication departments are involved in “Metro General.” Ken Gardner, who chairs the Theatre Arts Department, and five students spent six months writing four episodes. The soap-opera spoof set in a hospital is based on a weekly stage show that was produced at Ohio University.

This week, communication students concentrating in film and television production are filming the episodes featuring theater arts students in a multi-camera style similar to sitcoms. Students and faculty turned the university’s Black Box Theatre into a soundstage with multiple sets including a hospital lobby, disco, courtroom, apartments and waterfront. Students in the Computer Graphics class created posters for the series.

Markus Flanagan, an adjunct member of the faculty, launched “Rogues of LA” this year to give students and alumni experience in front of a camera alongside professionals, making them eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The show is filmed on campus using a single camera. In each 10-minute episode, a pair of best friends finds unusual ways to help people solve problems.

Because the vast majority of paying jobs for actors are in film and television, the faculty members started the two series to provide students with relevant experience that they can’t get from theater productions.

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