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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COMMENTARY
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
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Film school dean doubles as 'Smurfs' director
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LOS ANGELES — Veteran movie producer Jordan Kerner spent nearly 10 years finding a way to make "The Smurfs," which earned $35.6 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. But it's not his long track record in Hollywood, which includes producing everything fr
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UNCSA are getting an education not just in theory and production but in the often less-than-glamorous aspects of life in the trenches of Hollywood.
Kerner has recruited a host of faculty members who still have their day jobs, which helps give students a grounding in the kind of problem-solving necessary to survive on a film set. Through a
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked," which will hit theaters this Christmas. He also has his students listen in on his conversations with his agent so they can develop an understanding of the demands of the marketplace.
up to talk to an actor, our kids would be right there with him. They also got to spend time with our editors, visual effects supervisor, sound designers and other crew members. Sometimes the discussions were difficult, but that was the whole point — it's a way to learn the whys and why nots of filmmaking." (With it being 2011, students had to sign release forms permission not to blog about what
Kerner never imagined himself being a film school dean — in fact, he never went to film school himself. But after surviving a freak staph infection and enduring the
their experiences. But Kerner felt the school needed more outside professionals on the faculty, so he recruited a host of industry pros, including producer Bob Gosse and Peter Bogdanovich, who teaches a freshman film class.
My biggest concern with today's film schools is that they tend to offer students far more instruction in technique than in actual ideas.
Rut the student film I watched.
Immersion project, where students gain a deeper understanding of character and story by spending several weeks at places like the Veterans Artificial Limb Hospital in Philadelphia and Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans.
"They can't take cameras or recording devices — just a pad and pen," he says. "The whole idea is to go out and get to know people, hear their stories and get under
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE DODGERS' DIVORCE
Insider grad writes up baseball intrigue
IAN CUMMINGS editor@kansan.com
When Josh Fisher, talking baseball over burgers and fries at a downtown Kansas City restaurant, cryptically tells a jaded Royals fan "not to worry" because there are "good things in the works" for next year, one is inclined to listen, even if only cautiously. The University of Kansas graduate is, after all, a baseball insider, even if he is only 25 years old.
He has made himself an insider through the singular pursuit—as a citizen journalist—of one story: a messy Los Angeles divorce that opened up the Dodgers' books to public controversy and led to bankruptcy and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's move to take over the team earlier this year.
Fisher is the creator of Dodgerdivorce.com, a website devoted to the public distress of the Los Angeles Dodgers and its owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt. In the past 20 months, Fisher has gone from unknown blogger to a public fixture in one particular constellation of the sports media, writing about the
divorce and other baseball topics for ESPNLosAngeles.com and The Hardball Times.
GAINING PROFILE
He missed the first month of law school last year because he was attending the McCourt divorce trial. Fisher said he found himself flying to Los Angeles for the trial because Molly Knight, of ESPN The Magazine, unexpectedly called him and asked "when are you getting in?"
"I wasn't planning to go," Fisher said. But Knight persuaded him that he should be there. He called Dodgers officials to ask about press seating, and when he explained that he was from Dodgerdivorce.com, they said he had a spot reserved, along with sports journalists Knight, T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times and Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated.
"That was a surreal experience," Fisher said. "That was when I was like, 'this is real'"
Since then, the New York Times has profiled him and he has "stuttered and stammered" his way through several radio interviews. What Fisher called "the shock mo-
Josh Fisher, a University of Kansas graduate, is the creator of DodgerDivorce.com.
IAN CUMMINGS/KANSAN
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