Ghetto Film School Residency at SCM Provides Valuable Skills and Life Lessons

“I was always very independent and thought I had to do it all myself. But when you meet people who are good and confident at what they do, you work together and end up making beautiful art.”

That epiphany from John Silvandayot of Los Angeles was among many valuable lessons echoed by 42 student teen filmmakers who attended the Ghetto Film School (GFS) earlier this summer at the School of Communication and Media (SCM). GFS is an award-winning nonprofit that aims to “educate, develop and celebrate the next generation of great storytellers.”

Over a rewarding two weeks, 25 students from Los Angeles and 17 from New York used SCM’s world class facilities to create 32 short films. As Silvandayot noted, the students learned the importance of teamwork, but the experience also enhanced their writing, editing and producing skills, and highlighted the importance of acting.

“This experience has enhanced my perspective about the film industry and how to make a film,” said GFS student Asha Mody of Brooklyn. “It’s been fun going more in depth into directing and how to engage our actors more to get the best result possible. It’s not always us as directors leading them, sometimes it’s best to have the actors lead us. That might lead to their most authentic performance to give us the best film possible.”

Each film was 3-5 minutes with two or three characters. A unique aspect of the collaboration was that the 19 actors were part of the University’s BFA Theater/Acting program and each actor performed in at least four films.

“I’ve grabbed onto the vernacular the acting teachers provided,” said Paloma Maisonet of Los Angeles. “In high school, we used more technical words, but to get a new perspective from these teachers who know how to direct the actors and act themselves, it’s really neat.” Professors Peter Flynn, Heather Benton and Ellen Lancaster provided instruction from the BFA program.

The busy and intense schedule consisted of story instruction and analysis, theater instruction, rehearsal (with eight sets running concurrently), four days of production, and time for editing, screening and feedback. Professor Stuart MacLelland, who along with Professor Vernard Gantt helped lead the students and program this year, marveled at this year’s class. “It was very successful,” MacLelland said. “There were star performances in every aspect of filmmaking. The students worked extremely hard, took direction well, and had impressive films as a result.”

During the Fall Semester, the films will be available on SCM’s new streaming service, Hawk+.

Even with all the learning, sharing of experiences and publicity from their films, some of the students also had the bigger picture in mind. “It’s a collaborative effort working toward something bigger,” Mody said. “GFS has helped me grow as a person and filmmaker and establish long term relationships with the GFS L.A. group. Hopefully, we can rely on each other and go into the industry together as we get older.”

And one day, they might be able to say their amazing careers really took off making “beautiful art” after attending the Ghetto Film School at Montclair State University.

Story by Keith Green, School of Communication and Media. Photos by University Photographer Mike Peters.