Thelma Vickroy, a tenured professor and head of the Electronic Media Management option at California State University Northridge Department of Cinema and Television Arts. She is also the coordinator of the CTVA internship program and a senior member of the television production faculty.

After graduating with a M.F.A. in film and television from New York University, Thelma Vickroy began her career working for documentarian Robert Drew, a founder of direct cinema. She is an experienced award winning producer and director in both documentary and non-fiction television. These works include My Father the President, winner of a Cine Eagle and American Film Festival Blue Ribbon, and An Evening of Forbidden Books, broadcast on PBS. Extraordinarily Ordinary, was an official selection at DocuWeek Theatrical Documentary Showcase (former called DOCtober, the International Documentary Association film festival), Lake Arrowhead Film Festival and qualified for consideration for an Academy Award in the documentary shorts category. The third in a series of portrait-style documentaries, Ahmed, Say Something Funny was an official selection at the Dubai Film Market. The documentary also won Best Documentary and Best Comedy feature at the Action on Film (AOF) Festival 2008.

As a member of PACT5, a five universities collaborative documentary project, Thelma was a principal investigator of a Wyncote Foundation grant (Summer 2012-Fall 2013) to produce and supervise a student created documentary to address the social issues of sexual assault and rape on college campuses. Selected students from her Fall 2012 senior thesis course, Directing the TV Documentary (CTVA 441), produced a 10-minute documentary titled 1000XNo: Students Giving Voice To A Silent Epidemic. This work can be seen at the PACT5 web site: www.pact5.org

Additionally, Professor Vickroy was a consultant on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Campus Suicide Prevention federal grant received by California State University Northridge. She selected students from the television option to produce media to be used in awareness and education addressing the social issue of suicide and suicide prevention for college students (Fall 2012-Summer 2015). Thelma has received other funding support for her work from the Research and Creative Activities Grant from the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication at California State University Northridge to support Archive Library of American Documentary Filmmaker (2007/2008) and the documentary Ahmed, Say Something Funny (2006/2007).

Professor Vickroy students’ documentaries have won many awards in film festivals and national award competitions. Thelma is a former board member of the International Documentary Association. She is also one of the founders of DOCS ROCK, a high school documentary production curriculum in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Thelma has shared her knowledge and experience of education and documentary production on professional panels. She has written about the world of documentary, non-fiction filmmaking and television in published articles.

The Courses Professor Vickroy teaches:

• CTVA 240 Beginning Television Production
• CTVA 305  History of Broadcasting
• CTVA 340 Advance Video Production and Editing
• CTVA 341 Single-Camera Video Production and Editing
• CTVA 440 Theory and Techniques of TV Directing
• CTVA 441 Directing the TV Documentary 
• CTVA 494 C, F   Undergraduate Internship
• CTVA 694 C  Graduate Internship

Education

• B.A. English, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• M.A. Documentary Film Production (coursework only), Stanford University
• M.F.A. Screenwriting, University of Southern California.

About Me

Scott teaches undergraduate and graduate screenwriting and is CTVA’s Graduate Screenwriting Program Coordinator. He has written (and rewritten) film and television scripts for Sony, Universal, Warner Bros., Touchstone, New Line, NBC and CBS. He developed and sold projects with Michael Douglas, Barry Sonnenfeld and Kevin Costner among others.

Recently, he and his writing partner set up a feature screenplay comedy, The Coachmen, with Seth MacFarlane’s production company, Fuzzy Door. They are currently writing an independently financed feature-length musical. And Scott is Executive Producing a low-budget indie horror film scheduled to shoot in Nova Scotia early this spring.

In the more distant past, he also produced two low-budget independent features. The psychological horror film, MAY, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 and sold there to Lionsgate Films. THE ELDER SON, which he also co-wrote, premiered at the 2007 Hamptons International Film Festival and stars Leelee Sobieski and Shane West.

He began his career with Michael Douglas’s Stonebridge Entertainment as Director of Development where he worked on projects including FLATLINERS and MADE IN AMERICA.

Before joining CSUN’s full-time faculty in 2012, Scott taught screenwriting as an adjunct professor at USC. He is a member of the WGA.

Favorite film currently Parasite.

Favorite TV series currently Ted Lasso.

Favorite ways to procrastinate include watching the Dodgers, mountain biking, yoga and getting dragged through the canyons by his dog.

Jared Rappaport holds a degree in Mass Media from the University of Illinois and received his Masters of Fine Arts from the American Film Institute.

As a Directing Fellow at the AFI, he was awarded THE REMY MARTIN SCHOLARSHIP, given to the most outstanding student at the Institute’s Center For Advanced Film Studies, and THE AMY ROSE BLOCH SCHOLARSHIP for excellence and creativity.

Early On, an educational television series he wrote, produced, and directed for Florida Public Broadcasting, is currently being seen on PBS stations. Designed to improve reading skills for children in grades kindergarten through third grade, Early On has been greeted with effusive praise by educators.

Jared co-founded and was creative director of the film company “Wizard Productions” specializing in industrial and commercial filmmaking. His clients included: the United States Department of Education, IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, REEBOK, the Boeing Company, Hilton International, The National Oceanographic Administration, Taco Bell, and a myriad of others.

Professor Rappaport began his Hollywood career writing for the television Series Family Medical Center and the long running daytime serial, Days of Our Lives.

He has written film scripts for most of the major film studios, including: Legendary Lou McBride for Sony; How High the Moon and Body and Soul, as well as production rewrites for Fluke for MGM; Duty to Defend and Senior Trip for Paramount; and the animated feature Mountain of Dreams for Warner Brothers. 

Jared also co-wrote and co-produced Blindness, an independent theatrical release starring Vivian Wu and Joe Lando. His script That’s Life, a Manhattan ensemble comedy about the difficulties of staying monogamous in a long-term relationship, is currently in pre-production. 

He has most recently completed Fathers and Sons, a trilogy of vignettes co-written and co-directed with his fellow AFI graduates Rodrigo Garcia and Robert Spera, seen nationally on The Showtime Network this past Father’s Day. This trio of filmmakers is currently at work on their next script, Man and Wife.

Jared is presently at work on the script, Good Humor for Mockingbird Productions, as well as a script for David Ladd at MGM, Baby I Can Make You A Star, and the spec script Jeez If You Love Honkus.

Jared has moderated and participated in panels at film festivals such as the Sarasota Film Festival, and the Riverrun Film festival, and most recently led a Master’s Seminar in Directing at the North Carolina School of the Arts. His professional affiliations include: the Writer’s Guild of America West; The Director’s Guild of America; and the University Film and Video Association.

Alexis Krasilovsky specializes in screenwriting and film studies. 

Professor
MFA in Film/Video, California Institute of the Arts

Author of Great Adaptations: Screenwriting and Global Storytelling (Routledge: NY/London 2018), Alexis Krasilovsky is also the writer/director of two global documentary features: Women Behind the Camera (2007), winner of four Best Documentary Feature awards (www.womenbehindthecamera.com); and Let Them Eat Cake, winner, "Best Documentary Feature," 2015 Paris Independent Film Festival (www.LetThemEatCakeFilm.com).  Krasilovsky's films and videos also include End of the Art World, starring Andy Warhol; Exile, filmed in Czechoslovakia before the fall of the Iron Curtain -- aired nationally on PBS; Beale Street; Some Women Writers Kill Themselves; and Blood (see http://alexiskrasilovsky.com).  A member of the WGAW, she is also co-author of the book, Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World (Intellect Press: London, October 2015), contributor to Jill Nelmes' and Jule Selbo's Women Screenwriters: An International Guide (Palgrave-Macmillan, September 2015), and author of Sex and the Cyborg Goddess (published under the pseudonym Alexis Rafael), winner of the Irwin Award for "Best #MeToo Novel of the Year."   

Graduate Program
Email: gradscreenwriter@csun.edu

Office Hours: T 1700-1900 W 1600-1700 F 1000-1100 & by appt

Eric Edson has written seventeen feature screenplays on assignment.  His produced script credits include PASSION’S WEB for Showtime, and he co-wrote and co-executive produced the NBC Movie of the Week LETHAL VOWS starring John Ritter and Marg Helgenberger.  Other films include THE ROSE AND THE JACKAL starring Christopher Reeve, THE SOGGY BOTTOM GANG starring Don Johnson, and DIVING IN starring Kristy Swanson.  Eric has also written for episodic television.

Professor Edson’s new book “THE STORY SOLUTION: 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take,” published by Michael Wiese Productions, uncovers for the first time the 23 Hero Goal Sequences® used in every successful motion picture to create dynamic, three dimensional heroes and link together all plot development from first page to last:  

            “Brilliant.  Eric Edson’s book will change the way screenwriting is conceived of and taught.” 
             – Michael Hauge, bestselling author, script consultant to Will Smith

            “The Rosetta stone for translating story ideas into powerful screenplays.” 
            – Steve White, President, New World Feature Films

            “Remarkable.  Strikes off into new territory.” 
            – Tom Rickman, Academy Award nominated screenwriter 

Eric holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Playwriting from UCLA, and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting and Film Directing from The American Film Institute. 

Professor Edson has been a member of The Writers Guild of America since 1981.  He is a recipient of The Samuel Goldwyn Award, the National Story Award, and the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts “Best of Festival” Award for his screenplay SPIRIT WALKER.

Eric has written for Warner Brothers, Sony, ABC Motion Pictures, Hollywood Pictures (Disney), NBC, CBS, TNT, Geffen Pictures, Saban Entertainment, MTM, Aaron Spelling Entertainment, Atlantis Pictures, Citadel Entertainment, The Konigsberg Company, Canadian Telefilms, and many more.

Jon Stahl is a professional screenwriter and has worked in a variety of capacities in film and television production. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from SUNY Binghamton and his M.F.A. in Film and Television from UCLA.

Professor Stahl was a director for several years at WBNG-TV, a CBS affiliate in New York State. One of the programs that he wrote, directed and co-produced, an hour-long special about baseball, won awards from the National Association of Broadcasters and the New York State Broadcasters' Association.

Jon left WBNG to freelance in film production in NYC, the land of his birth. He worked in several aspects of production, on commercials, feature films and TV shows such as Saturday Night Live. In time, he was employed with growing regularity as a prop man, despite his profusion of thumbs. Finally realizing that this flaw would impede a sustained career in the property arts, he turned to screenwriting.

To support his writing habit, Professor Stahl taught television production at Brooklyn College and at SUNY F.I.T. During this time, he also wrote and directed a short film on a budget of 12-and-a-half cents. Shortly thereafter, he made the requisite trek to L.A. He soon affiliated himself with UCLA Extension, where he taught film production for several years.

After receiving his M.F.A., Jon's screenwriting career began to blossom. Several of his feature-length scripts have been optioned by producers such as David Foster (THE RIVER WILD, McCABE AND MRS. MILLER), Cari-Esta Albert (THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS), and Meg Ryan's Prufrock Pictures. Rhino Films (THE SESSIONS, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS) has optioned Jon's most recent feature project, Altschuler Krinsky Works (SILICON VALLEY, LOPEZ) has optioned a half-hour comedy series that he created, and his award-winning web series, LIVE THE DREAM, is in development with DFM Media. A recent feature-length project, PARK AVENUE BASEBALL, placed first in the Broadcast Education Association’s juried faculty scriptwriting competition and was named “Best of Fest” in the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts. 

Professor Stahl joined the CSUN faculty in 1998. He became head of the CTVA Screenwriting Option in 2005, and he served as Chair of the Department of Cinema and Television Arts for six-and-a-half years and Chair of the CSUN Council of Chairs for two years. He has served as a Faculty Senator and a member of the CSUN Faculty Senate Executive Committee. He has been honored by the CSUN Blue Key Honor Society with their Distinguished Faculty Award, the CSUN Ambassadors with their Polished Apple Award, and has been listed in several editions of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Jon has served as moderator and panelist on several conference panels and has had articles published in the JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO and FEEDBACK. He is a member of the Broadcast Education Association, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the University Film and Video Association, and is the president of the local chapter of the Rufus T. Firefly Appreciation Society.

Karen Kearns is Option Head of the Radio Option in the Cinema and Television Arts Department.   From 2009-2012 she was the General Manager of 88.5 KCSN-FM.  She assumed that position after being Associate Dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.  She is a Professor in the Cinema and Television Arts Department specializing in radio and television production.  Professor Kearns joined the CSUN faculty in 1985, after teaching radio production at the University of Maryland and speech communication at the University of Wisconsin. 

Before moving to Los Angeles, Karen worked for National Public Radio in Washington, D. C. as a producer and a newscaster for All Things Considered.  She also worked as a news writer and announcer for Voice of America.  She continued to freelance for NPR, VOA and KOST-FM in Los Angeles.  In 1989, Karen was awarded a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fellowship.  Under the fellowship, she produced a radio drama version of MCTEAGUE, featuring Stacy Keach, Carol Kane, Hector Elizondo, JoBeth Williams, Michael York, Katherine Helman, Ed Asner, Joe Spano, and many other well-known television and film actors for L.A. Theatre Works and KCRW-FM.  Her professional background is in radio and corporate media.  She also worked as a freelance video producer, writer and narrator for American Medical Productions creating Continuing Medical Education video and audio programs for physicians throughout the country.  She is producer/director of a video documentary about the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet entitled “That All May Be One.”   The documentary was screened at the Lafemme Film Festival in Los Angeles and the St. Louis International Film Festival.

As a professional voice talent and a member of AFTRA, she has created characters and narrated series and spots for NBC's Passions, PBS, NPR, the Japanese American Museum, and the Museum of the Rockies

Professor Kearns' audio and video work have received numerous awards, including a Peabody, a Golden Mike, several CINDYs, and a TELLY.   She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was formerly a member of the board of American Women in Radio and Television.

AWARDS:

PEABODY AWARD  
 "Taylor Made Piano"  1982

CINDY AWARD         
"Contemporary Western Europe"  1984

CINDY AWARD        
"The Challenge of China & Japan" 1985

CINDY AWARD        
"The Names Project"  1988

GOLDEN MIKE         
"The Names Project"  1988

VOA AMERICANA     
"Latin in the L.A. Unified School District"  1991

TELLY                        
"Clinical Encounters: Allergic Rhinitis"  1995

CINDY AWARD          
"Managing Allergic Rhinitis"  1996

BEA 1st Place Audio/Educ. Instruction:  
"Managing Allergic Rhinitis"  1995

CSUN Creativity Award    
"The Second Coming"  1997

CSUN Distinguished Teaching Award  2003

CSUN Creativity Award   
“That All May Be One”  2010

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Professor Willey received her MFA from the UCLA film school and her MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. A filmmaker who was presented at the Directors Guild Young Filmmaker program, she has gone on to specialize in screenwriting and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.

Recently, her story, Little John, was presented by Hallmark Hall of Fame and aired on CBS. In 2003, Professor Willey’s screenwriting won the CSUN Faculty Award for Outstanding Creative Work.

Also, Professor Willey lectures and writes on diverse popular culture topics, including a catalogue essay on Von Dutch for the Kustom Kulture exhibit at the Laguna Museum of art and a lecture presentation at Cambridge University, England for the Popular Culture Association, titled ‘The Automobile - From Artifact to Art."

Professor Willey has taught all aspects of film production. Currently, she is specializing in film directing and advising students on their projects.

Joel Krantz is originally a native of Easton, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia), now living in the Los Angeles area. He is currently working as a full-time Professor of Film Production at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), with an expertise in audio and post-production sound. He joined the Department of Cinema and Television Arts in 2003 as a part-time lecturer and was later hired as a full-time faculty member in the Fall of 2011. He is an Avid Certified Master Instructor, Certified Pro Tools Expert for both Post-Production and Music, and most recently became a Dolby Atmos Certified Instructor. In addition to teaching at CSUN, he has guest lectured for the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Ringling College of Art and Design (Sarasota, FL), Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), and Loyola University (New Orleans, LA).

With over 25 years of industry experience, Joel has written and published more than 25 different Avid Pro Tools training course books, used at Avid Learning Partner schools worldwide. Most recently, Joel completed a training book for Dolby Labs Inc. called Dolby Vision Color Grading that is used to train color grading professionals. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he worked in New York City for six years as a senior product specialist and training instructor for Avid Technology, Inc. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree (in Music Education) from Susquehanna University, and a Master of Music degree (in Music Technology) from New York University, where he graduated with summa cum laude honors.

His training and consulting clients include sound professionals from NBC-Universal, Warner Brothers, Disney Feature Animation, Paramount, Capitol Records, Clear Channel Worldwide, Virgin Records, MPSE Local 700, IATSE, Nickelodeon, Sound One, Magno Sound and Video, Technicolor, New York University, AT&T, Price-Waterhouse, Nile Rogers Productions, NBET, National Public Radio (NPR), Sony Pictures, Sony Music, ABC, CBS, and FOX.

His film sound credits include Let Them Eat Cake (Pastriology), War of the Gods, You Try Living Here, and Sojourn. In addition to working in film sound, Joel recorded, edited, and mastered the audiobook, The Story Solution: 23 Actions All Great Heroes Must Take, television PSAs for the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, and the LA City Attorney’s Office, as well as promos for Fox Television, DIRECTV, Anthem Blue Cross, and the Phillips Graduate Institute. Joel is also an active member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE), and the University Film & Video Association (UFVA). Although teaching is his passion, Joel keeps himself busy outside of CSUN with freelance film and video projects, consulting, publishing, and spending time with his daughters (Natalie and Samantha), wife (Michele) and chocolate Labrador Retrievers (Dove and Nestle). Hobbies include hiking, biking, swimming, road trips, and anything outdoors. Joel is also an enthusiastic Start Trek fan who has seen all episodic series and movies to date.

Michael Hoggan is a native from Phoenix, Arizona and completed his BA and MA in Art from San Diego State University. During this same time frame he also acquired teaching credentials in Elementary, Secondary and Junior College Education. As a graduate student he received 1st place with his sculpture presentation in the famed San Diego County State Fair in Del Mar. After graduation his life as a burgeoning artist took a turn when he arrived in Los Angeles and began working in the CBS Network Promotional Department. The intense, high paced experience was the birth place of his life in filmmaking. Here the full scope of the postproduction process was learned in a baptism of fire. Gathering of material, writing, editing, sound and music design, sound mixing, negative cutting, hot splicing and the politic of human negotiation with the various executives at the network were all a part of this delicious boiling stew.

During the next 30 years he has enjoyed a plethora of experiences in the Motion Picture Industry. As a writer he received his first screen writing credit for "The French Connection", an episode of Miami Vice. He served as Editor of the CINEMEDIATOR, the monthly periodical for the American Cinema Editors from 1993 to 1995.

Currently he is in the final stages of completing a text book on the ART AND CRAFT OF MOTION PICTURE EDITING, perhaps the first book to attempt to describe the scope of this amazing craft and art form.

He directed second unit for the MIAMI VICE and the CRIME STORY series for NBC. He earned his first directing credit with "The Cell Within" an episode of MIAMI VICE.

The majority of his time in the Motion Picture Business was spent as a picture editor. He has edited on over 20 different TV series including such diverse shows as: EARLY EDITION , COP ROCK, MIAMI VICE, COMIC VIEW, and FANTASY ISLAND. There were assignments on TV pilots such as The Big Easy, Misfits of Science, Celebrity and Homefront. There were also assignments doing long form TV with such projects as the six hour mini series FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and the two hour MIAMI VICE special. During this course of the time he received two Emmy nominations and two ACE Eddie nominations for his work on "Smugglers Blues" an episode of MIAMI VICE and "Snafu" the pilot of HOMEFRONT.

Michael has had the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors (the Phi Beta Cappa organization of the film editing profession) for three terms and served one term as its President from 1992-1994. He has also served on judging panels for the TV Academy, CableACE, and ACE Eddie.