University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN Grad Student Changes the Cannes Experience for Aspiring Filmmakers

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Oct. 9, 2006) -- He’s only 25, but Cal State Northridge graduate student Ken Schoech’s Hollywood career is clearly on an upward trajectory.

He’s worked on several low-budget commercials and a Lil’ Kim music video, assisted with the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards show, did production coordination for the film "X-Men: The Last Stand," assisted with the official release of "Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith," and was personally asked by Sacha Baron Cohen to coordinate the Los Angeles premier of his film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." He even set up Cohen’s first screening of the film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

"I guess I have been kind of lucky," said Schoech, who graduated from Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in film in 2004 and expects to finish his master’s thesis in screenwriting this December. "A lot of opportunities have presented themselves to me, and I’ve been able to take advantage of them."

The North Hollywood resident credits opportunity, coupled with strategic networking, as the key to his success--things he wants to share with other aspiring filmmakers.

Schoech and his partner, Robert Ford, have created Project Cannes, an internship program at the Cannes Film Festival designed to get students into the heart of the world’s premier film festival where they can network and create opportunities of their own.

Earlier this year, the pair took about 30 students from CSUN and Howard University, Ford’s alma mater, to the festival, and nearly all of them came back with some sort of job in the industry. Schoech and Ford are planning to take another 100 students to the festival next May, and they are expanding the cadre to include not just students from Northridge and Howard, but other universities as well.

Senior CSUN film student Jason Frizado, who accompanied Schoech to Cannes earlier this year, called it "a once in a lifetime experience. It gave me a chance to be part of the international filmmaking community."

Schoech said the project grew out of his own experience as an intern at the film festival a couple of years ago. He paid $2,100, not unusual for an internship at the Cannes Film Festival, for a program he thought would provide him an opportunity to meet some of the entertainment industry’s top decision makers. A chance relationship with singer Alicia Keyes, which grew out of his prior career as a recording engineer, saved him from the fate that awaited his fellow interns—serving food to tourists.

7quo Alicia Keyes was having a birthday party and my supervisor wanted to go," Schoech said. "I offered to make him a deal--I’d take him to the party if I didn’t have to serve the tourists. He agreed. I spent my time working the festival, meeting people and networking. I got a lot of job opportunities that way. But the people who actually worked the internship didn’t get that chance. Their badges didn’t allow them anywhere except where the tourists were. And they spent most of their time serving food to the tourists."

Schoech said Project Cannes is different. The program’s interns are armed with passes that get them into the main action of the festival—screening areas and the "marketplace" where movie distribution deals are made. They also intern at the marketplace or with a film company making deals. The project also secures housing for the students near the festival, unlike other programs that often bus their interns to dorms outside the city.

"We give the students guided tours of the city before the festival starts so if they are working for someone who needs them to run an errand, they know where to go," Schoech said. "We also give them a guide on how to work the festival to get the most out of it for themselves. While our interns may provide free manpower for the market place or the studios, they will come back with jobs based on connections they made at Cannes."

Nate Thomas, head of CSUN’s film option, called Schoech "an absolutely amazing student.

"When he went to Cannes the first time as an intern himself, he blew everyone away with his ability to network and make connections," Thomas said. "He’s also an extremely talented young man. We’re happy that he’s determined enough to finish his education before going on and leaving his mark on the entertainment industry, which I have no doubt he will."

Thomas said that while most people recognize Cannes as the world’s premier film festival, they don’t realize it is also the world’s top film market, where most of the world’s movies are sold and financed. "What Ken is doing is providing an opportunity for students to learn about the inner workings of the most salient film market."

Project Cannes, www.projectcannes.com, isn’t the only venture Schoech and Ford are working on to make access to Hollywood easier for aspiring filmmakers. Their company, Bridging the Gap, is currently developing a program designed to teach newcomers to the area such information as where key industry offices are, where to rent filmmaking equipment, how to work the city’s film permitting process and where and what studios are available for rent.

"So many people come to L.A. fresh out of film school and when they get here, they don’t know what to do," said Schoech, who has his own production company, Northbound Entertainment. "Even those of us who go to school here don’t always know where to go or what to do. Unless you’re born into the entertainment industry, it can be kind of intimidating or frustrating trying to find your way around. We hope to make it easier for people like us, who have to find and open their own doors into Hollywood."