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 Troop Hollywood
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF hho@media.ucla.edu Michelle Keyes teaches at the Woodlands Christian Academy in Houston and she spent her summer with 20 of her students. Keyes' students were excited about the prospect not necessarily because they love school, but because Keyes took them to the UCLA Arts Camps. In their first year, UCLA's camps cover various theater, film and television topics from sitcom writing to dance. According to Keyes, the program is a success. "It was L.A., and I know this is where you need to be. I'll definitely be back next year," Keyes said. While originally only 150 students were expected for the entire summer, the numbers indicate demand for the programs. Last week UCLA hosted 134 kids in four camps. Next week 155 kids will participate in three camps. Some came from as far as Philadelphia and the Cayman Islands. The only requirement for admission to the camps is the ability to pay for the $775 to $925 fee. According to Myrl Schreibman, who teaches the Performance for the Camera camp, one Baltimore high school junior wanted to go to the camp so much, he worked two jobs to be able to attend. Founded by Judith Patterson, a former actor and producer, the UCLA Arts Camps are part of the U.S. Performing Arts and Media Camps, which also have sites at Pepperdine and Stanford. Seven of the 12 camps are on the UCLA campus and run by UCLA professors and administrators. The participants stay for a week and take classes, go on field trips and start projects. For example, the broadcast news camp went to the premiere of "XXX" in Westwood, where local television crews were covering the event. They also visited TV station KCOP an hour before its news show broadcast. In addition, the campers worked on their own projects, where they chose topics, did research, filmed footage and completed a one-minute news story.
"When something big happens, like Sept. 11, to be able to turn on the TV and see a familiar face giving you information is reassuring," Nguyen said. "To be able to provide that for someone else is a nice way of doing what I like and serving others at the same time." While some campers are fulfilling their dreams, others are using the camp to try out new fields and see how they like them. "It's making me realize whether I want to be an actress when I grow up. In some ways, it makes me feel like I don't want to do it," said Performance for the Camera camper Rachel Williams, a high school sophomore who now realizes that she would rather pursue her other dream of creating a magazine. "In a way it's a good thing, because now I know what I want to do." The program not only introduces campers between the ages of 11 to 18 to the professional world of the entertainment industry, it also gives them a taste of UCLA. UCLA students mentor the campers and give them tours of the school. Students also get to stay in the Dykstra or Sunset dorms. "The kids come here and bond with the university," said Schriebman. "It's somewhat of a recruiting as well. One of the advantages of this program introduces these kids to what UCLA is about." The programs are held mostly in Meltnitz and Macgowan, where students edit their films, practice combat for fight scenes on camera or stage and practice improvisational acting. The Performance for the Camera campers performed short excerpts from films such as "Legally Blonde," "Ferris Buller's Day Off" and "When Harry Met Sally" in the sculpture garden with UCLA student directors.
While most students wanted to be in front of the camera, many got experience behind the cameras as well. During film shoots, the campers had to work the microphones and the boom, which involves moving the camera high in the air. In the broadcast news camp, camper Kris Kachurak did not complete his project because he worked as a producer for his fellow campers' projects. "I like the technical aspects, editing, cinematography, all the behind the scenes stuff," Kachurak said. By Friday, the fruits of the week-long camp are shown to parents who often fly in to pick up their children and see what their kids worked on. The theater camp did improvisation and combat scenes. The sitcom, Performance for the Camera and broadcast news camps did screenings of their works. The playwriting camp had their scenes performed by professional actors. After the popularity of the inaugural year, Schriebman hopes to expand the program to accommodate more students and more interests. "We're going to experiment," Schriebman said. "We know this is a success. We have some ideas for other camps."
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