HFPA $50,000 grant to prep CSULA students to work in the entertainment industry

Sept. 4, 2012 - PRLog -- For the third consecutive year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has awarded California State University, Los Angeles a $50,000 grant for the University’s Department of Television, Film and Media Studies (TVFM).

The prestigious award will help undergraduate and graduate students offset the costs of pursuing higher education degrees in a creative-based discipline, where expenses include costly technological equipment and such supplies as cameras, high-capacity video storage hard drives, video tape, and editing software.

According to John Ramirez, the grant’s principal investigator, “A number of our undergraduate HFPA fellowship recipients these past two years have been enabled to complete their undergraduate studies on schedule and gone on to successfully qualify for admission to CSULA’s MFA degree program in Television, Film and Theatre (TVFT). MFA recipients of the HFPA fellowships have been able to meet the costs for high-quality professional collateral, such as head shots, websites, publicity materials and venue rentals for the promotion and showcasing of their creative work.”

Ramirez adds, “The HFPA grant helps significantly to level the playing field for CSULA’s TV and film student recipients in the competitive local higher education TV, film and theatre studies landscape.”

Launched in fall 2008, the MFA in TVFT program is the only one of its kind on a college campus in the United States that brings the four creative arms of the entertainment industry—producers, directors, writers and actors—together as cohorts.

A new Television, Film and Media Studies Center—slated to open in summer 2013 nearby campus—will offer CSULA students access to state-of-the-art technology along with innovative creative opportunities. The site includes a two-story TV studio, audio recording studio, post-production room, media computer lab, screening room classroom, and other spaces, plus a two-level parking structure.

In the center of the world’s largest concentration of the entertainment industry, this new facility will give CSULA a dynamic space to host a rotating roster of Hollywood’s top producers, directors, screenwriters and actors to campus as guest speakers and student mentors.

For details about the TVFM department or the MFA program, go to http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/tvft or http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/tvf/graduate.php.