Film school awaits final OK today
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The Academy for Creative Media — previously called the UH Film School — got the green light yesterday from a committee of the University of Hawai'i Board of Regents and will be up for final approval at the board's meeting today.
Advertiser library photo • Jan. 28, 2003
The academy — with 70 UH-Manoa students enrolled — will be the first to span the 10-campus system throughout the state and create a blueprint for more systemwide initiatives.
Chris Lee, co-director of the UH Academy for Creative Media, has high hopes for the local film industry.
But it also will help build a strong new industry in Hawai'i, said its co-director, Chris Lee, who came back to Hawai'i to lead the program after a Hollywood career as both producer and director. Lee was president of production for TriStar Pictures and Columbia Pictures.
"I think it's a big part of Hawai'i's future, but it's nothing if we don't convince people to build their own companies or for companies to come here," said Lee. "The (financial) return (for the state) will be whether we've incubated new companies here."
Lee envisions the program becoming self-supporting through its tuition, and offering everything from a two-year associate's degree to a Ph.D. It will eventually pull together a wide range of classes, including digital film production, TV production, video game production, content creation, screenwriting, storytelling and computer science.
The program will be based in the College of Arts and Sciences as part of liberal studies at Manoa and will have an annual budget of about $1 million. Manoa chancellor Peter Englert has made $353,000 available; Lee has raised an additional $450,000. For the next fiscal year Gov. Linda Lingle is proposing $767,000 in the supplemental budget for the academy's first full year.
As envisioned, distance learning would allow students on all campuses to take any of dozens of courses throughout the system.
Leeward Community College chancellor Mark Silliman — whose campus has several courses that will fit into the program — also sees it as a means to tell the indigenous stories of Hawai'i as well as to nurture storytellers.
"Many of the kupuna are the keepers of that trusted tradition," he said. "I hope we'll interview the kupuna. They're great storytellers and I'm afraid they'll be lost."
In addition to moving the ACM forward yesterday, regents decided they needed a full day's workshop on the proposal for an expanded UH-West O'ahu campus in Kapolei — to look at academics, needs and options regarding a physical plant — before asking developers to look at a public/private partnership.
Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements, has found interest among several local developers in building a scaled-back $73 million Phase 1 to serve 1,520 students, in exchange for development rights to about 170 acres of the 500-acre state parcel earmarked for a Kapolei campus.
Real estate broker Charles "Rod" Miller told regents that the Maryl group he represents is looking at building a small pharmacology school in Kapolei. Miller noted that Hawai'i Pacific University has indicated interest in the area and that the University of Phoenix is offering classes there. He suggested sharing key facilities such as a library and bookstore, or having a turnkey operation where UH would move in and pay rent for facilities built by a private developer.
Regent Kitty Lagareta cautioned that if UH moves forward to work out an arrangement with a private developer, the option should be offered not just to Hawai'i developers but also to Mainland and international interests. "I love going down this road where we can get someone (else) to fund it," she said.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
