A Program That Puts Students Behind The Lens

On the morning of Friday, June 24, students in Tony Doupé’s film class showed up at the hallway outside his office. Some talked equipment logistics with him while others discussed their projects with one another.

Almost the entire class was there, just like the last four days.

The only difference? There’s no class on Fridays.

The seven-week course is offered by Shoreline Community College’s (SCC) Performance Arts and Digital Filmmaking Department, which has had student and faculty member work shown at various venues, including the Seattle International Film Festival. Doupé said the class, which just began its second week, thrives off of flexible schedules and ambitious projects.

“The quality of work is extremely high because the faculty know what the marketplace is looking for and what technology to use in order to achieve that,” said Doupé, the film department chair.

He explained that one of the main differences between Shoreline’s program and other community colleges or universities is that it is not a step program. Students are not tied down by prerequisites, but can take these specialized classes as beginners in the department.

Doupé said his main philosophy is a hands-on technique:

“Go out there and play. It may not be a masterpiece, but at least you’re learning what to do on your next production.”

The class is open to any student and is meant to be a practical on-set experience. Many continue to work on their movies after the quarter is over and some are even recruited to work on the crew for each other’s projects.

“I’m helping out with the production so that I don’t get stale over the summer,” said Theodore Dubber, a SCC student who has taken film courses there the last two quarters.

But as school budgets continue to dwindle across the state, SCC’s film department has also felt the pinch.

“We’ve been pretty lucky,” said Doupé, who explained that they have a very strong backing from the school and when money is short, they simply make do with what they have.

“Right now we’re all kind of in survival mode and hope we’re through the budget cuts. But the idea is to just keep plugging away,” said Doupé.

The summer program has three sections, two of which will be putting together movies and the other will be creating two three-minute trailers. Each section is organized like any professional shoot, with scripts coming from both SCC students as well as outside writers.

“This is the holy grail for me, because I can actually get movie making done,” said Werner Boer, who’s in his first year at the school.

After receiving an undergraduate degree from Missouri University, Boer came to the school in order to get trained in the film program. He said he’s not as focused on getting a degree at the school, but instead sees the program as a production facility.

And although there is only one quarter of film classes this summer, Doupé said that doesn’t mean anything.

“Just because the quarter's over doesn’t mean they’re going to stop working.”