OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma City Community College ranks among the top 30 Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada in 2024.
Hollywood-based film publication MovieMaker Magazine gives the OCCC Gray Frederickson Department of Digital Cinema high praise, placing the program on its annual list alongside world-renowned schools in Los Angeles and New York.
For 2024, the publication highlighted the program’s two, two-year degrees, Associate of Art and Associate of Applied Science, as well as the school’s affordability and opportunities for students to use industry-standard equipment and a 6,000-square-foot production studio. The film department has made the list in previous years for its “outstanding digital cinema production training.”
The school was founded in 2000 by the late Oscar-winning producer and Oklahoma native Gray Frederickson, most known for working with famous director Francis Ford Coppola on the "Godfather" trilogy, "Apocalypse Now," "The Outsiders" and "One From the Heart."
According to OCCC’s website, Gray pitched the idea of a film program at many major four-year colleges, but it was a community college in south Oklahoma City to give him the green light.
Professor of Digital Cinema Production Sean Lynch graduated from the program when it was in its infancy, and now, he helps students familiarize themselves with what he calls the “A to Z in filmmaking.”
Lynch said students get to experience every department in film which allows them to gain an understanding of what the various jobs entail in a hands-on environment.
“We pride ourselves on the fact that we're using industry-standard tools, cameras and lights and sound equipment, all that kind of stuff you would see on any major motion picture, and we're teaching that at a high technical level here at the college,” Lynch said.
Students in the film program at OCCC have more local opportunities to work on movie sets than when Lynch was a student. Several film and television productions have taken place in Oklahoma in the last decade, including Tulsa King, Killers of the Flower Moon and Twisters, the sequel to "Twister" (1996).
More than 40 current OCCC students worked on "Twisters."
Lynch said students were enthusiastic about getting to work on a $200 million picture, but regardless of a project’s budget, it’s encouraging to see increasing opportunities for students to put their production-set knowledge into practice.
Several of Lynch’s students just finished working on a movie called "Sarah’s Oil," a $20 million independent film about the 1920s oil industry in Tulsa.
“The growth of the industry (in Oklahoma) is really helping students to be able to step out very quickly into the industry and also into union positions, which is great. I have a student that's actually going to finish her capstone this season, but after this last film, she is going to be a local electrician in the union, and she's actually in the union before she's even left the program.”
MovieMaker describes the school as “striking in its affordability and acceptance of all applicants.”
Lynch said the acknowledgment means a lot to him. Gray died in late 2022, and Lynch said building on his legacy is important for everyone at the college.
“Most film programs are theory-based, but we're very much about the practical, hard-working crew members and teaching those people to do those crafts and those skills,” Lynch said.
Copyright © 2024 BridgeTower Media. All Rights Reserved.
For top headlines, breaking news and more, visit journalrecord.com or sign up for our newsletter .
Most Popular
Comments / 0