ANN ARBOR, MI - The history between Hollywood and the University of Michigan goes back decades.
For example, there’s 1955 alumnus and Darth Vader voice James Earl Jones and the 1983 film “The Big Chill,” in which all the main characters graduated from UM together.
Read more: Hollywood loved Ann Arbor a decade ago. Here are 10 films shot in the city
That Ann Arbor-to-Hollywood connection remains strong today in the university’s film and television production department. From scholarship funding from the founder of Columbia Pictures Television, to visiting professors who helped create “Mad Men,” the department is populated by industry heavy hitters.
The Film, Television and Media department, part of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, has been partially funded by the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Scholarship since the 2020-21 school year. The scholarship is named for the Columbia Pictures Television founder and his wife.
Mitchell, a UM alumnus, died in 1988, but his estate donated $60 million combined to UM, the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles for their media production programs. At UM, the money supports media careers for students from lower- to middle-class backgrounds, said department chair Yeidy Rivero.
“We wanted to attract students who normally wouldn’t think about studying film or media, because maybe they thought that it was too expensive,” she said.
It takes a lot of money for students to get to New York and Los Angeles for educational opportunities, so the scholarship helps those students without means, Rivero said. The program can support up to seven students in a cohort, she said.
In order to connect these students to the entertainment industry, the department has attracted talent from major players, such as award-winning “Mad Men” writer and producer Janet Leahy. She served as a visiting professor last school year.
“I think it’s important to have people who actually know of someone who is very successful in the industry,” Rivero said, also noting that Leahy has demonstrated sensitivity to issues of diversity and inclusion in her work that is vital for students.
Leahy, who also won Emmy awards for her work on “Boston Legal” and “Cheers,” worked with UM professor Jim Burnstein to teach students the basics of screenwriting and creating a show. Burnstein’s film credits include the 1994 comedy “Renaissance Man” and the third “Mighty Ducks” movie.
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“The original curriculum was that we were going to pitch an original show, so students would work on creating outlines, a beat sheet, a first draft and then a second draft,” Leahy said.
“I was able to interject all sorts of lessons. How to work in a writers room, how to pitch properly, the dos and don’ts of working in the business, how to get your first break in the business and how to turn that break into something more.”
Networking is such a big part of the business, Leahy said, so the program at UM was a fun way to help the next generation of creative types get their feet in the door.
“UM provides access, because there are so many people working (in Hollywood) from UM,” she said, pointing to United Talent Artists board member Peter Benedek and more. “There are a lot of opportunities to meet people and that’s what you need. You need that kind of foot in the door.”
Outside of the nuts and bolts of the curriculum, Leahy appreciated relaying to students that success is more about fully expressing yourself than spelling every word right in your script or always having the best grammar.
“What has to happen is you need to have an incredible thirst for knowledge and an incredible sense of curiosity, and the need to find out the truth of what people are really feeling and what’s really happening out there,” she said.
The third cohort in the program will be helped by visiting professor Nancy Savoca, a filmmaker perhaps best known for the 1996 Demi Moore drama “If These Walls Could Talk.” If Leahy helped students master the television world, Savoca will help them in the world of film, given her decades of experience in independent cinema, Rivero said.
“She’s one of the pioneers of independent women’s cinema in the U.S.,” Rivero said. “Her her films usually live within subjects of gender and identity, human rights, immigration, and family relations.”
The growth of the program is exciting for Rivero, who has eyes toward student internships in Los Angeles and New York in the future.
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