The CSU prepares students to serve the artistic, business, social, and cultural needs of entertainment industries.
The Entertainment Industry Initiative sets—and strives to achieve—curricular and technological goals driven
by evolving industry standards. The Initiative benefits thousands of media students by offering top-notch programs and
faculty, state-of-the-art equipment, and internships with renowned companies. The Initiative has four major components:
Visiting Fellows Program - Industry professionals lead workshops and seminars, offering students the opportunity to learn firsthand from prominent leaders in entertainment.
Equipment Acquisition - The CSU leverages the buying power of the 22 campus entertainment programs to equip students and faculty with the most current hardware and software that the industry requires.
Internship Program - Students can take advantage of meaningful year-round internships that provide the relevant and practical training needed for entertainment industry careers. More than 400 students have taken advantage of these internships each year, with housing assistance provided to those outside of the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.
Advisory Board - The CSU has partnered with highly knowledgeable and talented entertainment leaders who enhance the CSU's media education programs by providing insight into industry trends and needs related to career preparation.
My name is Geoff Norman, and I am a recent alumnus of San Francisco State University. I am 26 years old, and I am in the process of finding new career
interests through my internship at Dick Clark Productions.
My immediate work as an Editorial intern has exposed me practices that have tested our skills and ability to work as a team. Doubling as a Development intern, I have learned more about communication in our industry, and how to support marketable ideas with good research and design. However, between being a grip on a promo video with celebrities on my second day of the internship, and administrative work in the office, I have had a variety of experiences that have broadened my career interests immensely.
The favorite part of my internship is participating in research and development for new content, and seeing what ideas are translated into later pitches and products. There has always been a disconnect for me between having a great idea and seeing how it becomes a reality, but going through the development process has taught me a lot about how a mercurial idea becomes tangible enough to be taken seriously. That, and working with our supervisors has taught me about what it means to be a true professional and their mentorship has meant so much to me. Read more
Couch and Potatoes, a stop-motion, animated short film directed by SJSU Animation/Illustration students Eunsoo Jeong and Christopher Lam, has been selected to be a National Finalists for the 40th Annual Student Academy Awards.
The Student Academy Awards is a national student film competition conducted by the Academy and the Academy Foundation. Each year over 500 college and university film students from all over the United States compete for awards and cash grants, with films being judged in four categories: Animation, Documentary, Narrative and Alternative. Film students from outside the U.S. are honored each year as well. The presentation ceremony is a popular event that is annually attended by a capacity audience in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
To reach this stage, U.S. students competed in one of three regional competitions. Each region is permitted to send to the Academy up to three finalists in each of the four categories.
Through the Student Academy Awards, the Academy recognizes and encourages this country’s most promising new filmmakers. Past winners include Spike Lee, Trey Parker, Bob Saget and Oscar winners John Lasseter and Robert Zemeckis.
Final judging by the Academy will be completed by May 20, 2013, and announcement of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Award winners in each category will be made at the Student Academy Awards Presentations on June 8, 2013, in Beverly Hills, California.
SJSU Animation/Illustration Program Coordinator, Alice Carter, is ecstatic. “We are so proud of Eunsoo and Chris and all of the success they have earned from their film. We are especially gratified to honor a goal we set with DreamWorks Animation in 2008, when they made a significant donation to our program. At that time, DreamWorks told us that they would like to have an SJSU Student Academy Award nominee within five years. Thanks to our dedicated faculty and motivated students, we made it. Sharing this news with Dreamworks was the icing on the cake.”
Tiffany is a CSU student and this weeks pick for Intern of the Week! Tiffany discusses her internship at the “Jessie” show below.
My name is Tiffany Nguy and I am 23 years old. My career goal is to work in the accounting department in the entertainment industry. I am currently interning at the “Jessie” show. My favorite part about my internship is that the staff and crew at the production are very nice. They welcomed me with open arms and are always willing to help me. Another thing that I also like about my internship is that I get a lot of hands on experience in the accounting department. One thing that I have learned from my internship is that I have to pay attention to detail and numbers. If one amount is off the whole cost report can be off which will not be good. The most challenging element of my internship is coming out of my shell. I am a very shy person and it is hard for me to come out and talk to everyone. I would love to over come that challenge and get to know the staff and crew more. After completing my internship I feel like I have more knowledge on what the accounting department in the entertainment industry goes through. It is a lot of numbers to deal with but also a really fun environment to work with.
