A New Alumni Association Concept

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A wide gap exists between graduating USC cinema students and their becoming feature filmmakers or working film and television professionals.

The advantages that attending this prestigious school should give are only realized by a select few and really could extend to many, if not all.

There is a definite missing connective tissue

between the large SCA alumni base across social,

career, and creative possibilities.

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Create a real system and culture of collaboration and support from the day we enter film school through life as an alumni. This includes helping one another socially, career-wise, developing creative ventures, and helping us all achieve the goals that we all set out to achieve and should expect to have achieved by attending this prestigious film school.

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Develop an alumni infrastructure that works with the cinema school to create a connective tissue and sense of family amongst all cinema students and alumni for life.

Establish leaders committed to doing all they can to build an alumni organization that is strong and self-sustaining for the long haul.

Build a system that really does give SCA alumni advantages within the system as they strive to attain their goals.

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1. Bridge the gap between students graduating from the film school and then becoming working filmmakers and film professionals.

1. Enable and encourage USC cinema alumni to remain in the film and television industry by giving them a “leg up” on the competition.

1. Develop an infrastructure that creates opportunities for alums to collaborate with other alums of all ages.

1. Build a social network that can provide some fun to many who feel like lonely fish struggling alone in this vast entertainment sea.

1. Provide a forum for alums and students to gain experience and support from brethren in a variety of arenas.

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The association would be set up in a pyramid type structure with small groups working together to run different aspects of the association.

Each group would have a key organizer who would serve for a period of time, and be charged with leading forward an agenda.

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There would be an overall top level committee consisting of the leaders of the different sub-committees.

The top committee would meet once a week or bi-weekly to set goals, and then assess on a weekly or bi-weekly basis how to achieve the goals.

The committees would initially be manned by those who want to be a part of the organization, and then eventually would be filled on a rotating base amongst alumni.

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Initially, aside from the leadership committee, there would be the following committees:

Social – developing fun events to bring alums together.

Career – developing ways for alums to find and connect in job and hiring pursuits.

School-Alumni Relations – developing ways to support the school, and in turn incentivising the school to support the alums more.

Film Financing – developing a committee focused on connecting alums seeking financing and potential financiers find good projects.

Web – developing a sustainable infrastructure between Facebook, Linkedin, and the school’s website to assist all areas of the organization.

Screening – developing relationships between the school and various theaters in LA and nationally to allow alums to present and share their work.

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Motivated alumni and students with a unique opportunity to build something that will benefit all.

Potential opportunity for the school to better connect with its alumni base, opening up new opportunities across the spectrum.

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Set up an online searchable alumni database of all alumni that offers different ways to search people across different fields with contact information.

Set up a weekly meet and greet at different locations around LA.

Set up a monthly screening venue.

Set up a bi-weekly experts corner, where one can learn from a top alum on different subjects.

Set up a monthly film finance venue where potential financiers could meet alums.

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Initial – Get the group going on a smallish scale and hopefully grow quickly.

Secondary – Begin to connect with other USC organizations and open up cross-pollination.

Tertiary – Connect with other leading film school alumni organizations to expand networking opportunities.

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USC film school should be a family that one enters for life from the day we start school. We, as alumni can build a culture of family, but it has to come from within. This is a proposal to try to develop the connective tissue and foundation to do so.

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