Fellowship makes Cinema professor a Hollywood insider

Associate professor and chair of Communication & Cinema Jonathan Slade ’88 returned to the scene of his early career in the television industry when he joined 24 other professors from colleges and universities nationwide selected for a prestigious fellowship to the 2016 Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles.

Television Academy members — the same industry insiders who host the national Emmy Awards — chose the finalists, offering them an expenses-paid opportunity to be immersed in the entertainment industry for an intensive, behind-the-scenes experience Nov. 7-11.

Slade, who earned an MFA in Cinema-Television from the University of Southern California, worked briefly in Hollywood before returning to Maryland to become an award-winning writer-producer with Maryland Public Television (MPT). Since joining McDaniel’s full-time faculty in 2003, he has continued to produce documentaries for MPT, including “Electric Road Trip,” which earned him and his wife, Novia Campbell, an Emmy in 2015.

The itinerary for Television Academy Fellows included panel discussions with producers and directors from shows including “Scandal,” “The Voice,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Blackish.” Academy fellows went behind the scenes at Warner Bros. Studios, including the set of “Big Bang Theory.” They also visited CBS’s Fairfax studio to watch “Dancing with the Stars.”  

During a seminar with programming executives from major broadcast networks, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC and the CW, Academy fellows had unprecedented access to the people who set the television schedule every day. Slade says their major challenge beyond ratings is “determining the ultimate value of a show” by calculating its potential advertising revenue targeting specific demographics, syndication revenue, streaming revenue, merchandising revenue and, increasingly, international revenue.

Michael Cioni of Light Iron, the post-production studio that just finished work on Robert Zemeckis’ new film “Allied,” gave a tour of their facility and a glimpse into how technology has advanced visual storytelling.

“The company boasts the fastest bank of computer drives in the world (they use gaming processing units). For speed (for color correcting) they use 1TB drives that spin at 15,000 rpm. For capacity (storing all the raw footage from a Marvel film), they use a petabyte that spins at 7,200 rpm,” reports Slade. “I was never lost because I understand the process of doing this kind of work. But I was amazed at the quantum leap forward in a lot of the technology to do it.”

Producer Bob Del Valle led a three-hour morning production meeting, taking Academy fellows through the 30-page pilot script for ABC’s half hour sitcom “Trophy Wife,” which ran for 22 episodes in 2012. Fellows assumed the positions of the crew — producer, director, associate director, wardrobe, props, transportation, audio, stunts, etc. — working their way through and raising production challenges unique to each scene.

During a session with entertainment lawyers, fellows learned the importance of securing rights for brands, archival footage, background art and music — with examples from some unsettling case studies of indie productions that were shelved despite having won major film festivals because the director failed to legally clear elements in the movie.

“Every seminar was mind-blowing,” Slade says. “I was literally punched in the face with amazing information for six hours per day.”

Slade’s industry experience and connections reap big benefits for his students, who often find internships and jobs with his help, and report being very well-prepared when they get there. Of course, students will also benefit from the insights he gleaned as an Academy fellow. Within a few days after returning from L.A., he had already spent an hour meeting with members of the Green Terror TV club, reviewing highlights from the week.

One big takeaway came during a panel discussion about the role of executive producer. Michael Spiller of “The Mindy Project” explained that the best way to succeed in the television industry is to choose a liberal arts college rather than a large film school because problem-solvers and compelling storytellers can always learn the latest technology on the job.

“Sounds like McDaniel Cinema is doin’ it right!” says Slade.