George Clooney, Kerry Washington and other Hollywood stars are co-founding a public film school in Los Angeles to help high schoolers from underserved communities break into the industry, officials said Monday.
In partnership with the Los Angeles United School District, the star-studded advisory board are spearheading a magnet program to provide students with curriculum, practical training and internships centered around the television and film production industry.
“Our aim is to better reflect the diversity of our country. That means starting early,” Clooney said in a statement. “It means creating high school programs that teach young people about cameras, and editing and visual effects and sound and all the career opportunities that this industry has to offer.”
Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a statement on Monday that the initiative will “help open the doors of opportunity for a diverse group of students from underserved communities.”
“Physics is involved in the choice of a lens by a cinematographer, math is part of the foundation for a musical score in a film, critical thinking skills are needed to design a set, screenwriters needs a foundation in literacy, and a make-up artist needs to know the chemistry of the different materials they might use — all of this will be tied into the curriculum at the school,” he said.
Grant Heslov, Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling, Nicole Avant and Eva Longoria are among the other founding advisory members of the new initiative.
The Roybal School of Film and Television Production, housed at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, is expected to launch in Fall 2022. The magnet school will include underclassmen before expanding to upperclassmen in the following two years.