Veteran commercial editor Fred Heinrich remembers where he was when the May 1992 riots broke out in Los Angeles: He was busy cutting a job at a Santa Monica facility, with no idea of the civil unrest that had broken out throughout the city.
"All of a sudden, someone told me I had better get home," Heinrich recalled. "I walked outside and could see smoke in the distance. It was a scary sight."
Navigating through Los Angeles streets also became a nightmare, turning what would normally have been an hour-long car ride back to Oxnard into a three-hour trip. But during the commute, Heinrich’s mental wheels began to turn faster than those on his automobile. And an idea was born—one that came to fruition in the summer of ’93, when Heinrich and his wife, freelance producer Stephania Lipner, launched Inner-City Filmmakers, an organization offering free industry training to talented, disadvantaged high school students in Greater Los Angeles.
Heinrich recollected that the purpose of Inner-City Filmmakers hit home for him during the group’s first year, when students from Bell High School, in Bell, Calif., brought in their school video yearbook, which included five obituaries. "That underscored the fact that we need to help create some opportunities for young people in the inner city," he observed.
Fast-forward to today, and the nonprofit organization has provided industry training and hands-on experience in different aspects of filmmaking to 220-plus deserving, low-income youngsters of different ethnic backgrounds. Heinrich estimates that the program has helped place its students in approximately 200 entry-level jobs.
In this week’s page 7 feature, SHOOT’s Millie Takaki reports on a progressive addition to the ad industry curriculum at Inner-City Filmmakers: an eight-week course developed by Tony Stern, a creative director at TBWA/ Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, followed by the opportunity to create and produce PSAs for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Among those pitching in to provide resources and mentorship for the production of the public service spots was a pair of bicoastal production houses: OneSuch Films and Celsius Films. Eastman Kodak supplied 35mm film for the three commercials. Other companies lending their support included Famous Frames, a Culver City, Calif.-based firm that represents storyboard artists (an artist tutored the students on creating boards so that they could give life to their ADL PSA concepts); camera rental houses Clairmont Camera, North Hollywood, and Otto Nemenz, Hollywood; Compassionate Casting, Santa Monica; telecine boutique Company 3, Santa Monica; effects/finishing house The Finish Line, Santa Monica; Quixote Studios, Hollywood; Sunset Grip & Electric, Hollywood; Lexus Lighting, Los Angeles; Universal Props, Los Angeles; Elias Associates, bicoastal; and HUM Music and Sound Design, Santa Monica. Also, the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. (EIDC)—the public/ private-sector enterprise that oversees the joint Los Angeles City/County Film Office—donated film permits.
The three ADL PSAs, which were in rough-cut form at press time, promote ethnic and religious tolerance—an important message that’s become all the more relevant given the events of the past month and a half. Plans are to gain airtime for the spots.
Meanwhile, Heinrich hopes to see other ad agencies and production companies step up to the plate. "We’d like to make this at least an annual proposition, where kids get the chance to learn, and to create and produce commercials," said Heinrich, who’s pretty much dropped editing to focus on the full-time job of growing Inner-City Filmmakers. "The more agencies that become aware of this program, the better for us and for them. We are helping to bring new talent into our business."
