More Drama! A New Gift is a Boon to SCA’s TV Series Class
by Katie Walsh
A stalwart being forced out to pasture, an ambitious upstart, underlings desperate to prove their worth. Cue backstabbing, surrounded by the beauty, poetry, and tensions of high-stakes commerce, and step into the behind-the-scenes machinations of an art auction house.
This storyline, however, is not playing out at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. This is Bristow’s, the brokerage at the center of the award-winning short series Provenance, a high-stakes drama in the vein of Succession, set in the fine art world. It’s the latest success from the “Single Camera Television Dramatic Series,” class, or “Straight to Series,” as it’s called in the Film and Television Production division. And it took the Student Emmy Award for drama this year.
Straight to Series is an ambitious, year-long endeavor that allows SCA students to pitch, write, produce, design, direct, shoot, and edit a dramatic episodic series, shot on SCA stages, plus on location. Anyone can submit an idea or treatment for a new series, which is then selected to be written and produced. Then both undergraduate and graduate students are shepherded by seven different SCA professors over the two semesters. In the Fall a writers’ room breaks the story with a team of non-writing producers offering notes and feedback with writing and producing professors. A production designer also spends the semester designing a set on one of SCA’s stages under the guidance of a production design professor.
In the Spring semester, directors and cinematographers submit themselves for episodes and shoot three 12-minute episodes with the rest of the production crew and post-production teams. To cap off the hard work, there’s a big screening to “binge” the whole series with an audience in Norris Theater.
Caption: Single-Camera Television Dramatic Series team for “Provenance” accepting the award for Best Drama Series at the 2023 College Television Awards.
“Straight to Series,” which launched in 2018, and has won awards for previous series (from a graphic artist turned police sketch artist to catching a serial arsonist, among others), got an injection of confidence recently. The majority of a new $5 million gift to the School of Cinematic Arts from the Patricia W. Mitchell Trust, will be used to support the class and other episodic television classes.
The class offers the kind of professional experience that is crucial for teaching students best practices, says producer Gail Katz, who Chairs the Production division. “It’s our goal to offer everything that's out there and make students industry-ready,” Katz says about SCA Film and Television Production students. “It's different formats, different lengths, different subjects. But in the end, we're teaching storytelling at its basic level and giving them all the tools for making movies and television.”
Caption: Students in SCA’s Advance Multi-Camera Television Workshop course working on the 2023 series “Ambulance Chasers.”
Other formats the Mitchell gift will support include similar classes in the School’s Comedy program (both single and multi-camera), as well as an upcoming Docuseries class. Katz cites the current industry appetite for Docuseries as a motivating factor for starting this new class. “It’s important that they learn storytelling in all the ways that are available to them, and that the marketplace is interested in,” she adds, noting that, “figuring out the intersection of what you love and what the marketplace wants is part of how to have a career in this business.”
This is the second gift to the School from the Patricia W. Mitchell Trust, which was set up by the late Mrs. Mitchell to ensure the legacy of her husband John H. Mitchell, an television pioneer and visionary who had a hand in the creation of more than 100 series over a four decade career. He also pioneered the TV movie format with more than 50 films for the small screen, including Brian’s Song which won five Emmys. He died in 1988.
In 2019, the School of Cinematic Arts named the John H. Mitchell Business of Entertainment Program, made possible by a generous $20 million gift from the Mitchell Trusts. It boosted and rebranded SCA’s business programs, establishing the John H. Mitchell Business of Cinematic Arts (BCA) undergraduate program, and John H. Mitchell Graduate Certificate in the Business of Entertainment. What this new Mitchell Gift enables at SCA, specifically with “Straight to Series,” is the ability to shape television creators—producers, writers, executives, and craftspeople—who are experienced and knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts of television production.
Caption: Provenance College Television Awards statue for Best Drama Series
There’s also the wide breadth of education and experience designed into the Film and Television Production major, where students don’t specialize in one discipline or another. “At our school, you do it all,” Katz says, adding, “whatever you end up doing or choosing to do, you're better at it because you know everything else. You're a more complete film or television maker.”
John H. Mitchell’s forward-thinking leadership and influence in the television industry didn’t end with his death in 1988, as proven by his and Patricia’s continued support of future leaders in the field. Katz says, “It’s an honor to be associated with John H. Mitchell. The gift giving by Patricia and their family is going be a great help to these students.” Ever the producer, Katz acknowledges that the undertaking of “Straight to Series,” “Is not an inexpensive endeavor.” But that the costs are necessary to make television programs “the way it's done in the industry.” This new gift from the Mitchell Trusts will ensure that more SCA students will get the hands-on experience of making a TV show.
Sneak Peek:
Check out this teaser of Provenance below.