Television Academy Foundation Launches Free Production Training for Los Angeles High Schoolers
High school students in Los Angeles can now sign up for a free, 10-week training course in television production. The Television Academy Foundation announced the programme on 27 October, with funding from Best Buy, and it is the first production assistant course the foundation has run for high school students, according to the foundation's announcement.
Production assistants, often called PAs, are the people who keep a set running. They fetch equipment, guide crew and help make sure the day's work happens on time. Many people in the industry start in these entry-level jobs and later move into roles such as production coordinator, assistant director or producer.
The course covers that whole ladder. It trains students for production assistant, production coordinator, assistant director, production manager, producer, location manager and production accountant roles, as Variety reported. Students will also take field trips to watch scripted and unscripted shows being made, so they can see how the work happens on a real set. Scripted means shows that follow a written script, such as dramas and comedies. Unscripted covers formats like reality and competition series.
The after-school classes run at two sites, both in partnership with Best Buy's Teen Tech Centers. One is at the Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA in Boyle Heights. The other is in Long Beach, also at a YMCA facility. The foundation says students will meet working industry professionals during the course.
Donny Hugo Herran will teach the first class. He is a Television Academy board governor and has 20 years of experience as an industry executive. His production credits include Yellowstone, Landman, MobLand, The Challenge and Martha & Snoop's Dinner Party. He is also the author of The Production Guru: Leadership Principles and Philosophies Across Film, Television and Beyond, and he founded Ellevan Creative Consulting.
Tina Perry chairs the Television Academy Foundation. The programme is open to high school juniors and seniors, and the announcement invites them to apply through the foundation's channels.
For a teenager who has never been on a film set, the appeal is simple. The course costs nothing, meets after school and puts students in rooms where the shows are made. Each of those shows depends on crews of people who got their first break doing exactly the jobs this course describes.
