Fullerton College Cinema and Television Department

We've asked our professors about their top film picks for students. Here's Professor Susan Dvorak’s top 5 picks. How many have you seen? It is so hard to choose only five, but I picked these because they give us a glimpse into cinema history. The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford) Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) ... Singin' In the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly) Hugo (2011, Martin Scorsese) Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003, Peter Jackson)

I feel that directors at times are like the janitors on the set. I am the secretary, I am the organizer, I am the maid, and I ask if they have eaten or rested. The best things are always out of your control. It's those moments that surpass the imagination that are thrilling. - Jane Campion, writer and director, The Piano

Meet professor Susan Dvorak! Professor Susan Dvorak combines her experience working as a network producer director in live television with a commitment to equip students for jobs in video production. She was a recipient of the Fullerton College Cinema/Television Legacy Award and the Fullerton College Woman of the Year Award. This semester she is teaching CRTV 150 Television Studio Production.

We've asked our professors about their top film picks for students. Here's Professor Greg Grano's top 5 picks. How many have you seen? The Rider (2017, Dir. Chloe Zhao) Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Dir. Maya Deren) ... Man With A Movie Camera (1929, Dir. Dziga Vertov) Juliet of the Spirits (1965, Dir. Federico Fellini) Samsara (2011, Dir. Ron Fricke)

Meet professor Greg Grano! He is a director, editor, and educator whose work explores connections with unfamiliar people, places, and natural forces. Greg’s projects include American Bear: An Adventure in the Kindness of Strangers, a feature documentary exploring trust across the US, and I’m A Tree, in which Greg interviews a tree about time, life cycles, and the stories carried by water. Greg has a BFA in Film and Television from NYU, and an MS in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse University. This semester he is teaching CRTV 175 Documentary Filmmaking.

Relating a person to the whole world: that is the meaning of cinema. - Andrei Tarkovsky, director, Mirror

I know nothing of life except through the cinema. - Jean-Luc Godard, director, Breathless

You learn on every film so much. - Andrea Arnold, writer and director, American Honey

I like to draw my storyboards myself. - Bong Joon Ho, director, Parasite

I started in documentaries, and that was a great help to me with improvisation, because with documentaries, you're handed a big lump of footage, and you have to shape it and make it into a story - which I love doing. - Thelma Schoonmaker, film editor, The Irishman

The benefit of having a few years to contemplate a project is that a film works its way into you. You finally sit down to write a shot list and it’s almost instinctive. Stuff either feels right or it doesn’t. - Jarin Blaschke, cinematographer, The Lighthouse #fullertoncollege #FCC #FullColl #FCcinemadepartment #Filmschool #Filmstudent #Filmclass #creativefilm #Television #production #director #jarinblaschke

I'm interested in music as an extension of character. - Noah Baumbach, writer and director, Marriage Story

The way I work, things are very nuanced; not everything is explained. - Barry Jenkins, writer and director, Moonlight

Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer. - Spike Lee, director, BlacKkKlansman

I can't remember why or how I started writing, but I think it was always a way of making sense of the world. - Andrea Arnold, writer and director, American Honey

My favorite part about costume designing is the artistry of the job. You meet with a director and a visionary to discuss ideas. You research the characters and figure out the components of their look through your own vision. You create a color palette for a film, television or stage medium and discuss it with the director of photography who then lights your colored subjects. - Ruth E. Carter, Costume Designer, Black Panther

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. - Orson Welles, director, Citizen Kane

The only reason you make a movie is not to make or set out to do a good or a bad movie, it's just to see what you learn for the next one. - Alfonso Cuarón, writer and director, Roma