Columbia Pictures

It may be premature to change our hometown’s name from Music City to Movie City, but there’s little doubt that filmmaking has been on the rise here, aided by recent incentive programs the Tennessee Film, Entertainment & Music Commission (TFEMC) has introduced. Naturally, more filmmaking means more jobs—that is, if you have the requisite skills. To that end, Columbia State Community College has developed a 12-month film crew technology program, to be taught at the school’s Franklin campus.

“The film industry in Tennessee is really starting to take off because of the incentive plan, and we need more skilled, below-the-line crew members,” says program director Read Ridley, a veteran of the local film industry. (According to film budget terminology, all technical crew positions are “below the line.”) “We’re teaching this on a very high industry level, and so [the students] will be able to get work on any set, anywhere in the country.”

Ridley, brother of Scene writer Jim Ridley, says, “There’s not a whole lot of programs that deal with just crew. All the schools are trying to make producers or directors. A lot of times those students will pay very little attention to the tech courses.... And then they graduate, and there is no ad on Craigslist that says, ‘Half-million dollar movie director needed.’... All of the really successful directors and producers out there started off in below-the-line crew positions.”

Ridley would know. He started out unloading trucks at $50 a day, then worked his way up from studio technician to grip to electrician, eventually serving as studio manager and/or general manager for various local and regional production companies. He’s worked on Miller’s Crossing, U.S. Marshals, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Green Mile and The Last Castle, to name a few. He directed, wrote and co-produced the 2004 film Dodge City: A Spaghetto Western, featuring Isaac Hayes.

The program will include instruction in a variety of jobs, including set construction and dressing, props, grip, electrician, even basic film editing in Final Cut Pro. Students will learn cinematography using HD cameras and the Red Digital Cinema Camera. “The Red camera is a brand-new system that’s the strongest rival to 35mm film,” Ridley says. “Those cameras are in the market here and are constantly working, and there aren’t a whole lot of technicians for them. That’s quite a lucrative position.”

Most of the instruction will be hands-on, and much of it will be taught by working film professionals during their downtime. Plans are in the works to have Craig Brewer, writer and director of Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, do some workshops. The advisory board features Sandy King, wife of director John Carpenter and the producer of most of his films, as well as Perry Gibson, the TFEMC’s executive director.

“With the incentives, we hope to get more and more productions into the state, and we have to develop a deep crew,” Gibson says. “The last thing a production wants is someone who doesn’t understand the terminology and doesn’t turn off their cell phone. What [Ridley is] doing is totally supported by my department and the state, and it’s something that we really need.”

According to Ridley, the credits will be transferrable to most four-year film programs, should students want to continue their education. But most importantly, the program means to get students trained and working as quickly as possible. “I wish something like this had been around when I first wanted to get into the industry,” Ridley says. “It would have gotten me down the road three to four years quicker than I did.”

The CSCC film crew technology program begins July 1 at the Franklin campus. For information, contact Read Ridley at rridley1@columbiastate.edu or 790-4410.