Hollywood Meets Bellevue At Omaha Film School
Hollywood Meets Bellevue At Omaha Film School
By Dan Silvia, Communications Manager
Who knew Hollywood was just across the street?
The Omaha Film School, located just across the street from Bellevue University at 1103 Galvin Road South and run by alumnus Jack Young, will offer a series of seminars in April. The first seminar on pre-production was held on April 4. Production training (Principal photography) training will be held on April 11th. Hands-on training will be held April 18 and post-production on April 25. Additional sessions will be offered throughout the spring and summer. Each session costs $85.
Click here for more information.
Young, who served in the Air Force from 1972 to 1976 including a stint in Ubon, Thailand, earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration of Technical Studies in 1992.
“I had earned a two-year degree from Studio Academy, School of Advertising & Design and an associate's degree from Iowa Western in Electronics Technology, but needed to enroll in a bachelor's degree program,” Young said. “After talking with all of the local universities and colleges, Bellevue University (known as Bellevue College back then) was the perfect fit for me.”
That Bellevue University education has been paying dividends ever since.
“Not only was I able to apply what I learned, but it gave me the confidence to complete a 25-year engineering career with a local government contractor and be able to comfortably retire,” he said. “The education has also been extremely beneficial in building my film company (Young Films LLC) and running my film productions.”
Young produced his first film (Short) in 1997 and learned the ins and outs of producing a film. In 2001, he co-produced a romantic comedy called Love Win along with a Canadian company. The film, shot entirely in Ontario, Canada, was aired on HDNet and is available to rent on Netflix.
Young lists some of his favorite directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Clint Eastwood. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, China Town, Die Hard (Original), The Thing (both original and remake with Kurt Russell), Alien (first and second), Halloween (Original), Unforgiven are among his favorite films.
A love of writing and a scriptwriting class helped push Young toward film.
“I had been writing short stories as a hobby back in the late 1980's and had gotten tons of rejections (Writing mostly sci-fi stories for sci-fi magazines), when I took a class on Radio/TV Scriptwriting locally,” he said. “I discovered screenwriting and went full steam from there for several years, cranking out a couple dozen screenplays.”
Now, he’s ready to share his expertise and love for film with others via the Omaha Film School.
“The Omaha Film School grew out of the need that we have here in Nebraska for more film production infrastructure and resources,” Young said. “The largest role that I usually play in film production is as producer, so the training is really presented from the producer's viewpoint. I've learned how to get a film kick-started and into production, even on a low budget. However, as a retired engineer, I've invested considerable time developing an indie film production model that was revamped to align with the Hollywood model of film production. I'm hoping the school will educate the new generation of filmmakers in Nebraska with a better film production model that will create higher quality indie films.”