About the Producers Program

A highly individualized two-year Master of Fine Arts degree program designed for creative people pursuing careers as independent producers or as studio or network executives

Jump to: Program Requirements, Our Head, Students, Our Faculty and Curriculum, Our Advisory Boards, Mentors, History of the Program, Rankings

The UCLA Producers Program was first established in 1984. It offers a highly individualized two-year Master of Fine Arts degree program designed for creative people who wish to pursue careers as creative producers or executives in the entertainment industry. To accomplish these goals, the Program and all the courses in it are essentially courses in strategy, since the ability to think strategically is one of the primary skills of the creative producer.

The prevalent philosophy of UCLA's Department of Film, TV, and Digital Media has long stressed the art of storytelling, and the Producers Program is no different. Our unique emphasis on development and strategy as the most fundamental skills of the creative producer and personalized mentorship as the guiding educational principle set us apart in the world of film school education. In addition, our students are trained in the fundamentals of contract law and business negotiations; international financing; the art of pitching; production management; marketing; studio and network management; talent representation; and distribution and exhibition.

The instructional focus of the Program is on feature film and television; however, we always expand our curricular offerings to address new and emerging media. Moreover, our emphasis on development and strategy provides graduates with a skill set that is transferable to any medium. In keeping with the entrepreneurial nature of the producer, we actively encourage our students to explore and consider non-traditional and emerging media, be it internet and digital media distribution, video games, mobile device entertainment, or branded sports and event management, as viable career options and business opportunities.

Program Requirements

Our Head

Denise Mann, Associate Professor and head of the UCLA Producers Program, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on contemporary entertainment industry practices as well as critical studies seminars on film and television history and theory.

Professor Mann routinely delivers talks at scholarly conferences and delivers industry talks at international film festivals and conferences such as the Tokyo International Film Festival and Shanghai International Film Festival and at major universities in Asia and Europe, including the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, Shanghai University, Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne and Institut National de L'Audiovisuel (INA). She serves as a consultant to Creek and River Co., a media management firm in Tokyo, and serves on the board of the Association Internationale des Medias (AIM) in Paris.

Her book, The New Hollywood Independents – When Talent Became Management, is forthcoming (University of Minnesota Press). Professor Mann co-edited Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer, (University of Minnesota Press, 1992) and has published articles on film, television and consumer culture in a range of journals. Professor Mann served as an associate editor on Camera Obscura, a journal of feminism and film theory, for six years (1986-1992).

Our Students

Our students are driven to succeed. They stand out given their creative passion and their business acumen. They are self-starters and understand that every good piece of entertainment starts with the script.

In addition, the typical UCLA Producers Program student reflects the cultural diversity of the international and national filmmaking community and includes many women, minorities and students from abroad. The typical student enters the Program with the requisite entrepreneurial skills of a producer. They typically have interned at studios, agencies or in production companies; optioned material and are working with screenwriters; produced several shorts or low-budget features; or worked in some capacity in the entertainment industry such as development, marketing, talent representation, law, or line producing. Most come to the Program in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the film and television industries from working professionals so they can apply these principles to their own projects.

It is the expressed goal of the UCLA Producers Program to train both independent producers and studio or network executives. One of the distinct advantages of having producing students pursue separate career tracks is that young producers as "sellers" have immediate access to a group of peers who have become development executives working for "buyers."

Our Faculty and Curriculum

The UCLA Producers Program faculty is comprised of distinguished academics and internationally recognized professionals in the fields of film, television, and new media. They are industry leaders in their chosen fields and include studio chiefs, Oscar-winning producers and box-office grossers, top agents and lawyers, as well as internationally renowned film and television scholars.

Our Advisory Boards

The UCLA Producers Program Advisory Board and Legal Advisory Board consist of industry professionals who lend their time and expertise, serving as advisors to Professor Mann and the other full-time members of the Producers Program faculty and administration. The co-heads of the Advisory Board are Arnold Rifkin and Tom Sherak. The members are notable producers and executives: Donald De Line, Denise Di Novi, Lindsay Doran, David Hoberman, Tom Jacobson, Anne Kopelson, Kevin Messick, and Jennifer Perini.

The Legal Advisory Board members are entertainment attorneys who teach in the Program and include: Eric Baum, Steve Fayne, Alan Friel, and Ken Suddleson.

Mentors

Mentors fulfill a very important and essential role in helping students transition from the academic to the professional world. Assigned to students at the end of their first year, mentors are established producers and executives who advise and mentor UCLA Producers Program students in one-on-one sessions on their thesis projects as well as career choices. Current mentors include: David Blackman, Effie T. Brown, Lindsay Doran, Cassian Elwes, Marianne Maddalena, Frank Marshall, Mike Medavoy, Rena Renson, Peter Rice, Charles Roven, Richard Sakai, Stacey Sher, Lauren Shuler Donner, Nick Wechsler, and Rebecca Yeldham.

History of the Program

The founding co-chairs of the UCLA Producers Program are Howard Suber, who has taught some 65 different film courses at UCLA during the past 42 years, and Peter Guber, Chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, who has produced such films as Donnie Brasco, Batman, Rainman, Gorillas in the Mist, The Color Purple, and Midnight Express.

Rankings

The UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media is among the nation's top ranking film schools. The UCLA Producers Program is one of only a few programs in the world designed to train the next generation of film producers. The Producers Program is a highly selective, individually tailored, professional two-year program, accepting less than 10 percent of those who apply. There are 27 Masters of Fine Arts students currently enrolled.