So You Say You Want To Be In Pictures

Students listen as Bill and Kate Carroll discuss how to make a living in the motion picture industry.

Don't say you'll do anything; you might just be asked to. Have a good watch, a car that runs, and someone to feed your dog if you're called out of town in a hurry.

Aspiring actors, writers, and directors in English Instructor David Holcombe's "Introduction to Film" class got tips in October on how to break into the motion picture and television industry from a Hollywood couple who recently retired to the mountains of western North Carolina.

Bill Carroll served as co-producer for "Frasier" for the NBC comedy's first eight years, and brought his parting gift, a model of the set, to show the students in Holcombe's class. Kate Tilley Carroll, who met Holcombe when he was an instructor at Mars Hill College and she was a student there, administered the Directors Guild Assistant Directors Training Program. She also directed on the television dramas "Falcoln Crest,""Dynasty," and "Knots Landing."

Kate told the class the most important tip she could give them was to figure out exactly what they want to do. "What part of the industry is appealing to you - the process, the product, the perks? How do you have fun? What are your hobbies? How do you relate to cars? There's a whole field just for that, and it's very lucrative. Do you like to drive cars fast, build small model cars, blow cars up, fix them, design cars of the future? Those are all fields within the motion picture industry. ... It's better to say, 'I have these skills and you need me,' than to say, 'I'll do anything.'"

Kate advised the students to read trade papers like Hollywood Reporter and Variety to learn about productions that are gearing up and to start building their resumes by working for local theaters and companies like Blue Ridge Motion Pictures. "Try to do different jobs on different shows until you can decide what appeals to you. Push for a variety of experience."

The couple also encouraged students to have a way of making a living when they're between jobs. "Think Dustin Hoffman," Kate said. "He parked cars and everything else. He didn't take a job he couldn't walk away from."

A-B Tech HRD Awarded Grant

A-B Tech's Human Resources Development program was awarded a $10,000 Rural Internet Access Authority (RIAA) grant and chosen by the North Carolina Community College System office to develop and standardize digital literacy curriculum.

The system office's Human Resources Development Program received a $52,000 Digital Literacy Training Grant from the RIAA and sought three community colleges to serve as demonstration sites for Computer Empowerment Project implementation Phase I.

A-B Tech HRD Instructor Elizabeth Saunders said A-B Tech was one of the three colleges chosen to develop 60 lesson plans around digital literacy and provide training to the other 55 colleges. One of the primary reasons A-B Tech was chosen was because of the college's progressive computer literacy training programs.

"We already had in place computer literacy training at three levels," said Saunders, who will be the primary staff member working on HRD's Computer Empowerment project. "We also already serve ESL (English as a Second Language) populations (Spanish and Russian/Slavic) with our computer literacy training."

Saunders is planning a December Focus Group meeting and requests interested parties to contact her.

The state hopes to offer standardized digital literacy curriculum in the areas of basic computer skills, word processing, internet basics and employability skills by next year. HRD's deadline is April. The Computer Empowerment project also entails a digital literacy expo to showcase programs offered by the state's colleges.

The RIAA was created by the N.C. General Assembly to spread internet education and access across the state. The authority's goal is to make affordable, high-speed internet access available statewide by December 2003.

A-B Tech Chosen As Development Center

A-B Tech has been chosen by the North Carolina Community College SystemVirtual Learning Community (VLC) as the Development Center for on-line Arts and Sciences courses for 2002-2003.

Humanities and Fine Arts Chair David Smith has been appointed coordinator and four A-B Tech instructors -Sherry Ratzlaff, Laurel Young, Ken Rudolph and Dara Llewellyn - have been chosen as course developers.

Course developers will develop online courses that can be imported for use by any of the state's colleges. Courses should be completed and available for distribution June 15.

According to Smith, there is a high demand for online courses. "We are tapping into a different pool of students who otherwise wouldn't be here. It gives them a lot more flexibility," he said.

A-B Tech, which recently hosted a statewide Developer's Conference of 32 faculty from 20 community colleges, is one of five VLC development centers approved statewide. The project is funded by the state, Perkins and Federal grants.

Fishing Farmer

Adjunct welding instructor Charlie Farmer placed 6th with a 456 foot cast at the Sportcast USA Unlimited World Championship long distance casting competition in Crestville, MD.

CIP Funding Approved

The North Carolina Board of Community Colleges - and the General Assembly - approved funding for a Curriculum Improvement Project (CIP) in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Manufacturing Engineering Technology and Manufacturing Technology. An allotment of $110,000 will fund the first year of the two-year CIP.

A Virtual Success

Computer Technologies Instructor Kathie Doole, along with instructors from Coastal Carolina Community College and Martin Community College, recently completed the creation of the template for the on-line course, Introduction to Internet Programming. She is presently working with an instructor from Caldwell Community College to create the template for the course, Website Management. These templates are a part of the Virtual Learning Community and are offered to any instructor within the community college system who wants to teach a course on-line. They include the syllabus, lecture notes, documents, on-line links and tests.

Tech Talk is published for employees of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College by the College Relations Division.

Executive Editor:
Mona Cornwell
Managing Editor:
Jodi Ford

Send submissions to Mona Cornwell, director of communications, at mcornwell@abtech.edu. Publication of the next issue is scheduled Dec. 2. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 18. This edition of Tech Talk was produced October 2002. Equal Opportunity Educational Institution.

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