Immersive, Hands-on Filmmaking

By Natalie Aymond

Capturing the cinematic journey of a bullfighter, interviewing those closest to Bob Marley about his legacy, and following stories of women survivors from Uganda’s civil war are a few of the ways UC Santa Barbara film professor Chris Jenkins has engrossed himself in other worlds. His work has appeared on Discovery, Netflix, PBS, The History Channel, and more, and he is the recent recipient of the 2024 Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowship. Jenkins says film has been his vehicle to learn and tell stories — and he urges students to do the same.

A veteran documentarian, Jenkins bridges his work behind the camera to his teaching in the classroom as Head of Production for UCSB’s Film and Media Studies department. The result: an immersive, hands-on learning environment that mirrors real-world film production. This is reflected in courses such as GreenScreen, Lighting for the Moving Image, and the summer-special Coastal Media Project.

Chris Jenkins, UC Santa Barbara film professor, operating his camera on a day of documentary filming.

Crew Production brings an extra taste of the industry to UCSB students, and not just film majors. Any interested students can submit a script with hopes of being one of the 12 to pitch their projects at the Pollock Theater, and then one of four groups chosen for production by three professionals brought in from the industry. With the help of Jenkins’ connections, this jury has included those who have worked on sets like The Godfather, Zootopia, and the long-running NCIS series. After that, Jenkins and Wendy Jackson, co-teachers, guide these films from pre-production to premiere. Jenkins recently spoke about his role in the Film program.

Q. How have you translated your extensive background in professional documentary filmmaking into your teaching?

A. I wanted to experience it first and understand it. I think that’s really what I brought to UCSB: experience in the field. That’s where I was also able to bring in [teachers] who were professionals in the field, who work with the best of the best...Folks like Sven Holcomb, Ian Kellett, and Wendy Jackson, they’re all top-notch folks. For the students to get to learn from people with real-world experience — I think they really benefit because that’s where they’re headed, a lot of them.

My work is very relevant to teaching. You have to go through it to understand it and, to be honest, a lot of that is mistakes. As an instructor, you don’t want to have students make as many brutal mistakes as you’ve made, but mistakes are part of the learning process. We encourage risk-taking. I think college is an amazing time to experiment, to take risks and do things that you might not be able to do in the future.

Q. What inspired the Crew Production course and its structure?

A. It has been going since I arrived here 15 years ago, and I was able to start teaching it with the guy who created it 40 years ago. It was in 16-millimeter film until I came along, then we transitioned to digital. So we’re now into the 160th film made in this class, four at a time.

That class has always also been the biggest opportunity for students to really show what they can do because of the ability to work for two quarters. There are no other courses that we give them two quarters to complete any single piece of work.

But what else is unique about the class is that it's open to any kind of format. So it could be a documentary, it could be animation, it could be live action…The point of that is so students who are doing a live-action can learn about the making of a documentary, and vice versa.

Once the scripts are picked, a producer is selected and then goes on to hire all of the crew, from production managers to the editors, camera operators, sound and art department, or depending on what they need…We basically treat it like a studio would. We say, you're going to hit that screen on March 21st on Friday at 7:00 p.m. or the producer fails the class, which has only happened once in 40 years.

Q. What do you hope students take away from the competitive nature of the course? Does this prepare students for networking and professional production environments?

A. Each of these folks who are going to go into the industry are going to have to do the same. It’s competitive and you’ve got to be able to sell yourself. You’ve got to be able to show your work, show your worth, and step up. Quite often, what I really love seeing is people who break out of their shells. They realize they actually need to be able to speak in public or step up to somebody in an elevator. That’s the typical ‘elevator pitch,’ but it’s the truth.

I just came from a conference where I was in the elevator every day with people who are heavy hitters in the industry. In that moment, if you can kind of dazzle somebody, the next thing, you’re going to be working with them. So we want people to also learn those skills —people skills.

The truth is that this class is called Crew Production. I talked to the guy who created the class. I said, ‘Talk to me about the name.’ He said this is about learning how to work with people…You can learn cameras, you can learn sound, you can learn all the technical skills, editing, writing, you name it. But it’s really about how you deliver for your crew in a way that everyone will want you back. Everyone will want to work with you next time. That’s what the goal is, to be that person.

Q. UCSB’s Film and Media Studies department is known for its strong theoretical foundation. How do you think combining both theory and hands-on production classes in the department enhances the overall education for film students and aspiring filmmakers?

A. For our department, students only need to take one production class to get their degree. So it really is up to the students what they’re going to get out of this experience.

I think about any art school. If you were to have an artist who goes and says I’m a painter and that painter hasn’t looked at a Picasso, has'n’t looked at a Renoir, doesn’t know a Matisse, they’re not going to be as good an artist, to be honest…You haven’t actually lived yet. Much less become a fantastic artist.

This is why I see our department study these masters, learn from them, watch their technique, think about how they did it…then apply that to your work and you can do better work than you would have had you not studied these things.

Chris Jenkins, UC Santa Barbara film professor, recording in the middle of a nature scene for a documentary. Jenkins teaches the popular course Crew Production.

By having studied critical theory, they are preparing themselves for more than just the production world if they want it. But again, it can help their production by just understanding the history and the people who were the groundbreakers and who made the big changes…Understanding what can be done on what devices and how you do that, it’s an understanding of storytelling in so many ways.

Q. You mentioned that you will be teaching a new class in the spring: Editing. What are the aims of this class?

Well, editing is one of those core skills. If you’re a skilled editor, you have immediate work and there’s so much work that can be done with editing. I think that it can be applied to almost any course, so that’s why it’s an important course to have. Because [students] can take those skills to Crew, Green Screen, the Coastal Media Project, and produce better work in those classes than they would have without having a whole course dedicated to just learning those skills.

In the documentary world, editors are in many ways considered the directors because the editor finds what’s in there and that’s in a sense directing what comes out…You can get hired immediately if you’re a good editor. Same with good sound. So that’s part of what we’re doing is also just providing actual jobs for the students.

My plan is actually to start with 16-millimeter film on a flatbed and jump straight to the latest and greatest technologies. We’ll talk about what happened in between, but we won’t waste any time.

Q. What words of advice do you have for film students trying to break into the industry, especially one of such a competitive nature?

A: Well, we’ve had some people come back to our class as guest lecturers. One was the producer for A Beautiful Mind. She came back and said, everything that I do today, I learned here in 106 [Crew Production].

I would say if that’s their dream, they can achieve it too. It’s really up to them. But again, I think it comes down to working well with people. I think the most important thing they can do is be a good team player and carry their weight and then some.

Natalie Aymond is a four-year Film and Media Studies major also pursuing a Professional Writing Minor. She wrote this piece for her Digital Journalism course.