His professional life is somewhat of an object lesson for kids in high school, a showcase example that education and careers don’t always follow straight-line paths.

Kurlander was among four filmmaking professionals who shared both tips of the trade and personal stories at a Digital Media Symposium that The Consortium for Public Education offered in May in partnership with Douglas Education Center a Monessen vocational school with an international reputation in digital film, special effects, cosmetology and other motion picture making arts.

McKeesport Area High School participated in the Symposium.

Nearly 90 students and teachers from across the region attended the seminar, learning side-by-side during four hour-long workshops that each presented different aspects of the digital filmmaking craft. The event aimed to give students interested in media an avenue for exploring career options while at the same time providing them and their teachers with tips they can apply using film to document or present class projects.

“I liked that the different presenters each told about a different component of filmmaking,” said Bradley, a freshman at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative and Performing Arts who plans to major in musical theater.

“What I liked,” said his classmate, Abby, “was that all of them had actually worked in the film industry. Their stories were so real.”

Along with Kurlander, presenters included Robert Tinnell, (both shown above) a screenwriter, director and producer who heads Douglas Education Center’s digital film program and whose credits include the award-winning MTV video Straight Up, starring Paula Abdul; Eric Graf, a musician and sound engineer who founded the band Boxstep and the Lawrenceville media and sound production facility, Blackberry Studios; and Steve Mellon, a Post-Gazette photographer who creates videos for the newspaper’s web site and whose work has been published nationally in the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune and other outlets.

Kurlander brought movies like Shrek under examination to engage students in dissecting the essential four-part structure of screenplays.  Tinnell used a set at Douglas Education Center to demonstrate the effects of lighting and camera angle in creating moods; Graf discussed the use of sound and Mellon used his own videos and one made by his 11-year old daughter to illustrate how ‘point of view’ and other core filmmaking principles influence digital storytelling.


CAPA instructors enjoying the sessions.

Students moved through four workshops during the Symposium.

Kurlander wasn’t the only presenter who had tried other pursuits before following his heart into filmkaking. Graf, who had taught at North Allegheny High School for 10 years, traveled through Europe and the U.S. with his band before starting his sound studio.

Kurlander entertained students with stories of his Hollywood days. He explained that his latest film, My Tale of Two Cities, emerged from an effort he and other Pittsburgh-born theatrical talent in Hollywood and New York have mounted to parlay Pittsburgh’s increasing popularity as a moviemaking location into a full-blown industry.

Both he and Graf told students that Pittsburgh’s emergence as a moviemaking locale, the presence of marketing firms that make films for instruction and promotion, and regional education assets such as Douglas and Carnegie Mellon University, provide those interested in digital media careers with opportunities for getting experience and jobs.

“What impressed me is that every single speaker had such passion for his work” and also gave an unvarnished perspective on how much dedication and perseverance filmmaking requires, said Jackie Pfeiffer, a Pittsburgh Brashear teacher. “It helps me be able to tell these kids, ‘if you love something, go for it’,” while helping them understand that “it will take a lot of hard work.”

Participating schools all received Flip Video(TM) cameras and were invited to submit entries to a film competition Douglas and The Consortium plan for the coming school year.


Educators collect the cameras given out to each participating district.

The seminar was a pilot from which The Consortium will draw feedback for designing other similar programs.