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Work Based Learning: DMA Project

Kern Film Festival

Jan. 27 - Feb. 2
Bakersfield, California

About the Festival

The Academy of Media Arts supported this years Kern Film Festival by having a booth featuring our Digital Animation Program. This was the first annual festival highlighting the film industry in and around Kern County.

The festival was a production of the Kern County Film Commission and featured movies filmed in the Kern County. Films shown were, The Best of Times, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Right Stuff, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, North by Northwest, and Erin Brokovich. The Festival opened with a Family Street Fair and ended with a black tie Grand Gala event. The picture above is of Media Arts staff member Jason Lodas with Barry Zoeller, Executive Director, Kern County Board of Trade during the black tie Grand Gala festival closing evening.

During the week long festival the Academy of Media Arts had a booth that offered information about the Digital Animation program, as well as handouts describing the new Web Design program. Student demo reels were played on the video unit while student portfolios and storyboards were on the booth display table. Student interns and Animation Program graduates, like Thane Ratliff, answered questions and provided information about the Academy.
 

The Film Industry and Kern County 

Almost from the moment motion pictures came to Hollywood, Kern County played an important role in the film industry. Kern became a convenient back lot for Hollywood in the early 1900's with it's raging rivers, vast valleys, and picturesque deserts. Kern County repaid Hollywood for its attention by helping to create the first generation of movie stars. 

The days of the movie cowboy wouldn't have been the same without Kern County. John Wayne, Gene Autry, Gabby Hayes, Tom Mix, and Richard Dix rode many a horse through the Kern River Valley. From 1924 to 1949, nearly 90 movie westerns owed their look to the area. Many have become classics. Classics such as The Grapes of Wrath, Red River Valley, and Stagecoach have all found a home in Kern Valley. 

Westerns weren't the only game in town. Other widely known films such as Boom Town, The Right Stuff, and modern films such as Jurassic Park, The X-Files, Dinosaur, and Speed have all utilized the rich variety of versatile resources available to the film industry.¹
 

An Evening at the Fox

The 1500-seat Fox Theater was designed by famed Los Angeles architect S. Charles Lee. Known for his trademark "The Show Begins on the Sidewalk", his designs would later gain classic status as paragons of style and beauty. Opened on Christmas Day, 1930, the Fox was one of the last of its kind built in the gilded age of great theaters. 1930 has come and gone, as have other theaters, but the Fox has endured the better part of seven decades. The Fox Theater's type I construction of poured concrete over steel would prove itself in the 1952 earthquake that ravaged lesser structures. 1953 saw the original Mediterranean Village interior replaced with a contemporary Art Deco motif inspired by Fox West Coast Theaters' Charles P. Skouras. A lavish concession area was added, along with a remodel of the marquee, box office and main entrance -- embellished with glitzy 50's bright metals, terrazzo and neon. The original screen was replaced with a super wide Cinemascope 20' x 45' format. The projectors were upgraded with 6000-watt carbon arc lamps and anamorphic lenses.

In 1977 the big screen went dark as the Fox's doors closed after 47 years in show business. Except for a brief period from 1983-84, the Fox sat silent until June 28, 1994, when the non-profit Fox Theater Foundation officially saved it from the wrecking ball. Funds were donated by over 380 "Save The Fox" donors for the down payment, with restoration beginning July 1st. The people of the community have been the true stars, whose contributions and visions are making the Fox blossom with her former glory. The Fox's goal is to to complete a five star restoration with enhancements -- including the reinstallation of a pipe organ, The Mighty Wurlitzer.

Today, the Bakersfield Fox is recognized for its fine acoustics and as the only remaining Fox with its Skouras signature intact -- a now classic art form exuding a rare mystique. Beginning at the sidewalk on a rainbow of polished terrazzo and then inside amid towering gold leaf, she is the exquisite blend of Spanish Colonial and Art Deco. She beckons you away from reality into twilight enchantment -- a galaxy of starlights floating in the neon glow of an indigo sky -- a place where your dreams of romance can come true!² 
 

1 - Excerpt from the Kern Film Festival Commemorative Program
     written by the Kern Film Commission

2 - Excerpt from article found at
     http://www.foxtheateronline.com/restoration.htm

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Last updated May 21, 2008