-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2006 =- Rising Stars

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Rising Stars

By Kevin Robinson-Avila

NMSU graduates find success in movies

NMSU alumna Kira Davis, right, with actor David Spade at the premiere of “Racing Stripes,” a movie about a racing zebra that combines live action with computer animation. Spade provided the voice for Scuzz the horsefly in the movie, which Davis helped produce as vice president for production and marketing at Alcon Entertainment LLC. Courtesy photo

It took Kira Davis just a few years to hit the Hollywood fast track. After graduating from NMSU’s theatre arts program in 1994, she worked as a costume assistant for a film in New York starring Angelina Jolie.

On the set, she met two aspiring movie producers – Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson – who hired her as a production assistant in 1997 for their newly formed company, Century City-based Alcon Entertainment LLC.

Davis is now Alcon’s senior vice president for production and marketing. She’s helped produce nearly a dozen feature films, including the blockbuster “Insomnia” starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” with Nancy Travis, and “Racing Stripes,” a movie that combines live action with computer animation.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Davis says. “I’ve had the chance to work on some great films with movie icons like Robin Williams. It’s a ‘broad strokes’ kind of job that includes everything from publicity and serving as company liaison with Warner Brothers to marketing and casting decisions. I’m doing everything I always wanted.”

Like Davis, many NMSU graduates have found success in the film industry. Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff, who headed the theatre arts department until 1991, says some well-known stars have come from NMSU, such as Neal Patrick Harris, the child actor from the television sitcom “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

Ed Stone, right, directs actors Dermot Mulroney and Amanda Peet on the set of “Griffin and Phoenix.” Stone, who wrote the script for the forthcoming movie, graduated from NMSU in 1990. Courtesy photo by Griffin and Phoenix set photographer David Lee

“He was at a summer camp for high school students that theatre arts ran for some years,” Medoff says of Harris. “A movie of mine, ‘Clara’s Heart,’ was being cast at the time. The first night, I did a little routine with all the students. Ten seconds with Neal and I knew to call my producer to tell him we needed to put Neal up for the main juvenile role opposite Whoopi Goldberg.”

Ed Stone, co-author of the movie “Happy, Texas,” graduated from NMSU in 1990. Stone and some partners made “Happy, Texas” for just $1.7 million and sold it in 1999 to Miramax at the Sundance Film Festival for $10 million. “At the time, that was the biggest sale in Sundance history,” Stone says.

Stone is now a major Hollywood success. He wrote the script for Sony’s forthcoming animated production “Disenchanted Forest,” and he worked on the scripts for the “Scooby Doo” movies and Eddie Murphy’s “Haunted Mansion.” He also wrote and directed the forthcoming movie “Griffin and Phoenix,” which he’s now editing.

“My time at NMSU gave me the tools I needed as an actor, writer and director,” Stone says. “At NMSU, I learned how to draw out actors on the set and how to write scripts with an intensity that allows actors to bring a story to life.”

Others have found success in films with science and business degrees. Alvy Ray Smith, who graduated from NMSU in 1965 with a degree in electrical engineering, co-founded the animation company Pixar in 1986. He shared in two academy awards, one in 1996 for pioneering inventions in digital image compositing and the other in 1998 for development of digital paint systems used in motion picture production.

Smith, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, says he took his first computer courses at NMSU.

Alvy Ray Smith, at podium, accepts his second academy award in February 1998. Smith, who graduated from NMSU in 1965, shared the award with Tom Porter, left, and Dick Shoup (not pictured). Oscar is copyrighted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“I studied in the 1960s with people who really understood computers early on,” Smith said. “It turned me on to computer graphics and set me on my career path.”

Patrick Nelson, who earned a professional golf management degree from NMSU in 1997 and an MBA in 2004, filmed his first major motion picture this year in Minnesota. “Arnold’s Park” was produced by The People’s Movie, a division of B Sting Entertainment, which Nelson co-founded in 2000 with partner Gene Tiegland.

The People’s Movie is a completely new concept developed by Nelson and Tiegland that allows the public to participate in production decisions through an interactive Web site. Participants earn a share of a movie’s domestic box-office revenue.

“NMSU’s business program helped prepare me to be a successful CEO,” Nelson says. “I’ve been able to raise seven-figure investments to produce ‘Arnold’s Park.’”

Given the burgeoning film industry in New Mexico and the launch of NMSU’s new Creative Media Institute (see sidebar), Medoff and others say many more students are likely to find success in movies.

“The emerging opportunities are fabulous for students in New Mexico,” Medoff says.

Patrick Nelson, right, Gene Teigland and Joel McHale of E! TV host the launch of The People’s Movie Web site on June 15, 2005, at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Nelson, who graduated from NMSU in 2004, co-founded B Sting Entertainment, which produced the movie “Arnold’s Park.” Courtesy Photo

NMSU graduates will find more local job prospects than ever before, thanks to a new government incentives program that has lured some 45 major productions to the state since 2003, says Lisa Strout, director of the New Mexico Film Office.

“State tax incentives and other enticements have brought more than $600 million in movie-related investments to New Mexico,” Strout says. “We now have about 1,000 people who are working more or less full time in high-paying, movie-related jobs.”

Beyond technical training, NMSU alumni say students should follow their hearts to find success in the film industry.

“You have to go where the action is, but more important, you need to find what makes you passionate and follow that path,” Smith says.

Davis adds, “It’s a challenging business with many opportunities, but you need to be open to trying new things. I gave up on being an actor early on and instead focused on film production. Students must be willing to follow the roads that appear before them.”

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