SDSU TV Production Hollywood Heights Wins Emmy Award
One-hour drama produced entirely by SDSU TV and film students
San Diego State University television and film students have won an Emmy Award in the category of “Best Student Production – Program” for their production “Hollywood Heights” at the 35th Annual Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards.
The awards ceremony took place on Saturday, June 13, 2009 honoring outstanding achievement in regional television in the Pacific Southwest, including San Diego, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Bakersfield and Palm Springs.
“Hollywood Heights” is an hour-long professional pilot produced entirely by SDSU television and film students. It was shot with a single-camera perspective and has the feel of a primetime drama. The project was managed by SDSU television and film professors Tim Powell and Lee Marshall.
“This is a professional project run by students, not a student film project,” said Marshall, who oversaw the student writers. “We wanted to create a cable-ready pilot and give students the opportunity to have their names attached to something of professional caliber.”
The plot of the drama is a cross between “Dexter” and “Fame.” Hollywood hopefuls, seeking their big break, support each other through ups and downs, while a life-and-death mystery intrudes in their lives. The characters live in a building called Hollywood Heights, so the title is a double entendre, Marshall said.
In the short-term, the school hopes to distribute the award-winning pilot online in “webisodes” – short 10-minute clips of the complete piece. If students are successful in selling the pilot to a network – which is the ultimate goal – SDSU’s film school could become home to a network-aired series.
Watch a video about the making of Hollywood Heights
More about Hollywood Heights...
About SDSU’s School of Theatre, Television and Film
SDSU’s School of Theatre, Television and Film provides its students with the theoretical and applied experiences in television and film that promote the discipline's excellence, with the capacity to attain career success and with a sense of civic responsibility.
