Seasoned director teaches art of storytelling in classes

When school starts Monday in the University of Hawaii system, there could be a future Oscar contender or an Emmy Award winner sitting in class. Many of the 646 creative media students already know how to work a camera and frame a scene. Some have already made a movie.

But students in Gary Shimokawa’s new classes at West Oahu College and Leeward Community College should know this: He’s going to expect a lot more than fancy camera angles.

"From a technology standpoint they are really hip," said Shimokawa, a veteran TV sitcom director with 43 years of experience and a decade of sharing his wisdom in film schools.

"But storywise they don’t know enough about stories," he continued. "They don’t read enough. They are not curious enough. They are curious about their own things but not the world. They don’t read enough literature or enough history."

The solution lies in the classics, not YouTube. In the works of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"The more they read, the more ideas they bring to the table," Shimokawa said.

Described as an "artist in residence," Shimokawa will be checking out what it’s like to work in Hawaii before he and his wife decide whether to make it permanent.

His resume is impressive and long.

Shimokawa, 73, started as a stage manager for the groundbreaking sitcom "All in the Family" and went on to direct a slew of popular series, including "Welcome Back, Kotter," "Night Court," "The Golden Girls" and "Saved by the Bell." He’s taught television production and writing classes at Loyola Marymount University, the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Shimokawa was invited to teach here by producer Chris Lee, an old friend and one of the founders of UH’s Academy for Creative Media. They talked about it a year ago when Shimokawa was here on vacation.

"I have family here," said Shimokawa, who was born in California. "My father and mother were both born and raised here. It’s a place where my wife and I used to vacation every Christmas."

At West Oahu, Shimokawa will teach a class on creative producing, focusing on the storytelling found in television. At Leeward he’ll teach a class on directing and producing a narrative studio production.

Shimokawa hopes to challenge his students and their ideas about the industry, most of which he said are too narrow and uninformed. They think they understand what’s needed on set, but the reality is different, he said.

"All of a sudden you have a bunch of actors who don’t believe in the story the same way you do," Shimokawa said. "They resist you or have a different imagination. What you do as a director is that you have to tell the actors, ‘This is the story I have to tell, and you have to find a way of telling that story.’"

But students often have a tremendous capacity to learn, he said. By the end of a semester, they’re different.

One of the most important lessons is perseverance. A career in film or TV is daunting and full of rejection.

"I explain that it is not an easy business, and if you are going into the business because you are curious, that is OK," he said. "But you have to have a driving need to tell a story and you can’t be a person who takes ‘no’ for an answer."

Some students grit their teeth and listen. Others think Shimokawa is exaggerating.

"The people who seem to be the most successful are those who already have a creative impulse and are great listeners," he said. "They learn by experiencing what others provide them. They discover that other people have a different viewpoint, and they are learning it might be more creative than their own."

AND that’s a wrap …

Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.