Film: Santa Ana High School
Model AED Pathway: Saintly Films Production Pathway
Santa Ana High School is a title 1, predominantly latinx, urban high school. Eric Timmons is the lead Cinematic Arts Teacher and the VAPA Department Chair. Saintly Films strives to elevate underrepresented Latinx voices through work-based learning opportunities in media production. While they believe in the importance of foundational storytelling skills as well as technical training, they feel it would be a disadvantage to the students to not prepare them for an entertainment industry embracing AI. Therefore, the curriculum leans heavily into AI strategies to strengthen storytelling, edit interviews quickly, and employ the power of augmented human performance through responsible AI implementation in the classroom.
Pathway Courses:
Concentrator: Intro Film & TV Production, Broadcast Journalism,
Capstone: Advanced Film & TV Production, Advanced Video Production & Multimedia
Industry Partners
The program's industry partners and advisors have been involved for varying lengths of time. The Frida Cinema has been a partner for four years, while the Santa Ana Youth Employment Program and The Humble Company have each been involved for two years. Great American Portraits, Brett Adkins, E.P. at Warner Bros., the Santa Ana Artwalk, the Professional Photographers of Orange County, and Crave Restaurant have all been partners for one year. Creating Creators has been the program’s longest-standing partner, contributing for seven years.
Indsutry Partner Engagement
Industry partners provide authentic learning experiences outside the classroom through paid internships. Through these opportunities, students not only discover the joys and pressures of being a professional content creator, but also bring these skills back to the classroom to encourage, support, and train fellow students and underclassmen. With Creating Creators, students work alongside professional filmmakers in the classroom in preparation for a career as a creative professional.
Work Based Learning
In partnership with The Frida Cinema and the City of Santa Ana, paid Saintly Films students produce and edit Discover DTSA, an economic development project funded through city grants. Through this project, the paid interns schedule, plan, interview, film, edit, and share online the stories of local professional artists and small business owners who make up our vibrant city. As their mentor and teacher, Mr. Timmons works alongside them and Logan Crow, founder of the Frida, sharing their experience and guiding conversations to help the interns develop as artists and professionals. These students have also worked and shadowed with THCG, a computer graphics company, to incorporate more Maya and Unreal Engine elements into their own original short films.
Student Success
Judith Urbano, Class of 2024, is a shining example of the opportunities that open up for students after participating in this Film Production program. Now attending film school at CSULB, Judith is actively applying the skills she developed in this pathway by interning on multiple professional film sets and television productions.
To see videos from Saintly Films visit their Instagram page @saintlyfilm
