UC professor leads film students to the future

Today, Schiff’s long career has led him to UC’s Digital Media program in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences. There, he serves as assistant professor, sharing with students his film expertise and the practicalities of getting into the industry.

Schiff’s experience goes deep. His credits including episodes of the TV programs “Dallas,”  “Creepshow,” “Newhart,” “The Assassination File,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Deadtime Stories” and many more, in addition to early credits with Nickelodeon.

“What I always enjoyed about teaching was being able to share real-life experiences with students, and helping make the next generation of film,” he says, “because it’s something that I’ve been passionate about all my life.”

Students interested in his work can check out the horror movie “Young Men” this month. Starring David Duchovny, it's a Lord of the Flies-esque story about adolescents who take their lessons in discipline too far at a wilderness therapy camp. Schiff served as an executive producer on the project.

Schiff also helped produce “Pig Hill,” a horror film based on an urban legend of pig creatures that was released last fall.

Schiff explains how the film industry has changed, shares his rich experiences in it and how he encourages the filmmakers of tomorrow.

Were their early mentors who influenced your style?

"Yeah, from theater I had a great mentor who was a high school dramatist, Larry Kirby. He was the first adult that told me I could make a living if I wanted to do this for real, I could go ahead and make it. Because everybody, especially back in the in the 70s and 80s, was trying to talk you out of going into theater or film. You know, it's hard life.

All you always heard was discouragement, discouragement, discouragement. It's hard. You know, so many people try and fail.

All you always heard was discouragement, discouragement, discouragement. It's hard. You know, so many people try and fail, you know?"

How did you end up at UC?

I had done a lot of TV, a lot of comedy, and this series on Nickelodeon. Well, Mike Gassaway, who's also a professor at UC, was living in Pittsburgh for a while. And Mike directed Jimmy Neutron on Nickelodeon. Everybody said to him, you got to meet this guy named Marty Schiff.

Mike took over the digital media program and he said, 'hey, would you be interested in teaching at UC?' And I said, absolutely. You know, I was getting my master's at the time. I had gone back to school to get my master's because I knew that that was important if I was going to continue on the university level of teaching,  and he said 'come on over,' and so that's how I ended up with UC, and I've been here ever since.

How does the film industry compare today with when you started in it?

The biggest change in the industry is technology. And for me, acting is still acting, directing is still directing, lighting is still lighting. Things that have been around for a hundred years are still the same. But it's the technology that always changes our industry.

If you look at the the invention of film and then you look at, you know, what the Lumiere brothers were doing, where they were just filming trains leaving a station. And then you've got Thomas Edison telling a story, all of a sudden we're telling a story, got the great train robbery, you know, got, you know, all of these things where all of a sudden it becomes a narrative.

And then sound comes in, you know, from the time the Lumieres were making their movies, so we have sounded is 30 years almost, you know, 1929 when we really get a large use of sound.

And then color and widescreen, you know, all of these things is always the technology. And we're about to go through another major shift with artificial intelligence, with AI. Now that's going to change the industry.

How do you encourage students who want to go into the industry--whether in acting, producing, directing, or any of its many facets?

Don't let anybody bring you down. Always stay positive. Keep going forward. It's going to be hard. You're going to get knocked down. You're going to get rejected. It makes normal things like relationships and, you know, and scheduled life challenging sometimes.

But that's the industry that we're in. And just eliminate the negativity and keep going forward. 

I think the formula for success in the entertainment is, S equals C squared over T times P squared. Which is success equals confidence and commitment over talent. There's a lot of untalented people that were confident and committed and succeeded. Take time to practice and persevere. Just keep doing it.

Featured image at top: A still from the upcoming movie "Young Men." UC Assistant Professor Marty Schiff served as executive producer on the horror film. Photo/Provided