The Community College of Aurora’s Colorado Film School will create regional commercials this fall for Toyota and Oster Jewelers in a new commercial production class being offered to the most experienced students.
“To be able to work with some of the world’s largest advertising and marketing companies and clients is tremendous opportunity for students,” said Frederic Lahey, founder and director of the Colorado Film School. “We’re a professional career training program, so this is a win-win — both to us and to Toyota and Oster.”
Lahey said the school was approached by Cherry Creek-based Oster Jewelers and the Denver Toyota Dealers Association last year to make commercial spots that represent Colorado and can be shown on local media platforms.
As part of the recurring deal, the local Toyota dealers will contribute $30,000 a year for scholarships and to sponsor the Colorado Film School‘s bi-annual student shows held at Harkins Northfield 18 Theatres, said Community College of Aurora spokesperson Lee Rasizer.
The Denver Toyota Dealers Association is a group of six Toyota dealerships including Groove Toyota in Englewood, Mountain States Toyota in Denver, Stevinson Toyota East in Aurora, Stevinson Toyota West in Lakewood, Larry H. Miller Toyota in Boulder and AutoNation Toyota Arapahoe in Centennial.
The dealers association’s ad agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, is working directly with the students by providing them with loose guidelines for the commercials.
“The idea is to allow them to shoot some stuff that is specific to the Colorado and Denver market and see what we end up with,” said Brent Baribeau, account supervisor for Saatchi and Saatchi. “We looked around for different film schools in the Denver metro area, and the Colorado Film School had the best reputation.”
Baribeau said the program, which is a one-credit class, will be an ongoing partnership where dozens of commercial spots and scene snippets can be created for the company’s use. He said the dealers agency is looking for images of Colorado — mountains, streams and Toyota cars with kayaks and canoes perched on top.
“We’re going to be doing all kinds of things,” Lehey said. “This is going to be a very free-flowing class in terms of meetings and events, because we want to capture the vehicles in all seasons to give Oster and Toyota raw footage that they can work with on their own and also use for creating spots.”
The Colorado Film School began at the Community College of Aurora’s Lowry campus in 1998. The University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts & Media in Aurora is also a partner with the film school.
Lehey and another cinematographer will teach the class. About 10 students are currently signed up. The work will be showcased throughout the 2014 Starz Denver Film Festival, held at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the Sie Film Center and other venues.
“As the film school, we really pride ourselves on being engaged professionally and with the community,” Lahey said. “One of our jobs is to teach students how they’ll actually make money in this industry, which is where this course comes in.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, or mmitchell@denverpost.com