James Franco To Create Class On Himself

Well, just when we thought James Franco couldn't saturate the college market further ... he proves us wrong.

Movieline reports that Franco is joining hands with Columbia College Hollywood to create a class on, well, himself. It will be called -- wait for it -- "Editing James Franco...with James Franco."

As a press release explains:

Academy Award-nominated actor James Franco has partnered with Columbia College Hollywood to offer an innovative course through which 12 of the private film school's best editing students will create a 30 minute documentary film from videographic footage from Mr. Franco's own unorthodox career.

Mr. Franco's frequent collaborator editor and Tyler Danna is teaching the course, which has been entitled Master Class: Editing James Franco...with James Franco. Mr. Franco is providing the footage - much of it from behind the scenes on short films he has directed - and the conception for the course and will speak to the students weekly via live feed (Skype) and attend class the weekly class sessions when his schedule allows. The student editors will seek to create a cinematic image of James Franco through the footage.

Master Class: Editing James Franco...with James Franco meets on Thursday afternoons weekly. As conceived by Mr. Franco and Mr. Danna, the class sessions themselves will be taped and be part of the final film created by the class or another project.

Franco, of course, will be Skyping in from New Haven, where he's currently helping to produce a musical cryptically titled "James Franco Presents."

Meanwhile, we're holding our breaths and crossing our fingers for a James Franco major.

Comments

[dnegri]

01:24 PM on 02/08/2011

Since the highly entertaining "Freaks and Geeks" is in the rerun mode of Intl Film Channel, it's quite amusing to compare his "freak" character back then to what he really is.

Just saw an episode where he conned another student into taking a basic algebra exam for him because he just couldn't master anything mathematical.

[CraiginPhoenix]

05:46 PM on 01/31/2011

In an era where these actors act if they are the greatest people to ever walk the earth, it is nice to see someone as down-to-earth as James Franco.

[Tails]

05:36 PM on 01/31/2011

All the reason I need to transfer there.

[sue denim]

05:35 PM on 01/31/2011

Speaking of editing, somebody should have edited the news release better. I think this is a wonderful thing Mr. Franco is doing. He's donating the film without asking for the rights so students can learn about movie editing. HufPost is making it sound as though it's just crass self-promotion on his part. Students crave to hear from industry professionals and he's giving them that. Kudos, to James Franco.

[bessielil]

04:44 PM on 01/31/2011

Cool idea. Good experience for the students. It beats the Lady Gaga course and one years ago that was all about the Keanu Reeves oevre.

[jackstpaul]

03:17 PM on 01/31/2011

Kinda think the guy has gone off the rails. Wonder how his PhD work is going with all of these outside activities. I'm betting he bails on grad school, but I give it through the end of his second year.

[MyReality2011]

08:43 PM on 01/31/2011

i dont think he sleeps. He'll probably get his PhD no sweat.

[jackstpaul]

04:58 PM on 02/01/2011

There is no such thing as "getting a PhD no sweat." Even Einstein had to work hard for his. I speak from having spent 3 years working on a PhD at an Ivy (not Yale) and being otherwsie very familiar with the process. Unless you've been a fulltime student in a (esp. an elite) PhD program, and from your "no sweat" comment I can't imagine that you've been one, you can't even begin to imagine the workload and stress.

[nootrope]

10:54 AM on 02/02/2011

Like any college he's enrolled in is *not* going to give him a PhD. Your coursework obviously wasn't in marketing. ;-)

[jackstpaul]

07:08 PM on 02/02/2011

Obviosuly you're anothert without much of a clue about what getting a PhD entails. They don't "give" them out. They're individualized degrees,. Please quite denigrating those with or getting PhDs with this nonsense about it somehow being "no sweat" or given." We're tlakinag about Ylae, not a matchbook cover fphoney degree.

Marketing? Here's a clue, Yale doesn't need Franco's star power for any reason. They are as well-established and well-respcted as can be in their field, academia, and I guaranrtee you they reject 25-35 people for every 1 applicant they accept into their English Dept. PhD program.

Just goes to show that people who try to apply logic that applies to commercial business to something like a PhD program don't have any understanding of how PhD degrees and elite universities work. They are a worlds unto themselves.