It feels like we've spent the past two weeks talking solely about how busy James Franco is, and this latest news isn't clearing up his schedule at all.
Though Franco never ended up teaching a course at Yale like rumors suggested earlier this year, he has managed to land a gig teaching a master course at Columbia College Hollywood. What exactly is he teaching? Why, editing James Franco footage, of course.
The course, called "Master Class: Editing James Franco...with James Franco," will allow 12 of Columbia College's best editing students to work with Franco and his frequent collaborator editor Tyler Danna in creating a 30 minute documentary from footage of Franco's career. It's a career that has been unorthodox to say the least (especially over the past year), and it sounds like it will somehow manage to be even more meta than his "Three's Company: A Drama."
Since we can't enroll in the class ourselves (unfortunately), we decided to take a guess at what Franco's potential syllabus might look like...
MASTER CLASS: EDITING JAMES FRANCO...WITH JAMES FRANCO
Instructors: James Franco and Tyler Danna
Schedule: Thursday afternoon
Office hours: "Never, I'm a freakin' movie star!"
Course Description: This course allows 12 lucky students to work with Oscar nominee and host, Yale graduate, master comedic and dramatic actor, soon-to-be director and all around nice guy who doesn't care for "Jersey Shore" James Franco and learn how to edit. This course will be taught using snippets from Franco's own filmmaking career and will result in a 30 minute documentary of Franco's life. You're welcome.
Suggested Course Materials:
-James Franco, "Palo Alto: Stories," Scribner, 2010.
-James Franco, "Just Before the Black," Esquire, 2010 <http://www.esquire.com/fiction/james-franco-fiction-0410>
-"Freaks and Geeks" (entire series)
-"Pineapple Express"
-"Spider-Man," "Spider-Man 2," "Spider-Man 3" (or just this scene)
-"Howl"
-"127 Hours"
-"General Hospital" (only my episodes)
-The 83rd Academy Awards
Week 1: An Introduction to James Franco
Watching select clips of James Franco's favorite James Franco films. Make sure you have a healthy knowledge of his movies, because class participation is a must. Make sure you can reference his uncredited cameos in "Never Been Kissed," "Nights in Rodanthe" and "The Green Hornet."
Week 2: Analyzing the Editing of James Franco
What editing skills makes James Franco look best on screen? We analyze what other editors have done in the past to help create the persona of Franco, and then figure out how we can replicate that in the documentary.
Week 3: Practice Documentary Editing
Finally to the hands on stuff. We will spend this session recutting "Spider-Man 3" to try to make it into a better film than what was released in theaters. Completing one of these by the end of the semester will result in extra credit and they will be sent to Sam Raimi on April 1st next year.
Week 4: Editing Session
Now that you have an idea of what is being asked for in the documentary, it's time to start making it. The next few weeks will be dedicated to developing, cutting and editing what is sure to be the greatest documentary ever created. Ever.
Week 5: Editing Session
Week 6: Editing Session
Week 7: Guest Speaker Seth Rogen
My good friend Seth Rogen will come in to speak about all the ways that I am a better actor than he is. Case in point: Oscar nomination. And when was the last time he was asked to host anything?
Week 8: Editing Session
Week 9: Editing Session
Week 10: Final Presentation
The grades on the final presentation depend solely on my mood that day, so you'd better hope I win that Oscar!
Do you support James Franco's idea for his class? Would you sign up for the course based on our admittedly ridiculous fake syllabus? Let us know what you think in the comments section and on Twitter!
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