AN EMMY AWARD HERE? Yep, right here at Yavapai College. We keep an eye on forward-thinking, exciting initiatives in Prescott, and this is certainly one to follow. Produced and directed by the YC Film and Media Program’s Helen Stephenson, Campus Safety During an Alien Invasion garnered an Emmy in 2018. I spent an informative hour with Helen to learn about the program, and she had a lot to share about their many certificate programs and course offerings — but she didn’t even mention the Emmy!
Yavapai College has six campuses and centers across the county and offers over 100 degrees and certificates, plus two baccalaureate degrees. Its Film and Media Arts Program offers five certificates and 30 courses, including Production, VFX, Screenwriting, Motion Graphics, Writing for Games and Virtual Reality, Podcasting, and more. With a big focus on storytelling, students learn how to effectively create a narrative and develop the production skills necessary to meet the great need for professional content producers fully capable of delivering a product on time and within budget.
While 90% of students enter the Film and Media program hoping to be directors, everyone starts with mastering the basics, beginning with preproduction. Writing is also fundamental to sharing a compelling story, as is editing, mastering industry-standard software, and an understanding of what can be accomplished using AI and what cannot.
As with so many industries, there is a recurring question of how AI can save time and effort without reducing content value. Helen recently finished teaching a Screenwriting I class and an independent-study course, with AI at the forefront. She begins the screenwriting class by asking students to come up with a script consisting of three sentences, type it into ChatGPT and see what pops out. They then post it to the discussion board for everyone to read. Those scripts are terrible, but may hold the germ of a good first draft. “What I think is happening in film is that AI is going to be able to do the grunt work. In editing, AI can do a rough cut, but it won’t be able to do the final edit. It can’t create the rhythm of the story or incorporate the human factor. You have to bring that emotion to the screen, and AI is not able to do that.” Therefore, the emphasis on storytelling. Films shot using AI are uniformly flat, lacking depth and art. Cinematography is an art. While familiarity with AI is essential, especially as it continually evolves, truly great film and media content require technical and artistic competence. “I think the jobs will be where people know how to use AI correctly.”
Helen seeks out opportunities for students to practice their skills. When Holocaust survivor Esther Basch spoke on campus, Helen had her students shoot some B-roll for use in a documentary being made about her life. (B-roll: supplemental footage used to support or enhance the main shots — A-roll — in a film).
Students with certificates from the Film and Media Arts Program find ample job opportunities on graduating. One student graduated and went to work as an editor at Signals in Prescott Valley. Another came from a completely unrelated profession, got his certificate in film and media production, and now works as an editor. Local jobs are available in client-based commercial production.
After building their chops locally, bigger projects open up. If a graduate wants to work in the film industry, Helen often directs them to New Mexico, which offers more buying power than LA and a robust film presence across the state. Helen works with Arizona Film Commissioner Matthew Earl Jones, who has traveled to community colleges all over the state to set up a production-assistant program.
The college recently acquired an Igloo, a physical immersive space where the room itself becomes a 360-degree screen, its walls, ceiling and floor all usable as projection surfaces. This unit can track motion and adjust to the viewer’s perspective. It feels like being inside a film or environment. This opens up a whole new direction in film and media arts, one that Helen and the FMA Program are excited to offer students. Helen also sees potential for integrating the Igloo experience into the Prescott Film Festival, which she also leads.
For 16 years the Prescott Film Festival has been curating and presenting independent films, including director talks and afterscreening discussions. It also hosts screenings of Academy Award-nominated short films, with three screenings including animations, documentaries and live-action shorts (up to 20 minutes) from around the world. Big franchises like Harkins don’t pick up shorts or most independent films, so these fabulous visual stories aren’t available to the public except in film festivals like this. The Prescott Film Festival is a celebration of independent film and typically includes a sing-along feature —this year’s will be Mary Poppins. The 2026 festival takes place July 13-18 at Yavapai College.
For more on Yavapai College’s Film and Media Arts Program, including available scholarships, visit YC.edu or contact Helen at helen.stephenson@yc.edu.
For information about the Prescott Film Festival, including volunteer opportunities, visit prescottfilmfestival.com.
