My name is Matthew Waynee, and I currently work at LAUSD / USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet, where I serve as the head of the Cinematic Arts Department and co-chair of our annual Festival of Arts that takes place on USC's campus. I have taught Filmmaking 1 & 2, AP Studio Art, Documentary Filmmaking, Ad Design, Digital Photography, Yearbook, Cartoon & Animation, and Game Design. In May, I was the recipient of the National Magnet Teacher of the Year Award, which is given by the Magnet Schools of America.

We can't thank Vans Custom Culture Grant enough for their generous award. It has been an amazing school year at LAUSD / USC Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet (USC CAE). Our proposed project “Lights, Camera, Take Action!” enabled our school to purchase new cameras for our Cinematic Arts Department, culminating in five of our film classes having the opportunity to create socially-conscious documentaries for various non-profit organizations in our communities.

While our school has existed for more than 100 years, it was only three years ago that our school was transformed into a Cinematic Arts & Engineering Magnet. The mission of our Cinematic Arts Department is to train a new generation of high school filmmakers from low socioeconomic neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area so that they can excel in the film and digital art industries by gaining an intensive hands-on, problem-solving education that focuses on video production, animation, advertising, music technology, and digital media. Our school's vision emphasizes 21st-century skills and technology that teaches students how to become competitive innovators who are both logic-driven and creative.

Over the last three years, our Cinematic Arts Department has built a solid—albeit minimal—core of video production equipment. We have nine entry-level DSLR cameras with tripods, 15 iMacs with Avid Media Composer, Adobe Creative Suite 6, and two light kits. However, we did not have any cameras that our students could take off-campus to work on their film and digital arts projects. Most of our students don't have cameras at home that they can use to work on their class projects outside of normal school hours. Winning the Vans Custom Culture Grant allowed us to purchase cameras to achieve this goal.

Our project "Lights, Camera, Take Action!" directly affected approximately 120 students who are taking courses in either Documentary Filmmaking, Filmmaking 1, Filmmaking 2, or Ad Design. Indirectly, our project has the potential to affect hundreds, if not thousands, of students and parents at our school and people in our surrounding community who will have the chance to watch the student-created documentaries and learn about various organizations and services that are available in the neighborhoods where the students live. By creating documentaries that raise awareness about such organizations, our students promoted programs that can help improve the health, education, career-readiness, and safety of the people in their communities, to name just a few. Our students have the ability to make life-altering improvements for their families, friends, and neighborhoods.

Finally, since the focus of our project “Lights, Camera, Take Action!” is to create documentaries for local non-profit organizations that can benefit students and their communities, part of our project required the students to identify and make connections with local organizations that could be the subject of their documentaries. To name just a few, we have formed connections with:

• USC Cadets, an extracurricular program that helps teenagers gain training to see what it is like to work as a police cadet in Los Angeles.
• Ghetto Film School, a program in Los Angeles that each year offers 30 students a free, intensive 30-month professional training in filmmaking, with professional directors, cinematographers, and editors serving as mentors.
• Jr. M.E.S.A., a program sponsored by the University of Southern California that allows middle school students to learn about the fundamental of engineering design and construction.
• Students Rock, a student-created and student-run after-school group that mentors other students on how to play various musical instruments.

This grant has been key to our school’s ultimate goal of helping to change the face of the film industry right here in Los Angeles by creating opportunities for those same young adults who call Los Angeles home to break into the film world.