About the Award
The Sun Cinematography Award will be given to a female student enrolled in the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts for excellence in cinematography.
For the Fall, 2011 recipient, the award will include:
- $500 towards the student’s Advanced Cinematography final project.
- A noted A.S.C. Cinematographer as the student's mentor for the semester (availability dependent).
- In-kind donations to help offset production and post costs (to include 2000 feet of 35mm film stock donated by Kodak).
The Purpose
The award was founded in honor and memory of Charlene W. Sun (1974-2009), who graced the MFA Production Program with her talent and her love of life and cinematography. (Read more about Charlene »)
Gender still proves to be a barrier for women in this field. The source of this barrier is unclear, as opportunities are expanding greatly.
The principal goal of this award is help bridge this barrier with access to two things:
- Greater access to the tools students need to produce a reel showcases their talent
- Access to a mentor who knows the path that the student is about to take
The Origin
The funds that this award possible come from three sources: donations from those who loved Charlene; continued sales of Charlene's artwork on deviantArt; continued small donations from SunRain Productions, the web development company Charlene co-founded in 2005.
While all of these sources are greatly appreciated, they are not large. We currently have enough to keep this award going for 5-6 semesters at most. If you are interested in helping to continue this scholarship, please consider donating or contact us.
Thanks to the Media Arts Center of San Diego, who has graciously agreed to act as our Fiscal Sponsor, donations can be tax deductible.
The Future
In the long term, we hope to make this a long term award, and to broaden its reach.
For the time being, we are excited to give out the first award, and we will go from there with our future plans.