For alumnus Mike Scheuerman, his CU Boulder training in technology and project management proved incredibly valuable when his career shifted to working as a film producer in the social-impact space.听
At Sunday鈥檚 Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Scheuerman (MTeleCom鈥�95) will be in the small, masked audience allowed to attend during the COVID-19 pandemic.听
Although few of us will produce Oscar-nominated films in our lifetimes, others can follow this same path, says Scheuerman, who notes a project management skillset with a technical background provides skills 鈥渢o take anywhere.鈥� This is a key moment when tech and film are converging, as Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming platforms produce more of their own movies and TV, he said.
鈥淚鈥檓 so honored and excited that I was able to go into film at this point; it鈥檚 a midlife renaissance shift,鈥� he said.
Scheuerman began his producer work in April 2019 on the film Hunger Ward, a . Nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject, the 40-minute film directed by Skye Fitzgerald of Spin Films was acquired by MTV Documentary Films.听
The film was hosted in showings by President Barack Obama鈥檚 former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough (currently secretary of veterans affairs) and actor Mark Ruffalo 鈥� and featured in a United Nations campaign. Since its nomination, the documentary was discussed by major players including Scott Simon on NPR and Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.听
That suits Scheuerman fine.听
鈥淚 want to help tell stories that bring attention to important matters and help bring change,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I got involved and why I鈥檓 here. Film is a powerful storytelling tool.鈥澨�
From tech to film
In late 2018, Scheuerman attended his local film festival in Bend, Oregon. Having run his own company and worked at Facebook for a combined total of 23 years in project management, he had recently retired.听
A longtime fan of social-impact movies, he asked directors at the festival if he could contribute. Their responses surprised him.听
鈥淒irectors told me: 鈥楨verything you鈥檝e been doing for over 20 years, it鈥檚 the same job as a film producer,鈥欌�� says Scheuerman.听
Much like tech management, running a film project involved planning for possible outcomes, solving problems听and helping to deliver a finished project.听
鈥淭here is crossover, career-wise, for those who want to work in the creative space as well as technology,鈥� says Scheuerman.听
Solving puzzles听
For Hunger Ward, the director and cinematographer needed to film in a war zone. Planning for this, Scheuerman procured kidnapping and ransom insurance for the crew, assembled a risk plan听and obtained a satellite indicator they could use to communicate with him each day.听
Next, he formed contingency plans for camera equipment and hard drives. Without reliable electricity, the crew would need to download footage each night to hard drives. They鈥檇 need to make at least two extra copies of each hard drive and keep extras hidden鈥攁nd ended up taking 12 hard drives鈥攊n case a warlord, border patrol, or other entity confiscated a hard drive.听
Thinking back to CU math classes when he figured out bits and bytes, he calculated they鈥檇 need 48 terabytes of data storage.听
鈥淭hose are tech skills I learned in the CU program that I would never have had otherwise,鈥� says Scheuerman.听
As a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (now called the Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy Program) at CU Boulder, Scheuerman and his wife lived on Boulder Creek in married student housing.听
鈥淭hose were some of the best years of my life,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 have deep, deep gratitude to that program for providing a skill set to launch a career and later to produce films.鈥�