While Mr. Richard Gavin may be our new cinematography teacher, he’s much more than that!
Mr. Gavin was born in the 1980’s, and he enjoys outdoor activities, like camping, hiking and spending time with his friends and family (and his dog, Nacho). He has worked as a production sound mixer for the past fifteen years, and he’s now the new cinematography teacher at Glendale High School, succeeding the respectable Mr. Josh Kirkwood. Ultimately, Mr. Gavin hopes to rebuild the cinema department at GHS.
Mr. Gavin specializes in commercials, and although he doesn’t have any high school teaching experience, he does have experience in leading high school education. He works at CalArts, or the California Institute of the Arts, where he also went to college, and he helps run a yearly workshop for acting students. Furthermore, he’s done much administrational work for his children’s preschool.
Mr. Gavin’s favorite part of being an educator is the response he gets from his students. Several of them are very interested in filmmaking, and he wishes to mentor them from year one of cinematography, to year three and possibly further. Overall, he hopes to prepare them for whatever the industry has to offer.
Over his time at GHS, Mr. Gavin wishes to rebuild the program, as he acknowledges that the department has gone through multiple transitional years. He wants to bring the program back to the pre-pandemic operation and plans to run a mini-studio out of the facility. From concept to final product, Mr Gavin makes sure that the computer lab has a great projection and sound studio, which he wants all of his students to take advantage of.
Although Mr. Gavin has worked on everything from short-form content to long-term films to commercials, he can help his students work on any film project they can imagine. Particularly, he is interested in teaching them documentary filmmaking, as he thinks this genre is very informative and entertaining to work on.
Finally, Mr. Gavin urges students who are interested in filmmaking to take the plunge and join his cinematography program, as the skills you’ll learn in class are totally different from what you’ll learn from watching YouTube. So far, Mr. Gavin has enjoyed his time at GHS, mainly with his students. He believes that all his students are very interested in further pursuing their craft.
Stay cinematic, Nitros!
