Fritz Kiersch and the Moving Image Arts Program
By Leslie Berger
A
s far as fun careers go, Oklahoma City University Moving Image Arts Department Chair Fritz Kiersch has had one that rivals the best of them. His business travels have taken him from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge down into the gold mines of South Africa, but Kiersch says he has never enjoyed his work as much as he does right now. “Making a film project is fun, but getting to watch 10 students make 10 or 15 projects is even more fun,” Kiersch said. Kiersch launched Oklahoma City University’s Moving Image Arts program in the spring of 2006 with four students enrolled as film majors. In the past three years, the program has expanded to include nearly 60 film students. Several interned this summer on the set of “The Killer Inside Me,” a major motion picture filmed partly in Oklahoma. Several of Kiersch’s former students also have gone on to work in Hollywood. Kiersch discovered his love for film at an early age, but heard lots of advice from his father, a college professor, about pursuing studies in business and law. Kiersch enrolled as an economics major at Ithaca College and finished his business degree at Ohio Wesleyan. After he took all the economics courses that were offered, Kiersch’s advisors told him to take some electives. He enrolled in a class about making 8 millimeter movies, which led to a few more film classes and then a summer making movies at home. Upon graduation, Kiersch moved to California and began working in the television commercial industry while he spent nights studying at the University of Southern California. Sometimes he slipped into large auditorium-style film classes he wasn’t enrolled in just to participate in the discussions. He worked his way deeper into Hollywood and became a camera assistant, working for some now very famous cinematographers including Caleb Deschanel, of The Passion of the Christ.
OCU's Fritz Kiersch (top row, fifth from left) is shown with the cast of the 1984 hit movie Children of the Corn.
Kiersch went on to open his own production company, Kirby Kiersch Film Group, as a cameraman and director where he thought he’d found his calling producing commercials. He initially turned down a former freelancer’s request to look at directing a movie in the early 1980s. “I said ‘No, I’m having fun, I get to do all this great stuff making commercials,’” Kiersch said. “But he said he had this horror story written by Stephen King and he needed somebody that knew how to keep things on budget and contain costs.” Somebody like Kiersch. Kiersch agreed to meet with the film company’s principals on a Thursday and by the following Monday, he was scouting locations in Midwestern cornfields. A few weeks later, he was filming with a full cast on the set of Children of the Corn, Kiersch’s first full-length movie. As director, he had the opportunity to experiment with creating monsters and other fun effects. He set up the film’s editing space the next block over from his production office. “I ran back and forth between the two. I had the greatest time,” he said. Kiersch continued to make films and directed Tuff Turf (1985), casting James Spader in his first starring role. Even though Kiersch works full time now as an educator, he continues to make about one project per year. Kiersch has an Emmy in his house, but it doesn’t belong to him. His wife, Jennifer, won the award for her work on the “Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular.” “She reminds me that she’s the Emmy winner and I’m not,” he said with a grin. In a more serious tone, Kiersch said he is very proud of his wife. He’s also proud of his children, daughter, Marissa, an LA publicist and son, Cameron, who is teaching English in Korea this fall. l
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