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PAUL DIFRANCO: The Art of Teaching Film and More
PAUL DIFRANCO: The Art of Teaching Film and More
By Pat Reilly
Paul DiFranco, who teaches music production and recording technology and film studies at Shenandoah University, puts to the lie the old saw that those who can’t do, teach.
He became a Distinguished Adjunct Assistant Professor only after he had done it all in music and filmmaking over an almost 50-year career. He’s mastered all aspects of music, production, post-production and music supervision for film and TV after starting out writing, playing and pitching songs in the 1970s in the Bronx, N.Y.
Early on, DiFranco instinctively copyrighted his work when selling original songs. Its importance was brought home after one of his biggest hits, number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, “Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me),” was poached by McDonald’s for advertising a decade later.
He and his co-writers sued and McDonalds eventually settled. During that litigation, he said, he learned about the business side of music from the best copyright attorneys. This sent him off in the more lucrative direction of music publishing, owning and operating several recording studios, including Soho Sound.
He got his break in film when his brother, Philip, who had written a book about director Roger Corman’s work, set up a meeting for DiFranco with the famously thrifty “King of B-Movies” in 1988. Corman’s initial complaint, “Music costs me money,” was DiFranco’s cue to explain that the music the director used in films could make money.
DiFranco was immediately referred to Corman’s production manager, who hired him to create a music department. Within a year, DiFranco helped Corman collect royalties on a slew of abandoned film scores. The title Worldwide Vice President of Music came soon after.
Ironically, if DiFranco had any formal education in filmmaking, it was at the apocryphal “Roger Corman School of Film,” an inside joke among young Corman protégés. Though never nominated for a film, Corman won an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 2009 for his overall impact on the industry.
Corman also mentored Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron and Peter Bogdanovic. After 11 years with Concorde Pictures, DiFranco graduated to work with Fox Family Channel, ABC, and BET on TV and film projects. He has supervised the music on more than 300 feature films and 200 television episodes.
That serendipity continued after a move east with his wife, long-time Middleburg area resident Elizabeth Rice, to live by the Shenandoah River. Attending a performance at nearby Shenandoah University, he happened to sit next to University President Tracy Fitzsimmons.
She asked what he did for a living. This opened the door to teaching in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory.
DiFranco has brought film professionals from many disciplines into his classrooms remotely and worked on several commercial feature films with students in Winchester. With his friend, Winchester businessman Steve Nerangis, co-owner of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, he has created opportunities for students to see their work on the big screen.
As he tells students in the first days of class, “You’re about to create your own universe.” With a lot of talent, a sense of adventure and a bit of luck, they, too, may get to do it all.
