• STAGE 2 – New Faculty and Curriculum
STAGE 2 (2002 – 2006)
2002 marked another year of prominent change for SMPTV and the USC Thornton School of Music. During the summer there was a change in leadership. The new Dean, Dr. Robert Cutietta was introduced to the Thornton School of Music. Within a few weeks of this new beginning, SMPTV program director, Buddy Baker became ill and was hospitalized for a short time. Buddy confided in Rob that if he was unable to continue with USC in the fall semester, he could look to Brian King to manage and direct the SMPTV program. Shortly thereafter, Buddy Baker sadly passed away and Brian King was positioned in charge of the SMPTV program. This was to be a year of evaluation for the entire Thornton School of Music and the SMPTV program.
_In addition to his role as teacher, composer, engineer and producer, Brian was well on his way to becoming a full-time administrator for USC. _During this year, there were several meetings and interviews to discuss Buddy’s successor. Based on the work that Brian accomplished over the course of his 4 years at USC and his close working relationship with Buddy Baker, Brian King was selected as the permanent replacement for Buddy as Director for the SMPTV program.
This new position gave Brian the opportunity to review the faculty positions, create a new curriculum, and design a new lab facility for SMPTV. Brian was also able to expand the relationship between the scoring program and the USC Cinema School, while managing the operating budget for the SMPTV program. In essence, this was a time of taking inventory to implement further change.
In 2003, Brian initiated a new phase of operation within SMPTV which included;
• Creating 4 full-time core faculty positions with revised part-time roles for other instructors
• Successfully launching the new SMPTV curriculum, which included industry based relationships for instruction
• Implementing a new composition forum for cultivating relationships between SMPTV and the entertainment industry
• Developing a television internship program which would eventually become partnered with “LOST”, “House” and “Supernatural”
• Partnering with the School of Cinema to coordinate schedules for producing student film projects as well as a number of SMPTV sessions – including dates which would eventually become the SMPTV Master Class Series
