Reflections Magazine Issue #83 - Fall 2015 | Page 22

Feature Article

In fact, he spent many nights rewiring old VCR machines and other video
equipment for the department, and then
decided to spend his summers volunteering to work for video departments at
places like the University of Michigan
and the Michigan Department of Education.
By then, he wasn’t just interested in
cinematography, he wanted a degree
to show for it. Problem: Siena Heights
didn’t have a concentration in that area
at the time.
No problem: Working with faculty,
he created his own degree path.
“With Ben Braun’s help, I called a
meeting with the dean of students, the
dean of the college and Sister (Eileen)
Rice,” Smith said. “And everybody came.
I presented my proposal, and said ‘This
is what I wanted to do.’ … They allowed
me to pretty much re-write my own
curriculum.”
Graduating with a degree in theater/
speech communications with a concentration in television and film, Smith got
a job as a production assistant with
WGTE, the public television station in
Toledo, Ohio. Within two months, he
was filming programs for the station,
and “everything took off from there.”
Soon, he was filming and lighting
commercials as a freelancer, and then
went to work as the creative director
for Koontz Advertising, which had
him working with companies such as
Owens Corning, Libby Glass and OwensIllinois. He eventually moved back to
his native Detroit, taking on clients
such as Ford and Kmart, and had built
a solid career path there.
But then the Hollywood bug bit.
He was constantly watching television shows and trying to figure how
scenes and the actors were lit.

22 | Reflections Fall ’15

“The best thing you can
do is anticipate. Don’t keep
asking, ‘Can I have a job?’
It’s those anticipation moments that mean you are
paying attention. And if
you anticipate, then you
have a shot at getting in.”
“I was drawing lighting plots and
figuring out where (the lighting) they
were on the TV show,” Smith said.
After watching an episode of “Growing Pains” and stumped on how one of
the main characters were lit, he decided
to write the show’s director of photography to ask how it was done.
“He wrote me back,” Smith said.
“He actually called, and we spoke. He
asked me if I ever had been to California.
I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘If you ever come
to visit, look me up.’”
Smith took him up on the offer, and
flew out to Los Angeles and visited that
director.
“I stayed on the set the whole week,”
Smith said.

During that time, they were shooting
a scene with a car and were having trouble with reflection. The director asked
Smith for his opinion.
“You couldn’t work in Detroit if you
couldn’t light a car,”