Paul Brown

I have always felt lucky with my career. I was able to realize my childhood dream of working in the entertainment field for over twenty years. After graduating from Columbia College, Hollywood, I started climbing up the entertainment ladder.  I have worked on different sides of the entertainment industry, which have included distribution and the creative side, such as working on movies, movie trailers and movie posters. I started as an office production assistant at my first job with Marty Callner (music videos, and HBO Specials), then I gained a few associate producer credits under my name. I left the industry as the Director of Distribution Service for Artist View Entertainment. In between, I worked as a location scout, took meetings with talent, arranged travel for the talent and crew, and edited trailers. I worked at Franchise Pictures, where we created some of the worst movies (Battlefield Earth) and some of the best (Boondock Saints). I then worked at a few small production companies where I was able to rub elbows with Francis Ford Coppla. After that I moved to Arama Entertainment where I was able to bring a movie to market at the Cannes Film Festival. 

With the downturn in the economy in 2008, I supplemented my income with a job at ITT Tech teaching Video Production. I was hooked, I realized I loved teaching, and discovered I could do it with Career and Technical Education (CTE). With CTE I could take my interest and passion for the entertainment industry and my enthusiasm in helping people understand how things work and meld them into one- teaching.  For this reason, I went back to school at Arizona State University to update my knowledge in social media and the history of the entertainment industry.  I graduated from ASU with a second bachelor's degree, and I finished my Master’s in Film in April of 2023 at ASU.   

I recently finished my 8th year of teaching Video Production through CTE. Although I am the at the beginning at of my teaching career, I have realized I could use my media background to enhance the learning experience for my students by creating engaging and interactive lessons. When I was John Burrows High School and fell in love with the school and the students. Although I was only a sub for the second semester, I was able to help my students produce four short films, that I felt they were of the quality that they could compete in film festivals. I decided to enter the shorts and they have been accepted by multiple movie festivals and some have gone on to win, beating out films from professionals and universities from around the world.  One of the festivals decide to do a spotlight my students and myself. This is something I have tried to repeat at all my other school, with some success. 

As far as goals for my students, I want them to be successful in and out of the classroom. I find my subject is a great way to for students to be creative and enjoy learning. My goal in teaching my students is to foster a bridge between the knowledge and the reasons why it is important to know and understand the concepts and skills I am teaching. In all my video production courses I guide students in the evaluation of evidence, critical thinking, argument development, visual, verbal, and written expression, and the application of general principles to a variety of settings. Of course, I also expect my students to have fun and enjoy themselves while learning. 

Design Marketing Material for over 30 feature films

Postproduction Completion for feature films

Promotion and Distribution to Worldwide Distributors

Established CTE Pathway for Audio/Visual Production

Wrote Perkins Grant for CTE Pathway Funding

Integrated Video Production into other departments

Assisted Student Production Morning Daily Announcements Broadcast.

CTE Clear Credential with

documented Industry

Experience

M.A.- Media Studies – Arizona

State University– Phoenix, AZ

B.A.- Interdisciplinary Studies

– History and Media Analyst –

Arizona State University–

Phoenix, AZ

B.A. – Cinema – Columbia

College – Los Angeles, CA