SMC AET Deceptive Advertising Practices

Around 2003, when I first attended Santa Monica College's Academy of Entertainment and Technology (SMC AET), I visited the student services center. I picked up a four-fold two-sided color promotional flyer / pamphlet for AET's vocational school. Here's a black-and-white Adobe PDF version I made of the flyer. Sometime around 2004, if my memory is accurate, AET revised their flyer. Here's the black-and-white Adobe PDF version of the revised flyer. Sometime in 2005, the flyer disappeared altogether. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no other versions since then.

Now, if a potential unsuspecting student reviewed one of these AET flyers, nothing out of the ordinary stands out. It is only when you place the flyers side-by-side that a few things jump out. It also helps when you know a bit of history behind the Academy. Let's examine them and see what we find. For convenience sake, I've made another handy chart.

Here's the screenshot of the covers of the two flyers. The original flyer is on the left and the revised one is on the right. Other than the different color scheme and the addition of the AET logo, both seem identical.

Notice that both flyers advertise AET as an "Industry Partnership Program." This refers to the Academy's alleged entertainment industry partners. However, keep in mind AET Chairman Bill Lancaster's statement: "We need to become more active with industry partners. Currently, industry partners do not do more than serve on advisory boards." (See our blog article, "AET Advisory Board and Industry Partnerships"). But this isn't what Santa Monica College allegedly told the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC). Some of the promises made to the CPEC, according to the June 1997 Commission report, include the following:

The Academy will intensely collaborate, not only with neighboring institutions at all levels from high schools to universities, but with a wide variety of both technology companies and the entertainment industry.

The curriculum will be designed as much by the entertainment industry as by the faculty. The Academy's fundamental purpose will be to produce graduates who will be employable by the entertainment industry immediately upon graduation. Industry collaboration in curriculum design will be strong and will be supplemented further by a wide array of internships.

In the Commission report, under "Estimates of employment opportunities in the entertainment industry," Santa Monica Community College "district submitted copious documentation - some statistical and some anecdotal - to support its claims." Well, where is this "copious" documentation? We requested it from AET Dean Katharine Muller under the California Public Records Act (see our Set Three CPRA request). Four months later, Santa Monica College alleges it does have any public records, at least according to Vice-President of Planning and Development Robert Sammis' January 9, 2006 letter.

Let's compare the actual AET advisory board members from the two respective flyers. Here's the screenshot from the two flyers. Notice the drop off of entertainment industry partners in the revised flyer. Shouldn't the AET program be growing, not decaying, especially with all that infusion of state and federal funds? If it's allegedly providing all these lucrative jobs to its students, shouldn't its alleged "prestige" be increasing rather than diminishing? See all those familiar names such as John Brooks, Todd Hess, Bob Hoffman, and Terry Thoren? Keep those in the back of your mind for a moment.

In the CPEC Report, John Brooks of Brooks/Flemming Associates, Communications Engineer Consultant, states:

In terms of retraining, anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 existing employees of design firms will need specialized instruction to fully implement the computer-based tools available to them. Unfortunately, much of this is now "on the job" training, with little or no formal instruction. Our estimate is that, overall, we can see upwards of 40,000 new jobs being created in the next five years in this arena.

Well, Brooks/Flemming was rewarded by SMC for the part in deceiving the CPEC. According to the SMC Board of Trustees Minutes for January 8, 2001, Brooks Flemming received a consultant contract with SMC in the amount of $2,000. Here's the relevant excerpt:

Consent Agenda: Academic and Student Affairs
Recommendation No.4
Distance Education Consultant for Virtual Multimedia Center Grant

It is recommended that the Board of Trustees authorize a contract with Brooks Flemming Associates/Limited Liability Corporation (BFA/LLC) to provide intensive multimedia training to staff and faculty for distance education classes. The period of the contract is January 15 through January 30, 2001 for an amount not to exceed $2,000.

Funding Source: Virtual Multimedia Center Grant

Comment: BFA/LLC will provide two days of intensive training to SMC technical staff and faculty on Director, an authoring software, including its interaction with editing software. The training will enable the authoring of multimedia products for distance education classes to be done on campus. Training will also enable the development and enhancement of multimedia products for traditional classes.

To date, SMC hasn't produced the related documents under the CPRA for the Brooks Flemming consultant contract. (See our CPRA Request Set One, Request No. 16). The contract provided to us is an "Agreement for Personal Services" between "BFA/LLC Communications Technology Consultants" and Santa Monica Community College District. No tax identification number is provided. The signature of the "Senior Partner" is unreadable. The address is given as 14925 Ventura Blvd., #208, Sherman Oaks, CA. 91403.

I ran a search on the California Business Portal and found one company with the same business address: BFA, LLC. The agent for service of process is John W. S. Brooks. The corporate records were filed on January 1, 2000 (Number: 200000810022). I'm a bit curious why Brooks Flemming Associates is advertising itself as a company on AET's Advisory Board on July 1997 when it did not in fact become an official business until January 2000, two and a half years later. Is this yet another example of misrepresentations to the CPSC and potential AET students?

Regardless of these facts, John Brooks, BFA, Brooks Flemming Associates, or "BTA Technology Consultants" is listed as offering not a single internship of job to AET students. Also, why is "BFA" Technology Consultants listed as "BTA" Technology Consultants on the two AET flyers, especially since the registered name is BFA, LLC? BTA Technology Consultants is not a listed company in California, yet John Brooks is listed on AET's website as such.

Other cries for jobs come from Janet Striemer, Vice-President of Human Resources for Castle Rock Entertainment and Jeffrey Zabludoff, Manger of Professional Staffing at Universal Studies Recreation Group. Barry Armour, head of Technical Directors at Industrial Light & Magic projected that "up to 800 new jobs might be created in computer animation and visual effects over the same five-year period in the film industry." However, Janet Striemer isn't even listed on either flyer as an advisory board member. Castle Rock Entertainment left the AET advisory board by December 1998. Striemer briefly appears again on or about August 2002 under Capital Records but disappears by February 2003. Barry Armour isn't listed on the AET Advisory Board either and Lucas Digital Ltd. is gone in the revised flyer. Industrial Light & Magic ran for the hills by August 2002.

What about Jeffrey Zabludoff? He told us: "Because of the influence of those of us in the entertainment industry, this program is going to work." But that was also in a propaganda profile of him on Santa Monica College's website for Winter and Spring 1997, right before the Academy opened its doors. Zabludoff promised 14,500 jobs through Disney. Zabludoff stated in his profile:

“Here’s a college that steps up to the plate and says to us, ‘We want to train people for your industry and we want you to tell us how to train them.’ I’m working to do this with a great bunch of talented people from entertainment,” he continues. “And the people at SMC—like Dr. Robertson and Rocky Young—have been great. We’re focusing now on developing the faculty and curriculum. And then we’ll be concentrating on the internship aspects of the program, a very strong component. Skills are needed in communication, numbers, design and services,” he adds. “And these internships—funnelling people into pretty high-paying jobs—won’t involve standing around by the coffee maker. The people we take into our companies will be going to work. The bottom line here is that we're having to hire people from all over the world to be involved in our industry, and we’d rather hire locally. SMC is building a program like no one has ever made before.”

Why shouldn't Zabludoff make those promises to us? After all, he sat on the AET Advisory Board. But by August 2002, he's quickly vanished as well. How about a little something SMC forgot to inform us: Students at the Academy of Entertainment & Technology received no jobs from Disney or MCA Recreational Services, according to AET's Internship and Job Placement public records. MCA Records did hire one single intern from AET. (See our blog article entitled, "AET's Degrees of Deception.") And the theme park occupational certificate met its swift death at the Academy. Castle Rock Entertainment is listed as providing no internships or jobs despite their alleged commitment to the CPEC and AET.

Finally, CPEC states: "As often noted in this report, industry will be an active participant in the Academy's operations." Santa Monica College also advertised online on its webpages announcing the new Academy of Entertainment & Technology that "The Advisory Board will help design the curriculum, provide internships, serve as guest lecturers or adjunct faculty, provide in-service training for SMC faculty, and assist in the acquisition of equipment and the design of the facility." [EntnTechPage05, cached on June 19, 1997]. Don't forget the promises made on AET's website on or about Dec. 6, 1998: "The Academy curriculum is designed through a public-private partnership; educators and entertainment industry leaders working together with the goal of creating courses to train students for real jobs in the entertainment industry. The curriculum continues to develop to meet industry needs."

Compare these false promises with Lancaster's quote above: "We need to become more active with industry partners. Currently, industry partners do not do more than serve on advisory boards." Now, Lancaster made his statements to SMC's Occupational Committee on or about September 18, 2001, a mere four years later. Take a quick peek at that AET Advisory Board & Entertainment Industry Partners chart we made. By August 2002, most of the industry partners had completely abandoned AET.

Remember, too, that most of the original AET faculty had left as well. Is it any wonder that the Entertainment Business and Theme Park majors fell apart and that most of the other occupational certificates are "pending" approval? See our blog articles, "AET's Questionable Vocational Career Certificates," "Jim Keeshen's Great Big Show," and "AET's Degrees of Deception."

Lancaster also stated: "AET through the job internship coordinator needs to work more closely with the Job Center." (See our blog article, "Got Game? A Look at Game Design Schools"). AET promised the CPEC:

Beyond the training itself, the district has presented convincing evidence that every graduate from the Academy will have ample opportunity to obtain a well-paying career in a vibrant and growing industry. The number of available jobs can probably be measured in the tens of thousands, which suggests that the Academy of Entertainment and Technology may well be expanded in future years if sufficient resources can be secured to do so.

On March 7, 2003, the Tri-Regional Meeting of Co-Op Work Experience Educators held a meeting at Southwestern College. According to the minutes, AET Internship Coordinator Gloria Mottler attended on behalf of Santa Monica College. At this meeting, one of the topics discussed was faculty load issues as they relate to internships and employment for students. According to the survey: "Gloria Mottler stated that she did not know the number of students." It appears as if everyone else was able to provide specific information.

Now, those tens of thousands of jobs for AET students dropped to only 217 hires between 1998 and 2005. But we shouldn't even trust this meager total given the fact that the internships and job placement information for AET Animation Professor Jim Keeshen's "Keeshen Productions" has been shown to be inaccurate. See our blog article, "Family Guy Pilot Episode Scandal and Lawsuit." In any event, if you compare these two flyers with our AET Advisory Board chart, taken from AET's websites, they don't seem to match up, making us question the validity of both advertising vehicles deployed by SMC to seduce students with promises of an "Industry Partnership Program."

Now, let's take a closer examination of some of the quotes used inside the two flyers. First, let's look at the quotes from industry partners. Here's the screenshot I made. The first quote is from Bob Hoffman in his capacity of Director of Public Relations for Digital Domain.



Now here's the quote from Terry Thoren in his capacity as CEO and President of Klasky Csupo:



Re-read each of these quotes again. Can you see that they are almost identical? So, whose quote is this? Did either of these individuals make these statements or did someone at AET conveniently fabricate them and slap the respective Advisory Board members' names on them?

Keep in mind that when the revised flyer came out, AET Professor Jim Keeshen had allegedly received a sabbatical in Fall semester 2003 with the help of Klasky Csupo. Also remember that SMC is claiming that Keeshen never filed the mandatory sabbatical report with SMC. Additionally, Vice-President of Planning and Development, Robert Sammis, is refusing to disclose Keeshen's sabbatical application and supporting documentation as required under the California Public Records Act. Recall also that AET professor Dave Fontana worked for both Jim Keeshen Productions and Klasky Csupo while Terry Thoren sat on the AET Advisory Board. Accordingly, Fontana and Thoren could have supplied the necessary information without Keeshen allegedly going on this sabbatical. See our blog articles, "Dave Fontana and Jim Keeshen Productions" and "Jim Keeshen's Fall 2003 Sabbatical."

Well, Terry Thoren comes to the table with unclean hands. Prior to allegedly fabricating quotes on AET's propaganda flyer and entering into a questionable sabbatical with Jim Keeshen, Thoren was featured on Keeshen's 2001 SMC ET 72 online Career Exploration CD-ROM. Since we'll be discussing more about the ET 72 CD-ROM and course in future blog articles, I made another handy chart. We'll be adding to this chart in the future. Notice Jerry Hamby's name in the ET 72 CD-ROM credits as well. Recall that he worked on Keeshen's Studio Animatics CD-ROM, thanks to Title VI-A federal grant funds. See our blog article, "Jim Keeshen's Studio Animatics SMC Contracts Exposed."

Let's now look at the two respective quotes from students. Here's the screenshot of student quotes. The first quote on the original flyer is from AET student Daniel A. Laurie.



The second quote is from former AET student Richard Greenspan from the revised flyer.



Just like the Advisory Board members' quotes, these two quotes are almost identical. Except this time, AET pumped it up a notch and added "Sony Computer Entertainment." Remember that Sony Pictures is credited on the AET Donor plaque and Sony continues to sit on the AET Advisory Board under Peter Anton.

According to Richard Greenspan's online resume, he did in fact attend the Academy of Entertainment & Technology between 1999 and 2001. In 2001, he did become a junior artist at Sony. Between 1997 and 1999, Greenspan also studied graphic design at Santa Monica College. However, from AET's flyer, it appears that Greenspan gained his job at Sony solely from his education at the Academy. What AET fails to inform prospective students is that Greenspan also had studied computer animation at Gnomon 3D. And unlike AET, Gnomen 3D has a nice gallery of students' work. AET's student showcase is "under construction." See our blog articles, "Got Game? A Look at Game Design Schools" and "AET's Questionable Vocational Career Certificates."

And Gnomen's Advisory Board includes several people from Sony Pictures Imageworks. Overall, I would believe that Greenspan was far more groomed for a job at Sony from his education at Gnomen than he was from his studies at AET. Take the time to compare Gnomen's website with AET's website and decide for yourself.

On or about March 22, 2005, Greenspan was credited as a technical artist on Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica Studio PlayStation 2 game "God of War." If you look further down the credits, you will see special thanks to two AET employees, Chris Fria and Gloria Mottler. However, according to the AET Internship records kept by Mottler, Sony Computer Entertainment of America provided no internships and only two job placements for Academy students in seven long years. Yet, by the deceptive advertising practices on the revised AET flyer, a prospective student is given the illusion that attending the Academy will help him or her obtain a career at Sony Computer Entertainment. And, finally, if Greenspan himself had reached his "career goal" as AET's flyer indicates, then why is he seeking employment outside Sony?

Returning to the AET flyers, we see that AET Professor Jim Keeshen takes the limelight once again. He's credited as "James Keeshen" on both flyers. Here's the screenshot I made. The original flyer features AET instructors Philip Van Allen and Jim Keeshen. Keeshen is the one pointing to storyboards on the right. The revised flyer has an AET student staring into a computer screen on the left and Keeshen again on the right.

It is interesting that no other professors are shown on the AET flyer. Another reason for revising the AET flyer is that Van Allen left AET in 2002 to teach at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. For a complete background on Van Allen's role at AET, read our blog articles, "AET's Degrees of Deception" and "A Brief History of the Academy of Entertainment & Technology." Keeshen would not only use the opportunity to promote himself at AET's expense, but he would promote one of his former employees of Jim Keeshen Productions as well. Here's another screenshot from the revised flyer of a figure drawing.

Antonella Pozzo-Ardizzi's figure drawing is shown on both AET flyers. According to her online resume at AWN's Animation Industry Database (the same database Keeshen used), Pozzo-Ardizzi lists one of her clients as "Keeshen Production" under "Animation." Her company description includes the following: "Concept, Design and Development for 2d and 3d Animation. Specialized in Character and Background design, Digital Set and Environmental design. VoiceOver in French and Italian. 12 years experience in Scenic Painting."

According to the website "Women in Animation":

Antonella is a multi-faceted animation artist who draws upon her background as a painter, sculptor, actress and dancer to breathe life into characters and architect reality into fantasy worlds. After working as a scenic painter for Eurodisneyland in Paris (and for private residences and commercial sites all around the world), she turned her talents toward traditional and digital animation. She is currently working on concept, design and FX for a variety of projects.

According to another online resume at Career Corner, Pozzo-Ardizzi states that she graduated from AET in 2D and 3D animation in the year 2000. Her work experience includes "Concept & design for Live action & Animation Keeshen Prod." for the years 2001 to 2002. So, she was working for Jim Keeshen Productions, Inc. at the time the original flyer was produced.

Like AET student Richard Greenspan, Pozzo-Ardizzi came to SMC's Academy of Entertainment & Technology with prior education in the arts. She apparently studied scenic painting in a school in France as well as fashion design in a school in Milano, Italy. Pozzo-Ardizzi also had work experience in scenic painting and architectural design for Disney between 1992 to 1996. In fact, according to her website Animato, Pozzo-Adrizzi states: "I worked for 4 years at Disneyland, in Paris. In addition to directing a team of professional painters, I was responsible for all faux finishes, scenic painting & murals, and for documenting/cataloging the color palette used throughout the resort. I also worked as a Designer in the Imagineering architectural team on various retail, signage and merchandising projects." Given this talented woman's education and work history prior to her attendance at AET, I seriously doubt it was AET that gave her the skills she needed to reach her career goals. If anything, AET and Jim Keeshen were the benefactors of her enrollment at AET.

How did AET Professor Jim Keeshen benefit from Pozzo-Ardizzi's talent and skills? According to her 3D animation webpage, Keeshen used her on two Jim Keeshen Productions: "Quantum Science" and "Incas Legend." Remember in our blog article, "Who Created Jim Keeshen's DangerWorld?" that the snapshot we provided from Jim Keeshen Productions' online resume included "3D design for Quantum Physics Documentary/Lord of the Winds Pics." Well, as usual, Keeshen employed the work of an AET student and took the credit for himself. Here's a screenshot from her webpage regarding the "Quantum Science" project and another from Animanto's homepage:



Here's another screenshot from Pozzo-Adrizzi's webpage entitled "Sacred Science: The Quantum Project." As is evident in this screenshot, Pozzo-Adrizzi created the concept, design, and modeling. So, what did Jim Keeshen do on this project? His resume is silent on this project.



And here's the screenshot from Animanto's website for the "Incas Legend" project:



And here's an image for "Incas Legend." Notice that Antonella Pozzo-Adrizzi's name appears on this project along with the caption: "Short Animated Movie for Keeshen Production." Of course AET wouldn't put this image on one of their flyers.



A confidential source confirmed that Jim Keeshen Productions was working on a project called "Inca Mythology." Even Keeshen himself had discussed this project with me and shown me artwork. To the best of my knowledge, the Inca project is still unfinished.

Pozzo-Ardizzi's appearance on the AET flyer brings up several issues. First, why is Keeshen continuing to use AET as his own personal hiring pool for talent? Second, why are current and former AET students allegedly using school facilities and software to work on Keeshen's outside business projects? Third, why is Keeshen continually appropriating his students' work as his own without due credit?

Lastly, why do the AET internship and job hire records fail to list all these students' he's taken advantage of under Jim Keeshen Productions? As we previously discussed in our blog article, "Family Guy Pilot Episode Scandal and Lawsuit," Keeshen had employed a number of AET students for the Family Guy pilot while simultaneously listing only one internship and one hire for Keeshen Productions between the years 1998 to 2005 inclusive. Did any of these students even get paid for their work? If they did, did they receive fair compensation?

Given AET's deceptive advertising practices, its questionable vocational career certificates, and its underhanded concealment of Keeshen's Studio Animatics consultant contracts combined with Keeshen's various convoluted corporate veils, his continual use of student labor for his own self-serving purposes, his nepotistic hiring practices of faculty, his online quiz tampering, and his questionable sabbatical, it seems that AET and Keeshen were meant for each other. Unfortunately, we, the students of AET, are the ones caught in the crossfire of deception. For the potential student, just be thankful that AET hasn't put out another one of its flyers.

-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

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