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Usher Sponsors Youth Film/TV Seminar

By Melissa Randle


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Actors Wesley Jonathan (Roll Bounce, WB's What I Like About You) and nine-year-old CJ Sanders (TNT's Saved, Six Feet Under, Ray) flew in to speak with campers about achieving success in the entertainment industry and life in general, regardless of your career path. Wesley brought home an important point when he cautioned campers to remember "you're passion doesn't always equate to your talent" and asked them to recognize the difference between the two, using the analogy of American Idol hopefuls and their passion for singing. Young CJ spoke far beyond his years as he discussed how he balanced his career and education, all while being a nine-year-old kid.

The final activity for the day was an Actor's Showcase that allowed the campers artistic side to shine and qualify them for great prizes as they performed scenes from popular films such as Spiderman, Do The Right Thing, Ghost, and The Wizard of Oz. The competition was judged by Usher, Wesley Jonathan, Cedric T. Bradley (independent filmmaker), Yvette Broughton (VP of Production, Black Family Channel) and Cassandra Hollis (CEO of Holy Hills Productions) while talent and modeling agents looked on.

Later in the week campers were treated to a star-studded awards ceremony in their honor, complete with a red carpet walk, special performances by artists Sammie and Sean Paul, along with guest appearances by successful music video director & Hype Williams protégé, Little X and Honorable Mayor Shirley Franklin. In return the campers showed off their newly improved talents with live singing and dance performances. In addition, each track (music, dance, sports, acting) produced a short film (from pre-post) embodying their camp experience to be critiqued by a panel of judges based on cinematography, score, overall concept execution, etc.

So what's next? Jones plans to expand the one-day seminar into a two-week curriculum. "We're going to create the Usher's Camp New Look Film & Television Academy," he said. "We will take kids literally from scratch to screen. Our goal is to produce the stars of tomorrow."