N.P.O.B- New Professor on the Block: Kyle Bergersen

Kyle Bergersen is the new kid on the block in Gaylord College. He is the newest addition to the B.E.M. faculty. And after only one semester in Gaylord, he already loves it. “I feel like I am a good fit for what they need and I get to do exactly what I want to do, which is to teach an emphasis on single camera narrative world”, Bergersen said.

Bergersen teaching his EFP class
Photo: Sadie Short

Bergersen is bringing first hand industry experience into the classroom. He started out as a director of photography for commercials and corporate videos and then moved on to directing. Fortunately for the students of Gaylord College, he somehow found his way into writing and became a member of the Writers Guild. “That kind of skill set of camera to script is what I wanted to bring to this program.”

His ultimate goal was to become a cameraman, so he took a job on a set in Seattle as a P.A. There, his goal was to schmooze the camera guys and get in good with them; Fortunately, it worked.  After a few years in Seattle, Bergersen decided to make the move to L.A. in 1996 where he started directing car commercials. “The whole time I had an eye on getting better at writing. I wrote and self produced and financed a few Indie pictures, and they were okay, but ultimately where they always suffered was the script. When I moved to L.A. I had two goals for myself: I was going to learn to write and the second was that I was not going to pay to produce my own movies anymore.”

With much hard work and dedication to his craft, Bergersen was able to accomplish both goals. He said he finally wrote his ‘calling card’ script, which after a few pitches became his first backed film entitled ‘Love Comes to the Executioner’. In addition to being funded, Bergersen was able to cast some pretty big ‘up and coming’ actors such as, Jonathan Tucker, who at the time had just got done filming the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Ginnifer Goodwin of Big Love, and Jeremy Renner, who was nominated for an Academy Award for The Hurt Locker.

Students listening to Bergersen's lighting lecture
Photo: Sadie Short

Bergersens teaching career began as an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, California. He really began to take teaching more seriously after the writers strike in Hollywood. The writers strike and the fact that he and his wife wanted to spend more time with their children prompted their the move to Oklahoma. “It is cool to work production when you are in your 20’s because it doesn’t matter if you are gone working sixteen hour days. But when you have a family and you do that, you find yourself leaving for work before your kids wake up and then they are asleep by the time you get home. So it was just time for a change.”

Bergersen is not the only person in his family who has had some Hollywood experience under their belt. His wife worked in wardrobe for shows such as ‘Criminal Minds’, ‘Will and Grace’, and ‘Jonas’ (the Jonas brothers TV show).

Flyer promoting Bergersen's new practicum
Photo: Sadie Short

After only one semester at Gaylord, Bergersen has already developed two new classes for students. The first will be a winter intersession class called ‘Table Top Digital Cinematography’, where the focus will be lighting. Second will be a new practicum starting in the spring semester called ‘FPU: The Web Series’. The student-produced series, believe it or not, will be a comedy about puppets, which due to a Supreme Court decision, are suddenly allowed to go to college. 

Check out:

Bergersen is pretty legit, he has his own IMDB Page.

Here is a link to his ‘Love Comes to the Executioner’  movie trailer.