Randal Kleiser
SPEAKING & LECTURES
Randal Kleiser offers engaging lectures drawn from a lifetime of filmmaking. Blending personal stories with practical insights, his talks inspire filmmakers to find their voice, sharpen their craft, and embrace new creative tools.
How to Start Your Directing Career
An entertaining presentation filled with anecdotes, life lessons, and useful tips. From the first student films to directing independent and studio pictures, to the digital revolution, directing virtual reality, and the new challenges of AI.
AI Tools for Directors
A practical overview of how artificial intelligence can support the director’s creative process. From script development and visual planning to editing, helping directors work faster and smarter. Recommended for film students and working filmmakers.
Making Personal Films
From the blank screen to the big screen. How to create your own successful movie based on personal experiences. How his student film Peege grossed over a million dollars and made it into the Library of Congress. How his low-budget feature, It's My Party, chronicled the topic of AIDS patients dying with dignity and attracted Oscar winners Lee Grant and Marlee Matlin.
Directing the Actor
A workshop designed to give a practical understanding of the director’s and actor’s crafts: how to break down a script, directing and acting techniques, casting tips, etc. Based on the lessons of legendary USC teacher and actress Nina Foch.
The Making of Grease
A fascinating and uncensored behind-the-scenes of one of the most successful movie musicals of all time. From pre-production to present day: the cast, the musical numbers, the iconic costumes, locations, cars, and much more.
JEREMY KAGAN
Chair of Special Events
Directors Guild of America
Randal Kleiser is not only a remarkable filmmaker, he is also a leader in the newest cinema technologies and an enthusiastic teacher for beginners and professionals.
BARBARA BOYLE
Professor and Associate Dean
UCLA
I have heard hundreds of lectures about filmmaking and the rapid emergence of new platforms and technologies. No one is better, more knowledgeable, or more inspiring than Randal. He ranks with the best.
ROBERT BASSETT
Professor and Dean
Chapman University
Randal has an innate ability to simply and clearly articulate what makes a film work. His mentoring of eight students was invaluable to their senior projects during his semester as artist in residence.
SCOTT BILLUPS
Cinematographer and Author
"Digital Moviemaking"
Randal is an excellent speaker and his lecture was highly relevant and interesting. People came out of it feeling that they have been taken to the next level.
BIO
Randal Kleiser has been an internationally known film director since the release of his first feature, Grease.
His career began when his award-winning USC Master’s Thesis Peege was seen by executives at Universal who signed him to begin directing for television. In December 2007, Peege was selected as one of 25 films to be added to the National Registry of Congress.
Kleiser’s other directing credits include The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, The Blue Lagoon, Summer Lovers, Flight of the Navigator, White Fang, Honey I Blew up the Kid, Getting It Right, Lovewrecked, It’s My Party and the critically acclaimed play The Penis Chronicles.
Working with Paramount and Intel Studios, he directed the Lumiere Award-winning project Grease XR; an augmented reality experience using 20 dancers captured volumetrically.
In 2019, Harper Collins published his first book: Grease: The Director's Notebook. A retrospective look at the making of his first feature film.
Kleiser has been at the forefront of experimenting with technology since featuring the first use of digital morphing in a film on Flight of the Navigator (1986).
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CREDITS
Baby Boomer Yearbook (2024)
Life After the Navigator (2020) Executive Producer
Grease XR (2019) XR Short
Defrost: The Virtual Series (2019) VR Series
The Speech JFK Never Gave (2017) Short
Defrost - The Awakening (2015) VR Short
The Nina Foch Course for Filmmakers and Actors (2010)
Red Riding Hood (2006)
Lovewrecked (2005)
Royal Standard (1999) TV movie
Shadow of Doubt (1998)
It's My Party (1996)
New York News (1995) TV Series - 1 episode
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (1994) Short
Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)
White Fang (1991)
Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991) Executive Producer
Getting it Right (1989)
Big Top Pee-wee (1988)
North Shore (1987) Executive Producer
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Grandview, U.S.A. (1984)
Summer Lovers (1982)
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
Grease (1978)
The Gathering (1977) TV Movie
ABC Weekend Specials:
Portrait of Grandpa Doc (1977) TV Series - 1 episode
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) TV Movie
Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) TV Movie
Family (1976) TV Series - 2 episodes
The Rookies (1976) TV Series - 1 episode
Starsky and Hutch (1975-1977) TV Series - 3 episodes
All Together Now (1975) (TV Movie)
Lucas Tanner (1975) TV Series - 2 episodes
Marcus Welby, MD (1974-1975) TV Series - 4 episodes
Foot Fetish (1972) Short
Gallery
