JPS Cinema: About the Teacher - Clifton Raphael
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Jenks High School Building 5, Room 5116; 918-299-4415, ext. 2716
clifton.raphael@jenksps.org
Essential Elements for Documentary Filmmaking
Essential Elements of Fictional Narrative Filmmaking
The Jenks High School Film and TV program is the winner of a 2012 Emmy Award for a short documentary film produced in one of Mr. Raphael's classes. See under Student Recognition for more information.
Courses:
Filmmaking and Film Studies (2 sections)
Advanced Filmmaking and Film Studies (2 sections)
Screenwriting
Teacher Awards:
Emmy Award, Heartland Region, 2012
Emmy Nomination, Heartland Region, 2013
Emmy Nomination, Heartland Region, 2015
Transformative Teacher Award, Oklahoma Arts Institute, 2022
Oklahoma Film Power List (from Oklahoma City's Journal Record), 2022
S'Park Media Mentor Award from the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, 2010
Jenks High School Teacher of the Year, 2015-2016
JPS Vision of Excellence Award 2007
Emmy Award for Best Newscast (as newscast director with WMC-TV in Memphis, 2000)
Teacher Education and Experience:
MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Screenwriting and Film Studies, Hollins University
BA in English and psychology, Duke University
Member, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute (Quartz Mountain) Film & Video Advisory Panel
Member of the Board of Directors, Tulsa's Circle Cinema (on the National Register of Historic Places)
Past member, Scholastic Art Awards Advisory Board (Oklahoma Region)
Featured guest for a one-hour conversation with C-SPAN founder (and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient) Brian Lamb on his nationally televised program "Q&A":
https://www.c-span.org/video/?413032-1/qa-clifton-raphael
24 years of experience in TV broadcasting, for an ABC affiliate in Virginia and for the top-rated NBC affiliate in Memphis. Directed newscasts, directed and produced commercials, promos, and public service announcements. Also anchored a Sunday-night sportscast and served as host and field producer of a children's program.
Emmy Awards regional judge for:
Chicago
Philadelphia/Pittsburgh
Houston/Dallas
Miami/Orlando/New Orleans
Atlanta
Seattle/Portland
Judge for deadCENTER Film Festival in the feature-length and short documentary film categories
Guest instructor for deadCENTER University
Judge for Bison Bison Film Festival
Praise from nationally prominent filmmakers and writers for work from the JHS film program:
“Wonderful and world class.”
Gray Frederickson, Oscar-winning producer of The Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, and The Outsiders.
(commenting on One Step at a Time, our feature-length documentary following Tulsa Ballet through a groundbreaking season)
“I was very moved by this incredibly personal and raw story. It’s always thrilling to watch someone find their voice.”
Morgan Spurlock, producer and director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Supersize Me!
(commenting on "Losing Luke," student Michael Clark’s film that won best documentary at a New York City film festival, as well as top recognition in YoungArts and other competitions, for total cash awards of $5,000)
“What a beautiful, lyrical, compelling film.”
Andrew Solomon, National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon
(commenting on "The Glass Child," student Danial Gebreili’s short doc that won him top recognition in YoungArts, plus a cash award of $5,000)
Student Recognition:
State Farm Team Carlton $1,000 "Film of the Year" prize awarded to the best film from among all student filmmakers in Mr. Raphael's classes each year.
Emmy Award, 2012, in the professional (not the student) division of the Heartland chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences--for a film broadcast on our OETA program Behind the Lens with Oklahoma's Future Filmmakers. Few colleges and few (if any) high schools have received Emmy Awards in the professional division. To win the Emmy, Crystal Kayiza's film outscored entries from two TV stations in Denver, a major TV market (19th largest in the country). Our student's film tied for the Emmy with an entry from the Denver Post, which has been practicing journalism since 1892.
Emmy nomination, 2013, in the professional division of the Heartland NATAS chapter, for a film broadcast on our OETA program Behind the Lens with Oklahoma's Future Filmmakers. In securing the nomination, Michael Whitten's film outscored entries from the top-rated TV station in Denver (the 19th-largest TV market in the country), from an Oklahoma university's award-winning broadcasting program, and from other regional TV and video professionals.
Emmy nomination, 2015, again in the Heartland Region's professional division. In securing the nomination, McKinleigh Lair's film outscored an entry from a perennial Emmy winner, The Denver Post.
The top awards in the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) YoungArts program for four years in a row--more such awards than any other high school film or video program in the country. Each of our four student finalists (the top honor) won an all-expense-paid week working with film professionals in Miami, plus cash prizes of $10,000, two awards of $5,000, and a $3,000 award. The YoungArts program is so prestigious that it was featured in a series of documentaries on HBO and is the exclusive nominating program for Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the most distinguished program for high school visual and performing arts students.
For those four years, our film program had the only finalist from the state of Oklahoma from among any of the nine arts disciplines featured in the YoungArts program.
Four students named Park Scholars to the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, to a large extent based on their documentary work for their JHS film class. These four students each received scholarships valued at $50,000 per year, including full tuition, room and board, $2500 toward purchase of a computer, plus an all-expense-paid semester in New York, D.C., L.A. or London AND an all-expense-paid semester anywhere in the world. From among 500 applicants for the scholarship each year, only 11 are chosen. When our first two students won this scholarship, it was the first time that two students from the same high school were named Park Scholars in the same year.
Wins at every award level in C-SPAN's national student documentary competition, including the $5,000 Grand Prize twice (among the hundreds of schools that have entered the competition, Jenks High School's film program is the only to repeat as Grand Prize winner), four $3,000 1st prizes, seventeen 2nd prizes ($1,500 each), twenty-seven 3rd prizes ($750 each), and thirty-four honorable mentions ($250 each). One of our 1st-prize winners was also the first C-SPAN winner ever named a "Fan Favorite" by public vote, earning that student an additional $500.
In 2010, two of our students were the only students--high school or college--to receive press credentials to cover the gubernatorial debate held in Tulsa. In the private press conference following the debate, these students asked questions of each of the candidates, Republican (later elected governor) Mary Fallin and Democrat Jeri Askins.
Three NFAA Honorable Mention Awards for our film students ($250 each), placing those students in the top 3% from among thousands of national entrants.
An NFAA Honorable Mention ($250) for one of our Screenwriting students, also placing that student in the top 3% of all creative writing entrants.
Three NFAA Merit Awards ($100 each), placing those students in the top 5% of all national entrants.
Top honors for our Filmmaking students in the Scholastic Arts competition (in the Film and Animation category): Four gold medals (the highest national honor), one Best in Grade (the top national award for a senior in any visual arts discipline), two silver medals (second-highest honor nationally), thirteen gold keys (top regional honor and including one American Voices Award, one of the top 5 works in the state in any visual arts discipline), seven silver keys (regional second prize), and five honorable mentions (third place regional honor).
Top awards for our Screenwriting students in the Scholastic Writing Awards: One silver medal (second place national honor), seven gold keys (the top regional honor), three silver keys (second place regional honor), and three honorable mentions (third place regional honor).
The first and only entirely high-school-produced program on OETA, Oklahoma's PBS affiliate. At least one new edition of this program of the best of our student documentary work is broadcast each year on OETA's main statewide channel, with numerous repeats on one of OETA's digital channels, OETA Okla. The most recent editions of this program (called Behind the Lens with Oklahoma's Future Filmmakers) aired on weekdays in primetime.
Our own website of superior student work, www.jpscinema.com The site was recognized by the Webby Awards (the "Oscars of the Internet") as an Official Honoree, winning the same recognition in its categories as the web sites for MTV and the news magazine U.S. News and World Report.
Four Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa Mayfest Young Artists Awards. Five awards of $500 are awarded annually to Tulsa area visual arts students, which includes Cinematic Arts. From among these students, one is chosen to receive the top prize, the Stephanie Jackson Outstanding Young Artist Award, $1,000. Two of our students have been awarded this top distinction for short films produced in their JHS film class. Two other of our film students received $500 awards.
High acceptance rate plus scholarships to attend the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain (including one year when 11 of the 16 accepted students in film were from our JHS film program).
Several $100 first prizes from Alpha Rho Tau and the Tulsa Artists Guild for best short documentary profile of a Tulsa-area artist.
First place, Oklahoma National History Day competition (individual documentary category). The short documentary film that this student produced in Advanced Filmmaking class was also named a finalist at the national level, placing her work in the top one percent of all entries nationwide.
Linda Jaeger Film and Video Honorarium. $500.
Our students produced a one-hour documentary following Tulsa Ballet through an entire season. The film, One Step at a Time, was called "wonderful and world class" by Gray Frederickson, Oscar-winning producer of The Godfather II, and was broadcast in primetime on OETA's main statewide channel. The film was also one of the first two high school films ever featured in New York's Dance on Camera Film Festival.
Some of our Advanced Filmmaking students had the honor of attending a master class with Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola. Our students were the only high school students from the Tulsa area invited to attend.
Graduates of our film program have gone on to attend the top film programs in the country, including NYU, USC, Chapman, UT-Austin, Ithaca, and SCAD.
Former students have screened documentaries at Sundance and nationally on PBS; others have worked on series for HBO, Apple TV Plus, FX, and Bravo, as well as for the Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon.
Many of our student films have screened at Tulsa's historic Circle Cinema.
Some of the best of our student films have screened at deadCenter, one of the "20 coolest film festivals in the world" (Moviemaker Magazine).