Invited book chapter · In preparation
Making Places Filmable
Film Commissions and the Infrastructure of Hollywood Mobility
The States of Hollywood, edited by Kate Fortmueller and Alisa Perren · University of California Press
Cale Epps is a PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California whose research focuses on media industries, labor and precarity, public policy, regional production cultures, political economy, and the U.S. Southwest.
Researcher · Writer · Teacher
I study how media industries make places.
PhD Student in Cinema and Media Studies
University of Southern California
My work examines how film and television production takes root in particular regions: the policies, infrastructures, labor, institutions, and cultural imaginaries that make places usable to industry—and the changes that follow.
Research areas
Media industries
Public policy
Labor & precarity
Regional production cultures
Political economy
U.S. Southwest
01
Dissertation
PhD dissertation · in progress
Worlding the Southwest
Infrastructure, Imagination, and the Territorial Reorganization of Hollywood
My dissertation examines how film and television production infrastructures, state incentive regimes, regional imaginaries, and Indigenous media governance have reorganized Hollywood’s relationship to the U.S. Southwest.
02
Writing
Selected writing
Research in progress and in circulation.
Article · Revise & resubmit
The Failed Franchise
Arizona’s Film Commission and the State Governance of Hollywood Compatibility
Media Industries
Article · Revise & resubmit
Constraint as Norm
Recreation Drama, Film Policy, and the Normalization of Precarity in Arizona’s Production Ecology
Television & New Media
Invited manuscript · Under review
Paramount+ With Showtime and the Branding of Cohesion
Research in the media
Forbes
July 25, 2026
Study Suggests Paramount/WBD Merger Would Upend Tax Incentive Programs
Rick Ellis features and quotes research coauthored with Peter Johnson on the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger.
Read the Forbes coverage ↗
03
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching for intellectual confidence.
My teaching experience began in 2005, leading Shakespeare workshops and residencies in schools across Arizona. Over the following decade, I worked with students ranging from elementary school through college, as well as adult learners, in large public high schools, rural communities, community colleges, and community centers. That range continues to shape my teaching: I try to respond to students’ different forms of knowledge and experience while asking them to engage seriously with challenging material.
As a graduate student in Cinema and Media Studies, I approach discussion sections as workshops rather than second lectures. I design sessions so that students do much of the cognitive work themselves through writing, close reading, collaborative exercises, and clip analysis. This structure allows me to respond to students with different academic and production backgrounds.
My aim is to make difficult concepts accessible without reducing their complexity, while creating a classroom that is rigorous, structured, and open enough to support intellectual risk. I take students’ examples, writing, and interpretations seriously and encourage them to refine and extend those ideas. At USC, this approach informs my work across film and television history, theory, and media studies courses, alongside instructor-of-record experience at Pacific States University.
Teaching feedback
Faculty observation · Spring 2026
A faculty classroom observation highlighted command of course material, varied pedagogy, collaborative learning, and the way student ideas were made central to discussion.
“I was particularly impressed by the way he validated students’ ideas and made their work central to the discussion.”
Faculty teaching observation · USC Cinema and Media Studies
Student feedback · Spring 2026
Students emphasized careful planning, varied approaches, meaningful feedback, responsiveness outside class, and discussion that helped them work through difficult material collaboratively.
“I was able to process and re-consider the information in a much more impactful way than in other section styles.”
USC learning experience evaluations · Introduction to Television and Video
Upcoming lectureThe Film Industry Under National Socialism: Infrastructure, Labor, and Compliance
Upcoming lectureWhere Television Gets Made: Location, Labor, Infrastructure, and the State
Recent lectureRecreating the Global: Raw, Netflix, and the Labor of Streaming Docudrama
In the classroomObservation → evidence → concept → historical argument
Selected recognition
2026
Graduate Student Writing Award
SCMS Media Industries SIG
2026
Finalist, Graduate Student Essay Contest
SCMS Television Studies SIG
2025
Graduate Student Writing Award (Honorable Mention)
SCMS Media Industries SIG
04
About
About
Scholarship shaped by production experience.
Before doctoral study, I worked as a video producer at Wibbitz and as Education Manager at Arizona Theatre Company, and I completed a postgraduate certificate in filmmaking at the London Film School.
My background includes short-form breaking news and branded client videos, arts-education programming, and narrative, documentary, and experimental filmmaking. My creative work has included writing, directing, producing, shooting, editing, and soundscape design.
That experience continues to inform how I approach media industries: from policy and infrastructure to the practical coordination required to make creative work possible.
Selected creative work is listed on my CV.
Contact
Get in touch.
Division of Cinema and Media Studies
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California