Film Maker Chooses Teaching

Hours before his application to the College was due, Timothy Sorel still was unsure what to do. He had a hard time choosing between teaching and his booming company.

He is the founder and director of photography of Studio 601, an award-winning Gainesville video production company that has shown double-digit growth for the past five years.

He fell in love with teaching when he taught a workshop at the College in 2006.

Sorel chose to become an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication. He teaches the Fundamentals of Production course and an advanced telecommunication workshop for seniors.

He stepped down as president of Studio 601, which is now under the control of Travis Chapman, Sorel’s longtime friend, coworker and now, frequent guest speaker.

“With him, it’s not, ‘Here’s the camera and here’s the lights. Go do this,’ ” Chapman said. “He’s going to get the students where they need to be.”

His senior production class is producing “Slackers,” a college makeover show. He asks his students to produce it by themselves, but he’s always available to help. Students are free to call and text his cell-phone anytime.

“He’s Tim. He’s a peer,” said “Slackers” executive producer Andrew Vogeney. “He treats us with the respect we deserve and never says no to helping us.”

Sorel – who earned his bachelor’s in broadcast journalism from the University of Maine in 1987 and MBA from St. Leo’s College in 2002 – moved to Boston in 1993, where he worked for the Greenline Group, a production company that provides crews to ESPN, ABC, NBC and other sports networks. He produced segments of the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, and worked on more than 30 TV features.

Sorel helped produce Stephen King’s “25 Years in the Dark” for A&E in 1998. He first worked with the bestselling author on “Storm of the Century,” a 1997 horror mini-series. He also has worked on more than 20 documentaries.

In 2006, Sorel created “Gridiron Gators,” a 90-minute movie documentary that recaps 100 years of Gator football using commentary from the likes of Steve Spurrier, Emmitt Smith and Danny Wuerffel, PR 1997.

“He’s all about becoming better and working with your ideas,” said the DVD’s producer, Dennis Black.

Sorel is working on two documentaries. “Country Forgotten: The Plight of Cambodia 30 Years After the Fall of the Khmer Rouge” and “Young Survivors: Action, Advocacy and Awareness for Young Breast Cancer Patients.”

Sorel’s sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34. He realized that there weren’t enough resources for women under the age of 40 with disease.