UNL Alumni Award

With Charles O'Conner - photo credit Justin Mohlin

I was honored to get to spend the weekend at my Alma Mater - University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I was the first Film & New Media student to be awarded the Alumni Achievement Award. I was able to visit campus and give a talk to some of the current students, as well as catch up with the Film and Theatre faculty that I had as professors myself 15 years ago.  The program has grown tremendously and is about to take another huge leap next year where it morphs into the new Emerging Media program.  It was very exciting to see everyone again and I am truly honored to be in such good company.

With Oscar winning editor Mike Hill and Dean Charles O'Connor

My kids enjoying the awards dinner

Lecture at UNL

As part of receiving the Alumni Achievement Award at UNL, they asked if I would give a talk to the faculty and students as well. I was very happy to get the opportunity and decided my talk would be "A Story of Saying Yes" - discussing how my career trajectory took many twists and fortuitous turns because I embraced the opportunities in front of me. It was great, and perhaps a little surreal, to return to my alma mater and reflect on where the last 15 years has taken me. Actually, my slideshow started with a VHS clip I found of me back in 1994 attending a summer theatre camp at UNL! 

Jackson Alley Film Fest - Awards

I'm very proud of the Art+Design students who won several awards last night for "The Pitch" - their animated short submitted to the Fest.  It won "Best in Fest" overall award, and "Best Lead Actor" for Myles Johnson.  Congrats to all the teams - it was a fun night!

Jackson Alley Film Fest - First Animated Short

Tonight is the 3rd Annual Jackson Alley Film Fest here at Austin Peay. I'm very excited that we have our first animated submission this year! Four Art+Design students teamed up to create this is just a few short weeks (in the middle of Finals)...it might even have a special cameo at the end :)

Open Source 2

The Terminal is the New Media dedicated space at Austin Peay. For the second year, an open call for students was held and 7 animation students had work selected. The pieces were picked by our College of Arts and Letters new Dean, Barry Jones. Class projects as well as personal projects made the cut. It's great having more exposure for the students hard work!

Samantha Burns Senior Thesis

Student Samantha Burns presented her thesis tonight in the Barbara Beach Student Gallery. She animated with 2D puppet rigs in Harmony an Aesop Fable. She also printed out a storybook version using the same imagery and wrote up a really great behind-the-scenes book of her process (both creatively and technically). Really proud of the hard work she put into this and the final result!