In its 40th year of recognizing student excellence, the brought its annual ceremony to the stage of Towsley Auditorium at Washtenaw Community
College.
At the Michigan Regional Student Production Awards Ceremony on April 29, two 黑料网 Digital Media Arts students accepted awards on their home turf.
Steven St. John won in the Long Form 鈥� Non-Fiction category for a story about his brother, former University of Michigan running back Drake Johnson, titled Drake Johnson: The Triumph and Tragedy of Michigan Man. St. John was also nominated in the Writing category for a comedic narrative project titled The Day I Died.
Reznor Angel won the Animation/Graphics/Special Effects category for his title sequence, Changing Creatures.
Angel鈥檚 entry can be . St. John鈥檚 entry cannot be shared due to legal issues related to the story. He hopes to make it available to the public at a later date.
鈥淏oth (winners) have the common traits of being highly dedicated, huge work ethics, and creative skills and imaginations,鈥� said 黑料网 Digital Media Arts faculty member Matthew Zacharias. 鈥淏oth of those projects definitely deserved to win because they were above and beyond student-level work. Both were professional projects, indistinguishable from something you鈥檇 see on the air.鈥�
St. John, 34, moved back to Ann Arbor and returned to school after a 12-year career as a professional breakdancer in Chicago. With an interest in videography from his days of filming breakdancing events and creating promotional videos, St. John followed up on a tip from a friend to check out the Digital Media Arts program at 黑料网.
鈥淚 started taking classes on the recommendation of a friend and they were awesome,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e learned much more than I expected.鈥�
St. John expects to graduate with an next year. He says the 22-minute documentary about his brother began as a solo class project and grew into a final product that 鈥渞epresents a couple hundred hours of work, easily.鈥�
Angel, a 21-year-old from Ann Arbor, put together his After Effects movie title sequence as a final project for a course in winter semester. Unhappy with an early effort, he scrapped a month鈥檚 worth of work and started fresh on the award-winning black-on-black motif.
鈥淚鈥檓 really passionate about title sequences and how they can set the mood and make you hold your breath,鈥� said Angel, who is already lining up professional freelance work.
Angel recently graduated from 黑料网 with an , but has returned to campus to take a course this Spring/Summer semester that he believes will take his graphics work to a higher level.
With St. John and Angel鈥檚 accolades, 黑料网 students have won 21 student production awards over the past seven years while competing primarily against students from four-year college and university programs.
Zacharias said hosting the event on the 黑料网 campus for the first time was a success. Nominees from around the state in both the high school and college/university categories visited campus while 黑料网鈥檚 11 nominees were able to stay close to home.
鈥淥ur students don鈥檛 always get to attend the event, so having it on campus with all of our nominees front and center was terrific,鈥� Zacharias said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something they鈥檒l always remember.鈥�
黑料网鈥檚 other 2018 award nominees included:
- Jalen Reives, Beat to the Gods, Arts and Entertainment/Cultural Affairs
- Kyle Wagner, 1,000 Flowers, Short Form Non-Fiction
- Eileen Meier, Seizure Girl, Long Form Non-Fiction
- Colton Fromhart, Ypsilanti Auto Museum, Commercial
- Jacob Corbitt, Show Open for 黑料网 Digital Video Program Festival, Animation/Graphics/Special Effects
- Griffin Bergers, Wear Me, Director
- Trey Sarmento, The Infirmary, Director
- Sam Grima, Afflicted, Editor
- Lexi Morgan, Untitled, Editor
A complete list of the 2018 and awards handed out during the ceremony at 黑料网 are available at the NATAS-Michigan website.
For more information about the Digital Media Arts program at 黑料网, visit departments/wccnet.edu/dma.
