College of Fine Arts and Communications

Department of Theatre and Media Arts

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DreamGiver Emmys

This film, in particular, does not look like a student film; it looks like it is a professional category film. It really is a cut above…. There was so much collaboration it’s stunning, and it shows in every piece of it.

Bill Perkins

Disney Art Director

Mentoring with Inspector 42

The quality of mentoring students by TMA film faculty and the commitment and determination on the part of the students to create works of excellence are bearing fruit in the national film conversation.

Rodger Sorensen

Chair, TMA Department

A Tailored Experience

My time at BYU taught me the art and power of empathy. That knowledge and understanding will forever shape my life and my career.

David Zobell

BA Theatre and Media Arts, 2009

BYU’s recent performance of the play Diary of Anne Frank, directed by associate professor of acting, David Morgan, relied on details, comedy and research to recreate the true characters and time period. Gregory Pyper a senior who served his mission in Germany, was the play’s dramaturge; a crew member that researched the time period’s dialogue, era, and etiquette and helped coach the actors accordingly.

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BYU Actors Connect

with History through Play
Networking opportunities for filmmakers is just one of the reasons the BYU Student Film Association in cooperation with the Department of Theatre Media Arts decided to bring back Final Cut, which was last held in 2008. This year, the event featured 40 student films, showcasing the breadth of BYU student-produced works, including comedic pieces, final projects, full-length films, documentaries, shorts, major application films, animation and commercials.

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Student Filmmakers

Benefit from Final Cut
A recent BYU production of the musical Peter Pan challenged student performers and producers. Producers had to figure out how to hit Peter Pan in the chest with an arrow, have a fake dog hold things in her mouth, keep flying harnesses hidden, and follow Peter with his own shadow. While the actors had to learn to move around in fat suits and sing while flying through the air.

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Students Flying High

with Musical Experience
The BYU Theatre and Media Arts program was recently recognized in International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) Magazine as being the "whole package." The ICG Magazine, a prestigious film and video techniques journal, featured an article in its March issue by Chris Wolski that highlighted BYU as one of six exemplar film schools that “extend the boundary of cinema education.”

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TMA Film Program

Recognized by ICG Mag.
The new BYU animated short DreamGiver, about the origin of dreams and nightmares, recently won two student Emmys at the College Television Awards, and opened up doors for collaboration, networking and recognition for more than 140 students from four academic departments.

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DreamGiver Awarded

Two Student Emmys
The Final Cut Film Festival, which was the springboard for movies like “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Saints and Soldiers,” is returning to Brigham Young University Friday and Saturday, April 8-9, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. each night in the Pardoe Theatre. Tickets cost $5 and are available now at byuarts.com/tickets or (801) 422-4322.

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BYU Film Festival

Final Cut Returns
Theatre Directing Practicum (or TMA 436), known as “the abyss” in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, takes students into the unknown world of directing a theatrical production from beginning to end. Under the close mentorship of Rodger Sorensen, Mask Club professor and chair of the Department of Theatre Media Arts, student directors select a script, gather a design team, hold auditions, schedule rehearsal space and rehearse.

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Mask Club Plays

Prepare Student Directors
The design responsibility of many main stage production at BYU rests on the shoulders of the students, with support from more experienced faculty members. Designing main stage plays give students the opportunity to collaborate with a director and other designers, work within a budget and problem solve in real situations.

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Stage Design at BYU

Integral to Theatre Ed.
Dance and animation collaboration produces stirring viral video

“Thought of You” will be part of Conte Animated exhibit Jan. 20-29, 2011, in the HFAC

By Todd Hollingshead, University Communications

This short animation is a creative collaboration between BYU animation professor Ryan Woodward and Dance Dept. instructor Kori Wakamatsu.

Woodward, who has done storyboards for Hollywood blockbusters (Iron Man 2, Spider Man 3 and Where the Wild Things Are), approached Wakamatsu with the concept this summer.

“Just thinking about that dynamic of relationships stirred my mind about doing an animation with dance,” Woodward said. “I knew I could not animate a beautiful, contemporary dance because I’m not a dance choreographer, and that’s where Kori came in.” See the behind-the-scenes video.

“Ryan gave me the back story to the piece and what motivated it and how he wanted it to be a love story,” Wakamatsu said. “I love it when the arts can integrate and find ways to connect.”

Wakamatsu choreographed a routine and chose dancers to perform the piece. Woodward then had the dance filmed so he could recreate it with animation, which he did by using 24 frames for every second.

The end result is a touching animated short that has now notched more than 400,000 views on Vimeo and another 175,000 views on YouTube.

“I hope the people that watch it do have some sort of a moving experience,” Woodward said.

Stirring Viral Video

by Dance and Animation
The BYU Young Company is a prime training ground for both BYU actors and stage managers who want experience working with young audiences and being part of a touring theatre production. Currently the Young Company is performing Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

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Acting for Children

Teaches Theatre Students
Recently, The Cashore Marionettes performed in the Pardoe Theatre as part of the BYU Performing Art Series, which brings to campus some of the most celebrated artists around the world to perform and interact with students. Before the program, Cashore performed five different scenes for BYU’s puppetry class and provided instruction and inspiration.

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Marionette Expert

Teaches and Inspires Students
TMA students are participating in a project designed to get them out of the classroom and into telling dynamic stories about every-day people from each county in Utah. So far, students have captured eleven diverse stories as part of the project, called Beehive Stories, which airs on KBYU Eleven.

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Beehive Stories

FIlmed by TMA Students
Ten years ago, BYU Theater and Media Arts professor Megan Sanborn Jones was as a doctoral student enrolled in a small class of about a dozen students at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. She was, likely, the only student on the class roster with strong ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the class was given an off-the-cuff project – pick and analyze a group of people in conflict with hegemonic government – Jones knew exactly where to begin.

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MHA Book Award

for TMA Professor
Before entering an industry as unforgiving as it is inviting, students are getting a chance to try their hand at filmmaking. To aid the transition from college to the work force, BYU's Theatre and Media Arts Department collaborated with FirstLight Independent to produce a full-length feature film.

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Film Collaboration

Prepares Students for Jobs
Far from the confines of a classroom, BYU students in the London Theatre Study Abroad Program get a chance to see that "all the world’s a stage," but more importantly, to experience that all the world’s a campus.

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Stages of London

Enhance Student Learning
This April, BYU professor Kelly Loosli was named by Variety.com, an industry leader among entertainment publications, as one of ten top “Leaders in learning” for the arts and entertainment industries, joining other recognized professors from prestigious schools such as NYU, Duke University and UCLA.

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Leader in Learning

Prof. recognized by Variety
Two Student Emmys

For 'Inspector 42' Film
Book of Jer3miah

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