Digital Media Cluster Hires Bring Filmmaking, Program-Building Expertise to UC

Matt Irvine.

Building a digital media program from the ground up comes naturally to Matt Irvine, who joins the University of Cincinnati in fall 2015 as the inaugural director of the Digital Media Collaborative (DMC), a collective effort between the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), the College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning (DAAP), the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences and UC Libraries.

The DMC began with seed funding from President Santa Ono’s Transformation Fund matched by CCM, DAAP and A&S, and was successfully launched as part of Provost Davenport’s Cluster Hiring initiative.

Kristyn Benedyk.

Irvine, who joins UC with appointments across all of the related areas, comes to Cincinnati from DePaul University, where he was instrumental in founding DePaul’s School of Cinematic Arts. The school, which is ranked in the top 20 film schools in the nation, includes bachelor’s degrees in animation and digital cinema, bachelor’s of fine arts in animation and graduate degrees in animation, cinema production, documentary, cinema and screenwriting. Irvine will be joined at UC by Kristyn Benedyk, an accomplished screenwriter and teacher who helped launch DePaul’s screenwriting program in 2011. Benedyk, who is also Irvine’s wife, will also be appointed across the same three colleges and UC Libraries.

“These dual-career cluster hires exemplify the power of aggressive recruitment and collaboration,” said Provost Beverly Davenport, whose office led the call for cluster hiring in summer 2014. “Together, these three colleges and our libraries were able to woo industry and educational leaders to build an exciting and forward-looking program in Cincinnati.”

The Digital Media Cluster includes multiple departments in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, CCM’s Division of Electronic Media, and Graphic Communication Design and Media Art out of DAAP, as well as technology and other resources from UC Libraries. “Speaking on behalf of my fellow deans who are involved in this collaborative, we are extremely enthusiastic about Matt and Kristyn’s hire,” said Peter Landgren, dean of CCM, the home college for both new faculty members.

“Their talents will enhance the existing strengths of our colleges, allowing us to provide our students with the creative, intellectual and interdisciplinary skills necessary to make an impact in the constantly changing digital media landscape.”

“There’s an excitement in Cincinnati,” Irvine said. “There has been so much support from everybody.”

Benedyk, who leaves her post as chair of the screenwriting program at DePaul, agreed. “There are already so many incredibly talented faculty at UC working in established, interesting and successful programs,” said Benedyk, who founded and produced a successful annual entertainment writers’ conference in Chicago. “I think it is great that the Digital Media Cluster is going to bring all of those people together working towards a shared objective that will result in UC becoming one of the top destinations for media education in the country.”

Both Benedyk and Irvine credited UC’s Cluster Hiring initiative and Dual Career Assistance program, both led by Provost Beverly Davenport, for sparking their interest in and eventually their commitments to Cincinnati.

“We’re better together than we are apart,” he said.

For Benedyk, whose background in Education fuels her passion for teaching, the move, in the end, was about quality of life.

“The dual career program was a huge draw for me,” said Benedyk, who was impressed by the reaction she got from faculty and administrators when she visited campus. “I immediately felt very welcomed as a potential faculty member.”

UC’s Cluster Hiring Initiative, launched by the Office of the Provost, supports existing and emerging partnerships within and between colleges, divisions and areas. Cluster hiring investments harness the power of faculty members focused on solving the world’s biggest challenges through leading-edge research and interdisciplinary collaborations that erase boundaries and embrace creative, bold ideas. Designed to attract top-quality faculty from around the world, UC’s Clusters represent the university’s commitment to investing in faculty and interdisciplinary problem-solving. The Provost’s Dual Career Assistance program dedicates funds and resources to accommodate job candidates and employees with opportunities to sustain healthy, connected families.

CET Spotlights Revolutionary New iPad App Developed by CCM and DAAP Faculty Members

Two University of Cincinnati faculty members will appear on local PBS member station CET at 6 p.m. this Saturday, July 18, to discuss a revolutionary new project that could change the world of psychiatry.

The CET program arts Bridge will feature CCM Assistant Professor of Electronic Media John Hebbeler and DAAP Assistant Professor of Design Emily Verba. The duo are developing an iPad application entitled Brain to Screen, which is a visual and auditory interactive tool for patients diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder as well as their psychotherapists.

The proposed app converges cross-disciplinary expertise in design, sound, psychology, neuroscience and software development in order to deliver immersive, interactive experiences. The Brain to Screen app works in conjunction with a biofeedback headset and allows patients complete control of all visuals and sounds on their iPad screen using only their brainwaves.

The two UC professors and co-investigators bring a great deal of professional experience and expertise to this ambitious project. Professor Hebbeler has over a decade of experience in sound, video and web production, and 10 years of teaching experience in a variety of production-based courses. His area of expertise is creating interactive trans-media compositions that integrate a wide range of technological devices. His focus in this project is the sound development of Brain to Screen, as well as its interaction with the biofeedback headset.

Meanwhile, Professor Verba brings several years of experience in the field of graphic design and design education to this empirical research project. Her area of expertise and research focus is data visualization — the simplified depiction of complex content for ease of understanding by the masses. She is spearheading the visualization of biofeedback headset data and the design of an interface for psychotherapists to access and interpret the information collected from the app.

The arts Bridge segment will also bring Hebbeler together with several current and former students from CCM’s Division of Electronic Media and UC Blue Ash’s Department of Electronic Media Communications. Alumnus Don Hancock (BFA Electronic Media, 2006) is producing the story, and Deshon Able (AAS Electronic Media Technology, 2013) acts as the production assistant; furthermore, current E-Media student Ari Kruger is also working at CET as an intern, writer and editor.

arts Bridge is a locally-produced program that is part of a unique public television collaboration. Features about Cincinnati area arts and artists are paired with stories from across the country. In addition, Cincinnati area segments from arts Bridge are made available to public television stations nationally, extending the reach of greater Cincinnati arts well beyond southwest Ohio.

For more information, please make sure to visit www.cetconnect.org/arts-bridge.

The Brain to Screen segment will premiere at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, on CET (Channel 13 or 1013 on Time Warner Cable; Channel 48 on DirectTV). There will also be several repeat airings:

• 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, July 19 (Channel 16 Time Warner and Direct TV)
• 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday, July 20 (Channel 987 Time Warner)
• 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday July 21 (Channel 987 Time Warner)

Learn more about CCM E-Media by visiting ccm.uc.edu/emedia.

UC Production Master Class Documentary Film Receives Regional Emmy Nomination

We are happy to report that the University of Cincinnati student-produced 2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary film has been nominated for an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences! The nomination is in the professional category of Best Documentary – Cultural/Topical.

A three-year project of the UC Production Master Class, the Gold Rush Expedition Race documentaries chronicle one of the foremost expedition races in the world. Each 90-minute documentary features an international field of 50 elite athletes tackling a grueling 275-mile course through the California wilderness as they test their mental and physical limits in the toughest competition in North America. All three films have aired nationally on NBC’s Universal Sports Network (you can view upcoming broadcast times here).

Since 2012, the UC Production Master Class has involved over 90 UC students hailing from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) and the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

The project was conceived by CCM Division of Electronic Media Professor Kevin Burke and professional television director/producer and distinguished CCM alumnus Brian J. Leitten (BFA, 2001), who advise the project and provide professional guidance and feedback to the students during all phases of the documentaries development.

Student teams shoot, edit, script and produce the Gold Rush Expedition Race films on location in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. “Although there is professional mentoring and oversight during the project,” Burke explains, “it is primarily produced and edited by the students, which makes it a unique example of successful experiential learning and interdisciplinary collaboration.”

The UC Production Master Course was first funded by a three-year grant from the UC Forward Collaborative, an initiative that supports experiential learning and is part of the UC Academic Master Plan. Earlier this year, UC President Santa Ono pledged additional funding, which will allow the production to continue beyond its initial three-year grant period. The presidential investment represents Ono’s ongoing support of interdisciplinary digital media projects and experiential learning at the University of Cincinnati.

“We are delighted with this nomination and are grateful to President Ono, UC Provost Beverly Davenport and the UC Forward Collaborative for their support of yet another successful example of experiential learning at UC,” says Burke.

Burke and Leitten served as Executive Producers on the 2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race, alongside UC students Callie Peters and Ben Proctor.

The 51st Annual Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Awards will be held at the Keeneland Entertainment Center in Lexington, Ky. Winners will be announced on July 25. The Ohio Valley Region includes Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington, most of West Virginia, southern Indiana, southern half of Ohio and northern half of Kentucky. Learn more by visiting http://ohiovalleyemmy.org/awards.

Next Installment of Student-Produced ‘Gold Rush Expedition Race’ Film Series Premieres on May 27 on the Universal Sports Network

The newest installment of the University of Cincinnati‘s student-produced Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary film series will receive its national broadcast premiere on NBC’s Universal Sports Network at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27.

Created by UC’s Production Master Class, the 90-minute long documentary film is part of a three-year series about the Gold Rush Expedition Race, one of the world’s premier expedition races. The race features an international field of 50 elite athletes as they trek, mountain bike, climb and kayak along a grueling 275 mile course admits the beauty of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The race is part of the Adventure Racing World Series.

The 2014 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary will air 10 times on USN. The cable network aired the 2012 and 2013 installments of this action-packed documentary series last October. You can learn more about those initial broadcasts by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/notations-ovations/student-produced-film-series-airs-on-universal-sports-network.

The UC Production Master Class involves an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty who work with nationally recognized television and film professionals to produce digital media content that reaches a national and global audience.

Since 2012, it has involved three UC Professors, a UC alumnus, a cadre of media professionals and over 90 students from nine different academic programs at CCM, DAAP and the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information about the 2014 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary’s broadcast schedule, please visit goldrushracedoc.com/2014-premiere.

Next Installment of Student-Produced ‘Gold Rush Expedition Race’ Film Series to Premiere at the Esquire Theatre on April 28

The 2014 installment of the University of Cincinnati‘s student-produced Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary film series will receive a special premiere screening at Cincinnati’s Esquire Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Hosted by the University of Cincinnati Production Master Class, this screening is free and open to the entire UC community.

The event is sponsored and supported by the UC Forward Initiative, the Office of the President, CCM’s Division of Electronic Media (CCM E-Media), McMicken College’s Center for Film and Media Studies and the UC Alumni Association.

Join us at Cincinnati’s Esquire Theatre on April 28 for a premiere screening of the 2014 ‘Gold Rush Expedition Race’ documentary film.

The 2014 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary will have its national broadcast premiere on NBC’s Universal Sports Network on May 27, 2015. The documentary program will air 10 times on USN. The cable network aired the 2012 and 2013 installments of this action-packed documentary series last October. You can learn more about those initial broadcasts by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/notations-ovations/student-produced-film-series-airs-on-universal-sports-network.

Educationally grounded, professionally driven and student produced, the UC Production Master Class has been transforming the college classroom since its inception in 2012, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of UC students and faculty who are working with nationally-recognized digital media professionals to produce a documentary film series that is currently airing on national television.

To date, this course has involved three UC professors, a UC alumnus, a cadre of film professionals and over 90 UC students from nine different academic programs at CCM, DAAP and the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

This group has fused its skills on the production of a three-year, 90-minute documentary film series about the Gold Rush Expedition Race, one of the world’s premier expedition races that features an international field of 50 elite athletes trekking, mountain biking, climbing and kayaking along a grueling 275-mile course amidst the beauty of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The race is part of the Adventure Racing World Series.

The Production Master Class was the idea of CCM Professor of Electronic Media Kevin Burke and distinguished UC Alumnus and Emmy award-winning producer, Brian J. Leitten. The initiative was originally made possible by a three-year grant from the University of Cincinnati’s UC Forward Collaborative, which supports experiential learning and is part of the UC Academic Master Plan.

The Production Master Class was designed to create a transformative “hands-on” experience for the students by taking them out of the classroom and into the field to produce a documentary film series that could be distributed to a national television audience. “The idea was to totally re-invent the college classroom,” notes UC President Santa J. Ono, PhD, “focusing interdisciplinary teams of faculty and students on real world projects.”

Over the past three years, the Production Master Class has brought dozens of UC students to California to work alongside educators and a select crew of film and media professionals. The interaction with professional mentors and students from different disciplines enhances experiential learning and prepares the students for professional careers in the television and film industry. Both Burke and Leitten serve as Executive Producers, advising the project and providing professional guidance and feedback to the students during all phases of the documentary’s development.

Students take on the roles of supervising producers, story producers, editors, scriptwriters, music supervisors and narrators. Leitten joins Burke for each class session via social media applications from New York, where he serves as the Director of Production at the internet media entertainment giant, VEVO.com.

The Production Master Course is also taught by DAAP Associate Professor of Graphic Communication Design Yoshiko Burke, whose students create all motion graphic design and animation content. CCM Assistant Professor of Electronic Media Lorin Parker provides professional guidance and expertise to those students who create the audio mix and sound design for the documentary. At each stage of the project, the students are held to the standards and expectations of professionals in the discipline, providing them with invaluable industry experience.

The Production Master Course has resulted in both academic and professional recognition in peer-reviewed competitions and film festivals. The 2012 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary was selected from over 1,300 global entries for the Best of Festival Award in the 2014 Broadcast Education Association Film Festival, capturing its highest honor of the Festival, the prestigious Chairman Award. The film went on to win professional recognition with two bronze Telly Awards, and most recently, the student design team was recognized with a Silver Award at the prestigious Graphis New Talent Annual 2015 for their work on the 2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race documentary.

In August 2015, the 2013 Gold Rush Expedition Race film will screen at the University Film and Video Association conference in Washington, D.C.

Screening Time
7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28

Location
Esquire Theatre
320 Ludlow Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220

Admission
Admission to the premiere screening of the 2014 Gold Rush Expedition Race is free. Reservations are not required. Learn more about the screening by visiting goldrushracedoc.com/2014-premiere.

Parking and Directions
The Esquire Theatre is located in Clifton’s Gaslight District, just a short drive from UC’s campus. The theatre  validates tickets for moviegoers for two hours of parking in the “Merchant Lot” on Howell, located one block from Ludlow Avenue (a side street off Clifton Avenue, behind the former IGA Grocery Store). Howell Avenue is parallel to Ludlow Ave. On street parking is also often available on or near Ludlow Avenue.

Everyone is welcome to use the Valet Parking available in front of La Poste Eatery on Telford St. (just around the corner from the Esquire, off Ludlow). This valet service costs $7.00 and is available Mon. – Sat., from 5-10 pm.

For more information on parking and directions, please visit www.esquiretheatre.com/location.

CCM Drama and E-Media Announce New Film Collaboration

We are thrilled to announce that CCM’s Department of Drama and Division of Electronic Media have launched a new collaborative project, which will bring original scripted films to CCM’s performance season beginning next spring!

Utilizing the expertise and resources of both programs, students will receive hands-on experience in the development of a new film by serving as screenwriters, actors, directors, cinematographers and film editors, as well as location scouts, prop masters, costume designers and more.

“This exciting new film project will allow CCM students to collaborate across departments in the creation of a new and original film,” explains CCM’s A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair of Dramatic Performance Richard Hess. “Our students have artistic voices and artistic visions that they need to practice articulating. What a fantastic opportunity.”

Scripts for this project’s inaugural film were solicited from students in January and February of 2015, with submissions coming from not only CCM Drama and E-Media students, but also from students in McMicken College and UC Clermont.

CCM Drama student Owen Alderson.

This year’s winning submission – entitled Binary – was written by sophomore drama major Owen Alderson.

A coming of age tale set in a private boarding school in Massachusetts, Binary is the story of a character named Emmett as he begins to transition to his true self, Julia.

Binary will be cast, rehearsed and filmed in the fall of 2015. The film will be edited in the spring of 2016 and will have a special showing in April of 2016 at UC’s MainStreet Cinema.

Stay tuned to The Village News for more information on Binary‘s production.

CCM E-Media Faculty Member Hagit Limor Receives ‘Best of Festival’ Honors at this Year’s Broadcast Education Association Convention

Hagit Limor, Assistant Professor of Electronic Media at CCM.

CCM Assistant Professor of Electronic Media Hagit Limor received the “Best of Festival” award in the Faculty News Competition at this year’s Broadcast Education Association’s (BEA) Festival of Media Arts. She was recognized for her report on fake memorabilia being sold at charity auctions.

The BEA’s Festival of Media Arts is a competitive festival open to both faculty and student members of the BEA. Any full-time student attending a BEA institutional members receives free membership in the association.

This year’s festival ran from April 12 – 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The festival received 1,352 entries in 2015 and went on to recognize 17 “Best of Festival” winners. Each “Best of Festival” award recipient was honored with the presentation of a specially produced tribute video and a $1,000 cash award from the Charles and Lucille King Family. You can view a roundup of all of the 2015 Best of Festival King Foundation Award Winners by visiting www.beaweb.org/2015/bof.

You can watch Limor’s original report on fake autographed memorabilia below.

Limor joined CCM’s Division of Electronic Media (CCM E-Media) after an extensive career in broadcast journalism and as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. She teaches media writing, ethics and journalism, taking students from the classroom and newsroom into the studio for taped productions.

Limor has served as an anchor, general assignment reporter and investigative reporter at  network-affiliated stations in five markets, currently at Cincinnati’s Fox 19 WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, where she serves as investigative reporter. She’s covered news stories throughout  the United States, Central America, Europe and Asia, including the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Limor’s abilities as a writer and reporter have garnered her dozens of national, state and local awards for investigative, documentary, general assignment and feature reporting. She’s won 10 Emmy Awards, three national Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a National Headliner Award, national finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, and other national awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists, plus more than 100 state Associated Press, state SPJ and local SPJ awards.

In December of 2014, Limor was recognized by the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education for her work using the media as a vehicle for speaking out against hatred.

Limor also is very active for the cause of journalism on a national level. She’s served as President of the national Society of Professional Journalists, representing 8,000 journalists across the United States after holding several other national and local offices, including president of the Greater Cincinnati SPJ chapter. She currently serves as national chair of the Society’s Legal Defense Fund, member of the Ethics Committee and recently served on the committee that rewrote the Society’s widely quoted Journalism Ethics Code. Limor also sits on the board of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, which promotes excellence and ethics in journalism through educational programs and grants for journalism-related projects.

Beyond journalism, Limor volunteers throughout the Tri-State, and was honored by the Bethesda Foundation for her local service. She also emcees, speaks and hosts events for various community organizations.

She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

Learn more about CCM’s accomplished faculty by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/faculty.

CCM E-Media Students Receive Top Honors at National Broadcasting Society Convention

CCM alumnus Tim Neumann.

Frequent readers of The Village News are likely already familiar with the work of alumnus Tim Neumann (BFA Electronic Media, 2014), as Neumann produced several memorable promotional videos for CCM’s Mainstage and Studio Dramas with his colleague Dan Marque (BFA Electronic Media, 2014), including a stunning “trailer” for CCM’s 2013 production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (which you can view here).

We are delighted to report that Neumann won a grand prize in the “Video Instructional/ Industrial/ Promotional Production” category at last month’s National Broadcasting Society national convention in Atlanta for a promotional video he created about CCM Drama! You can watch his award winning video below.

Current E-Media major Josh Hamester also took home a top award within the category of “Video Sports Segment” at the convention! Congrats, Tim and Josh!

Learn more about CCM’s Department of Drama by visiting ccm.uc.edu/drama.

Learn more about CCM’s Division of Electronic Media by visiting ccm.uc.edu/emedia.

UC President Ono Provides Support for Student-Produced Documentary Series

We are delighted to report that UC President Santa Ono has announced funding support for the interdisciplinary Production Master Class in digital media, which uses experiential learning to create student-produced documentaries. Since the course’s inception with a three-year UC Forward grant in 2012, it has produced three 90-minute documentaries that air nationally on the Universal Sports Network.

Each documentary focuses on the Gold Rush Expedition Race, one of the world’s premier expedition races that feature an international field of 50 elite athletes trekking, mountainbiking, climbing and kayaking along a grueling 275-mile course in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The presidential investment in the UC Production Master Class will allow the production to continue beyond its initial three-year grant period and represents Ono’s ongoing support of interdisciplinary digital media projects and experiential learning at the University of Cincinnati.

You can read the full announcement at uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=21328.

You can learn even more about UC’s student-produced Gold Rush Expedition Race film series at ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/notations-ovations/student-produced-film-series-airs-on-universal-sports-network.

CCM’s Department of Drama and Division of Electronic Media Present 48-Hour Film Festival This February

This semester, CCM’s Department of Drama and Division of Electronic Media are providing a unique opportunity for aspiring filmmakers, performers and storytellers in the form of a 48-Hour Film Festival, which will run from Feb. 20 – 22.

Based on the innovative 48 Hour Film Project festival and competition, which launched in 2001, CCM’s 48-Hour Film Festival will challenge teams comprised of students from throughout the university to bring their short films from conception to completion within a brisk 48-hour window.

Within a single weekend, student teams will create and then screen their own short films.

As described by the original 48 Hour Film Project, this promises to be, “a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and your team have a blast making a movie. All writing, shooting, editing and scoring must be completed in just 48 hours. On Friday night you are assigned a prop, a line of dialogue and a theme that must be included in your movie. 48 hours later, you must submit your film. Next? Your masterpiece will be shared with the participants of the festival.”

All University of Cincinnati students are invited to apply to be assigned to a team for the inaugural CCM 48-Film Festival. Applicants will need to be available for the entire 48 hours from 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20, through 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22. Visit ccm.uc.edu/theatre/drama/48HourFilmFestival for application information. Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015.

Applicants will be randomly assigned to teams and these assignments will be announced at a 7 p.m. meeting on Friday, Feb. 20. Teams will then be assigned a common prop, a common line of dialogue and a common theme, all of which must be included in each film. Film genres will not be assigned.

Teams will then have 48 hours to brainstorm, research, write, story-board, cast, film, score and edit a roughly five minute-long film, which will be screened in the MainStreet Cinema of UC’s Tangeman University Center on the night of Sunday, Feb. 22.

Teams will create job assignments, find costumes, scout locations, find props, create underscoring, rehearse, film and edit a final piece.

Learn more by visiting ccm.uc.edu/theatre/drama/48HourFilmFestival.

The inaugural CCM 48-Hour Film Festival is made possible thanks to the generous support from the Friends of CCM.