Dafna Lemish
HERRIN - An inquiry paid big dividends for Southern Illinois University Carbondale Ph.D. student Kelly Caringer who departs today for the British Library Sound Archive in London.
He was recently awarded an Edison Fellowship that will cover his summer expenses as he will study and research some of the earliest known stereo recordings that British inventor Alan Dower Blumlein created from 1931-35.
Applying through the British Library that awards the fellowship, Caringer said, "I didn't expect them to bite on it. It's an annual award. I must have made a good pitch."
The SIUC School of Mass Communications and Media Arts student said he hopes his research will revive interest in Blumlein, who he described as kind of a forgotten genius in the world of modernizing sound.
Blumlein is credited with being a mainstay in the creation of stereophonic sound in England while companies in United States were busy inventing stereo. What differs from the work that was being done simultaneously is that the British sound thanks to Blumlein was fuller in context as the British inventor found ways to dispense uninterrupted sound waves, Caringer said.
"No one has tested Blumlein's method to see how and if it works. I will rebuild it. He came up with some crazy stuff," Caringer said.
He will have efficient material to work with as the library in 2005 received a collection of old records from a BBC sound engineer that contains some of the original laboratory tests conducted by Blumlein as he was perfecting stereo recording techniques in 1935.
"These recordings are as significant as (Thomas) Edison's wax cylinder recordings from the turn of the 20th century. This is an interesting and unique opportunity. I'm approaching this work as a critical scholar," Caringer said.
Caringer is working to finish and receive his Ph.D. by spring 2012. His future aspiration is to teach. During the course of his work at SIUC, he has built his own multi-channel sound arrays.
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Twenty outstanding students in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Department of Cinema and Photography recently earned scholarships and received awards for the 2010-2011 academic year.
The department is within the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. The scholarships and awards total $14,500.
Here is a list of scholarship winners, by hometown. Where available, the listing contains the winner’s name, year in school, major, scholarship name, the amount, and a bit of background on the award.
Illinois
Bloomington: Hannah Russell, graduated December 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in photography. Charles Swedlund Award, $450. Established in honor of former professor Charles Swedlund, who taught at SIUC for 30 years. The award goes to an outstanding photography student.
Canton: Marcie Brewer, graduated in August 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in photography. C. William Horrell Memorial Award, $500. The award honors C. William Horrell, long-time faculty member and photography program founder. Presented to an outstanding undergraduate student for accomplishment in documentary photography and/or photojournalism in the past year. Brewer also has bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and linguistics.
Carbondale: Karen Kipp, senior, cinema. Richard Blumenberg Screenwriting Award, $1,000. The award honors the late Richard Blumenberg, a former professor in screenwriting in the department. The award is the result of a script competition where students submit feature-length scripts for judging by industry professionals. Kipp, who won for her script, “Osha,” also holds degrees in art and creative writing from Virginia Intermont University and a Master of Fine Arts in English from the University of Iowa.
Carlinville: Cory Fehrenbacher, senior, cinema. Liz Ralston Cinema Production Award, $750. Established by SIUC cinema alumnus Liz Ralston, the award goes to an outstanding student filmmaker for innovation accomplishment in the past year.
Chicago: Shardaria Johnson, senior, cinema, also majoring in radio-television. Minority Filmmaker Award, $250. Established by SIUC Cinema and Photography alum and Academy Award nominee Steve James, the award goes to an outstanding minority student in advanced courses in the cinema program to cover the costs of filmmaking.
Columbia: Darren Schroeder, senior, photography. Photography Outstanding Scholar Award, $500. Established to promote scholarly studies in area of photography history, theory and criticism.
Decatur: Wesley Powers, senior, photography. Robert Dennis Filmmaking Award, $750. Established by Robert Dennis, an alumnus of the Department of Cinema and Photography, the award is given to a student in the area of cinematography whose work is judged an outstanding expression of vision through the use of light.
Elmhurst: Samantha Sliwa, senior, photography. Loren Cocking Animation Award, $500. Established in honor of Loren Cocking, who taught film production and animation courses at the University from 1976 through 2002, the award goes to an outstanding student filmmaker for accomplishment in animation in the past year.
Hawthorn Woods: Robert Bachmann, sophomore, photography. Paul Harum Memorial Award, $500. Established in honor of Paul Harum, a photography student at SIUC who died in a motorcycle accident. The award was established in 1987, and goes to an undergraduate student for outstanding accomplishment in the past year.
Jacksonville: Joshua Reuck, senior, photography. David Gilmore Award, $900. The award goes to an outstanding photography student in the past year, and honors David Gilmore, a former department chair, who taught in the department for 32 years.
Monticello: Skye Peters, senior, cinema. Cinema Production Award, $250. The award goes to a student with a film project currently under way.
Oswego: Daniel Bowling, senior, photography, also majoring in industrial technology. Charles Swedlund Award, $450.
Roscoe: Danielle Williamson, senior, cinema. John C. Mercer Scholarship Award, $500. The award goes to outstanding cinema production students for their work in the past year, and honors the professor and founder of the University’s cinema program.
Round Lake Heights: John Anslow, junior, cinema. Cinema Outstanding Scholar Award, $250. The award goes to a cinema student for outstanding scholarly accomplishment in the past year.
Springfield: Sam Phillippe senior, photography. Photography Production Award, $500. The award goes to a student for outstanding accomplishment in photography in the past year.
Sumner: Jamie Schonaman, senior, photography. Mary Green Memorial Award, $500. The award honors Mary Greene, a photography student killed in a car accident in 1986, and goes to a student for outstanding accomplishment in photography.
Urbana: Shaheen Shorish, junior in cinema also majoring in philosophy. Minority Filmmaker Award, $250.
Winfield: Robert Kohler, junior, cinema. Cinema Production Award, $250.
Kentucky
Prospect: Susan Shircliff, senior, cinema. Cinema Outstanding Scholar Award, $250. Shircliff also has a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Murray State University.
Missouri
St. Louis: Mark Norris, senior, photography. Kodak Professional Imaging Award, $5,200. Presented to an outstanding student based on academic and professional excellence in the past year.
Ohio
Mentor: See Carbondale, Ill., award for Karen Kipp, who is originally from Mentor, Ohio.
The most distinguished seniors at SIUC are individuals who have enriched the University community with their active involvement in all facets of campus life. Some of these activities include academic achievement, athletics, residential life, military services, greek life, and registered student organizations. The SIU Alumni Association and the Student Alumni Council are pleased to honor these students with a ceremony hosted by the Office of the Chancellor for the recipient and his/her family, a first year membership in the SIU Alumni Association at no charge, small gift, and a certificate of recognition.
Wade Morrison; Springfield, IL
College: Mass Communication and Media Arts
Major: Cinema and Photography
Minor: Chemistry
Gavin Murphy; Herrin, IL
College: Liberal Arts
College: Mass Communication and Media Arts
Double Major: Music Performance and Cinema
Krystal Saulsberry; Oak Park, IL
College: Mass Communication and Media Arts
Major: Advertising
Minors
Brittany Cheves; Algonquin, IL
College: Liberal Arts
Major: Speech Communication, Public Relations
Minors: Journalism, Philosphy
Phyllis Allen; Jerseyville, IL
College: Liberal Arts
Speech Communication
Minors: Finance, Journalism
RT students won several awards in the 2011 BEA competitions:
Also ....
RT student Carol Burns is a recipient of the IRTS Fellowship Program for this coming summer! She will be a 2011 Broadcast Sales Associate, June 5 – August 6, 2011.
November 10 came and went just like any other day for Jon Klemke. Unfortunately, he had hoped it would be different. That was the day he thought winners of the 8th Annual Los Angeles Comedy Festival Screenplay Competition would be announced.
It was early the next day, that Klemke realized he was off a day, when he received the email notifying him that he was one of the contest winners.
Klemke, a senior in Cinema and Photography from Glenview, Ill., was awarded first place in the Short Script section. His script, Prombies, is a tale about a high school girl who brings back her deceased boyfriend so that he can attend prom with her.
“I had never entered a competition before,” said Klemke. “I wrote Prombies for my Short Film class and thought that it was good so I decided to enter.”
Klemke has written many other scripts in a variety of genres. But, he says outlandish comedies are his favorite.
“It is nice to not worry about realism and just write,” said Klemke. “I have wanted to write and direct films since I was a freshman in high school. I have taken several classes at SIUC that have really helped me develop my skills.”
Klemke is currently working on his senior thesis project. He is co-directing a film about World War II with Nick Nylen, senior in Cinema and Photography.
“I definitely plan to enter other contests,” said Klemke. “I am also getting ready to launch my website, which I hope will help with getting my name out there.”
While Klemke would like to work in L.A. at some point he is considering working in the Chicago area after graduation.
Klemke will receive $500 with his first place award.
For more information about Klemke and his projects visit his website, www.jonklemke.com which will launch in January 2011.
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- A thesis project by a recent Southern Illinois University Carbondale graduate is earning top documentary honors.
Lauren Selmon Roberts received the 2010 Directors Guild of America Student Film Award in the “Best African American Student Filmmaker-Eastern Region” category for her documentary about a Liberian orphanage. “Rainbow Town,” is a film that focuses on Ma Feeta, a woman who saved 100 children during the civil war in Liberia, West Africa.
Roberts earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts in May 2010. She received the award in ceremonies last week in New York City. This is her first full-length documentary.
Roberts said she is “deeply honored” by the award. Roberts first met the woman, Ma Feeta, and the children in 2004 while working as an intern for an international relief agency. After working in Liberia for two years, Roberts returned in 2007 with a film crew for the project.
The crew “made a heartfelt effort to shoot, edit, and promote the film,” Roberts said. “It is such a special feeling to finally share what we have been working on for so long with audiences. It was especially special to be able to share it at the Director’s Guild of America Theatre … with other new filmmakers and documentarians from East Coast universities.”
The documentary aired at several grassroots film screening efforts, along with events at New York Fashion Week, and the Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival, Roberts said.
H.D. Motyl, an assistant professor in the Department of Radio-Television, chaired the committee on Roberts’ master’s thesis.
“The footage was gorgeous, beautifully composed shots, wonderful camera movement,” he said. “I knew immediately that this was going to be a quality project.”
Motyl said he worked much more closely with Roberts when he became chair of her thesis committee. When Roberts shared the story of Ma Feeta and the children of Rainbow Town, “I knew this was going to be a special work. And now the rest of the world gets to see just how special this work is and are honoring Lauren for it,” Motyl said.
The award is “a wonderful tribute to Lauren’s hard work over the last three or four years in Liberia and in Southern Illinois,” Motyl said.
“I had only a small part in her journey with this documentary but I am so proud to have that small part in this wonderful piece and to have been able to work with Lauren,” he said. “I truly look forward to her next work. She’s a born storyteller and filmmaker.”
Roberts, the daughter of Kathryn and Dewey Selmon of Norman, Okla., earned her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from California State University, Fresno in May 2005.
Roberts’ husband, Will, is set to complete his thesis animation to earn his master’s degree in January. The couple will then move to New York City, where Roberts plans to continue to create social documentaries, and her husband pursues an animation career.
“I will forever remain committed to the entire Rainbow Town effort,” she said.
Proceeds from the film go to helping war-affected students in Liberia go to college, Roberts said. In addition, the Rainbow Town children make one-of-a-kind paintings that are on display, and for sale for $100. Additional information about the film and the Rainbow Town store is available at http://rainbowtown.org/.
The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is happy to report that Lauren Selmon Roberts won the Eastern Region of the Best African American Student Filmmaker award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
Los Angeles – The Directors Guild of America today announced the winners of the 2010 DGA Student Film Awards for African American, Asian American, Latino and Women directors. The awards are designed to honor, encourage and bring attention to outstanding minority and women directors in film schools and select universities across the country.
"Congratulations to all of the awardees for this year’s DGA Student Film Awards,” said DGA President Taylor Hackford. “As part of the DGA’s commitment to encouraging diversity in the entertainment industry, we’re pleased to recognize these promising young filmmakers as examples of the vital and diverse talent coming from film schools and universities across the country."
The 2010 winners, selected by blue ribbon DGA member panels, are:
BEST AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENT FILMMAKER:
Eastern Region Winner:
Western Region Winner:
BEST ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENT FILMMAKER:
Eastern Region Winner:
Western Region Winner:
BEST LATINO STUDENT FILMMAKER:
Eastern Region Winner:
Western Region Winner:
BEST WOMAN STUDENT FILMMAKER:
Eastern Region Winner:
Western Region Winner:
The awards rules and procedures mandate that competing films must have been made in the 2009/2010 school year (September 2009 through August 2010), and must have been produced as a student project under the supervision of a faculty member. Dramas, comedies and documentaries are all eligible — animated and experimental films are not. Applicants must be enrolled in, or be a recent (one-year) graduate from, an accredited post-secondary institution in California or DGA-selected university offering a degree in film or television. Eligible films are those in which a student held every major crew position. Productions in which a non-student, professional or a faculty member served as cinematographer, camera operator, sound recordist, editor, lighting designer or screenwriter may be disqualified.
The award-winning films will be screened and the awards presented in ceremonies at the Directors Guild of America theaters in Los Angeles (Wednesday, November 10) and New York (Tuesday, November 30).
Our undergrad student, Jon Klemke, just won first place for his short script, "Prombies," in the 8th Los Angeles Comedy Festival: Screenplay Competition. It's a script he wrote in Writing the Short Film, and well deserving of the win!
Julia M. Rendleman is one of four photojournalism students in the United States to earn an award from Getty Images Inc. for editorial photography. Rendleman, who is from Makanda, is working on a project that focuses on female inmates at the Illinois Department of Corrections' Impact Incarceration Program at Dixon Springs.
Getty Images announced awards to five professional and four student photographers earlier this month.
Rendleman will graduate with a master's degree in December. She is in the Professional Media and Media Management Studies program specializing in photojournalism.
Dean Gary P. Kolb said receiving a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography "is a prestigious international recognition."
"This award is not only a testament to her talent but also to the level of instruction students in our photojournalism program receive," Kolb said. "We have a committed faculty and the finest photojournalism program in the state of Illinois here in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts."
Rendleman said she was shocked to receive the award.
"This is a great honor and prestigious award but it's something that a lot of students at this college can accomplish if they try to attain it," she said. "It's within their reach. A lot of students here have the skills to get this award. I want to encourage everyone to try."
A Carbondale native, Rendleman earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Loyola University in New Orleans. Her projects while at SIUC include a multimedia project on the Shawnee Forest and last fall's "A Weekend in Murphysboro."
"Julia Rendleman is one of the most talented young photojournalists in the country," said William H. Freivogel, director of the SIUC School of Journalism. "Her photos of women in custody and her commitment to tell their story are extraordinary. This important award is a testament to her skills as well as to the teaching skills of the photojournalists on the faculty of the School of Journalism."
After receiving permission from state prison officials, Rendleman began the project earlier this year focusing on five women enrolled in the 120-day military style boot camp program. Two of the five women did not complete the program and returned to state prison to finish their remaining sentences. The other three women did graduate in July, Rendleman said.
Dixon Springs is the only impact incarceration program facility in Illinois that accepts women. Rendleman said her interest is the aspect of viewing redemption, rehabilitation and the women receiving a second chance. One of the female inmates had her son while in prison; the boy was eight months old when she graduated from the boot camp, Rendleman said. She plans to meet with the women to continue profiling their journey. Rendleman is also working to obtain permission from state prison officials to photograph the two inmates who failed the boot camp program.
While for a photojournalist "it is hard for a project to ever be done," Rendleman said she has nine months to complete it for Getty.
Established in 2004, the grants "enable emerging and established photojournalists to pursue projects of personal and editorial merit," according to a news release from Getty Images, Inc. Grant awards have totaled more than $600,000 since 2004.
SOURCE:¬ http://news.siuc.edu/news/September10/091010par10131.html
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale honored people and groups on campus for their contributions during the 2009-2010 school year during the annual Celebration of Leadership and Involvement.
Student Development hosted the program at the Student Center in appreciation of accomplishments and contributions in the classroom and the surrounding community. Students claimed a variety of scholarships and honors.
Jessica Herring and Rhonda Steidley shared the Morris Award for Excellence in Community Service. Herring is an elementary education major from Murphysboro while Steidley is a plant and soil science major from Hettick. The award, chosen on the basis of nominations from community organizations, goes to students and/or Registered Student Organizations that demonstrate excellence and are committed to community service.
Seven students earned the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, recognizing them for volunteering more than 100 hours in areas designated by the President's Council on Civic Participation. Those recognized, listed by hometown with major, include:
Note - Full list of students honored is available here, http://news.siuc.edu/news/July10/071410cjm10195.html
Also winning individual scholarships and honors, listed by hometown with major and brief explanation of award/scholarship, were:
Chicago
Schaumburg
Wheaton
SIU Foundation