HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 27, 2012 – The screenplay for “Connected,” a film written and produced by High Point University faculty and students, is the 2012 “Best of Fest” Award winner in the Short Subject Category of the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts Faculty Scriptwriting Competition.
The film, which was co-written by Jim Goodman, assistant professor of media production in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication, and Ed Simpson, chair and professor of Playwriting and Performance in the Department of Theatre, tells the “Twilight Zone” type tale of a student who is addicted to technology, and what happens when he “overdoses” on technology one night. “Being able to take a new work and translate it to the big screen was a great experience for our HPU students, and we are very honored to receive the award,” Goodman says.
“Producing the film ?Connected’ was a very labor intensive effort carried out during the spring and fall of 2011. Students performed specific crew roles and worked in departments just as would occur within the industry. The movie was filmed with what is known as the RED One Camera System – a digital film acquisition system that brings groundbreaking, motion picture quality resolution to storytelling at a reasonable cost. Major motion pictures have been made with the RED system recently, including films such as “The Social Network,” “District 9” and “Book of Eli.”
“I’m honored to receive this award and to have worked with such a great collaborator,” Simpson says. “I had a terrific time working with Jim and our students on ?Connected.’ We envisioned the project as a way for our two programs to work together, using our students from the Department of Theatre as the cast and the students from the School of Communication as crew. Ultimately, I think it worked better than we imagined. I hope this is just the first of our co-productions.”
“It was great being able to work with Ed on this project. He is an excellent writer in his own right and a kind friend,” Goodman says. “We also worked closely with Professor Nathan Daughtrey and his music students, who created the wonderful original music score used in the film. … The screenplay was the document, the foundation that we all depended upon to translate words on paper into light, sound and story in a manner that engages an audience. Winning this award, I think, underscores the importance of writing and how it is fundamental in the creation of aural and visual stories, and how we, at HPU, value writing in our programs.”
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 44 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]