Music video, short
screenplay both recognized at CSU Media Arts Festival Los
Angeles, CA
— Out of
164 entries from 15 campuses, two Cal State L.A. students
were honored at the 22nd Annual California State University (CSU)
Media
Arts Festival
(MAF) awards competition, which was recently held at Cal State
Fullerton.
Erik Boccio, who is working
toward his Master of Fine Arts in Television, Film and
Theatre (TVFT) at CSULA, nabbed a
$500 Rosebud Award for his music video of
Red
Letter Day’s “Northern Lights.”
Boccio describes “Northern
Lights”
as “an artist’s journey that takes him from the desert to Hollywood and
into the ocean; realizing you can only go so far before you’re back
where you started.” The video was one of many film projects that Boccio
directed for a class taught by Alan Bloom, professor of film and
television at CSULA.
“It was
a tremendous honor to be recognized as a director and artist alike,”
said Boccio, a Toluca Lake resident who was raised in New York. “This
award will certainly enhance my portfolio. My ultimate career goal is to
direct for television and film, and teach at the university level.”
This
past summer, Boccio directed the stage production of Jean Paul Sartre’s
No Exit at CSULA. He was also a winner of “Best Music Video” at
the Golden Eagle Film Festival 2012. He is currently working as a lab
instructor for television production in the University’s Department of
TV, Film and Media Studies. Boccio received his bachelor’s degree in
media studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
“Boccio is a very hardworking student and a serious filmmaker, whose
work is exceedingly refreshing, beautifully shot and impressively
edited,” said Professor Bloom. “The award confirms the quality of the
work of our students. The festival is certainly a premier event to
showcase our TVFT graduate program, which is in its fifth year.”
Additionally, CSULA student Evan Manning received second-place
honor for his short screenplay, “The Ghost of Fairmount Heights,”
about a fourth grader’s encounter with a ghost of a teenage boy in a
neighborhood alleyway.
“It’s
great to have my work recognized this way. In a way, I feel as if it’s
an indication of the growth that I’ve experienced in the CSULA program,”
said Manning, a TVFT graduate student with a focus on dramatic writing.
“I want to eventually make a living writing for television and/or film.
I’ve been both a big lover of movies and television ever since I can
remember.”
Manning—who currently lives in Monterey Park but is originally from
Bowie, MD—wrote the screenplay for his “Creating Characters and Writing
Dialogue” class in winter 2010, which was taught by CSULA Professor
Kristiina Hackel. He completed his undergraduate work at Morgan State
University in Baltimore, MD, where he majored in telecommunications with
a concentration in television production.
The
Media Arts Festival offers talented film, video and interactive media
students from the 23-campus CSU system an opportunity to present their
work for critical review and recognition.
A panel
of distinguished CSU faculty and industry professionals selected 37
outstanding pieces representing 10 CSU campuses. The
categories the students competed in were: animation; documentary;
experimental; interactive; music video; narrative; television; feature
screenplay; and short screenplay.
Cash
prizes during the award ceremony included $500 and a Rosebud Award to
the winner of Best in Show, $500 and a Rosebud Award to the
winner in each category, and $250 to the campus department of each
winning category. Place awards were also given in each category.
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Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to
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Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
Cal
State L.A. grad student takes home top prize
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