Nevada State Horizontal Gold and Black Logo

NSC Visual Media Students win local award for film project

Jun 30, 2014 | Campus News, School of Liberal arts & Sciences

And the award for Best Use of Character goes to Speak English? by NSC Films!
The Nevada State College Visual Media Department is on a roll. Recently awarded the Best Use of Character award by the Las Vegas 48 Hour Film Project, NSC Visual Media students are making their mark in the Las Vegas film community. We have a core group of dedicated students who are hungry for filmmaking, said Assistant Professor of Visual and Digital Media, Dr. Adam Davis. They readily accept feedback on their work from faculty and other students in order to continually improve, and they’re willing to put in long hours outside of the classroom to make films.
For the Las Vegas 48 Hour Film Project, all participants were instructed to make a movie, including writing, shooting, editing and scoring, in just 48 hours. Numerous films were submitted by different teams, and several awards were given, including Best Original Song, Best Ensemble Acting, Best Directing, Best Film, etc.
The Las Vegas 48 Hour Film Project presented their awardees work at the Best of Screening, held on May 30, 2014 at the Cockroach Theatre in downtown Las Vegas. Dr. Gregory Robinson, Chair of the Humanities Department, says one of the reasons for the NSC Visual Media program’s success is the attention and guidance from faculty. Dr. Adam Davis has done a tremendous job helping the students take their ideas and turn them into completed projects. For example, this summer, he has been leading a group of students through the process of writing a feature-length screenplay, he said.
The other factor is the close-knit community of visual media students, Dr. Robinson added. The Visual Media students went to Sundance together in the spring, and they worked for long hours together on the Red Angel Dragnet project, a 40-minute Zombie film which premiered on Friday, June 27. They are a remarkably innovative and collaborative community, Dr. Robinson said. Dr. Davis agreed, saying, we’re smaller than other schools, but that also makes us a more close-knit program with a lot of faculty-student interaction and support. We’re also very nimble, able to pursue opportunities that provide great learning experiences for our students.
There are film programs at other Nevada institutions, but ours is a careful mix of media production and media study, Dr. Robinson explained. They learn how to make compelling images, but they also learn why those images are important in our culture.
The Visual Media program at NSC is part of the Humanities department in the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences and is now offered as a major and a minor for NSC students. Faculty members hope the recent success of the students will help grow the program, as they have big plans for the future. We are adding an animation track in the fall, which will give students even more options for growth and creativity, Dr. Robinson said. In addition, the Visual Media department will be putting more emphasis on ways that students can use their skills to help community organizations.
The NSC Visual Media faculty members are both proud and impressed by the great work their students have done. It’s fulfilling to watch their progress from film to film and to see the ways in which they support one another, Dr. Davis expressed.
Dr. Davis and I are so proud of what our students have done, Dr. Robinson added. They have built a lasting culture here at NSC.