For more than a decade now, you could say that the BYU Center for Animation has “owned” the animation category at the College Television Awards, commonly called the “student Emmys.”
On April 23, 2014, the tradition continued with BYU winning its 15th and 16th student Emmys in 11 years. Fittingly, this year’s big winner is titled “Owned.”
“Owned” took the first place award in animation and “Chasm” earned the first place award in music composition. For Richard Williams, who composed the score for “Chasm,” he’s done some owning himself. It’s his second student Emmy personally.
“Owned” is a comedic animated short. The brainchild of co-director Wesley Tippetts, it documents the experience of a pompous, disheveled video game champion, Jeff, who is brought to his knees in an online gaming experience against an unknown opponent. The opponent ends up being a baby, Abby. A twist near the end of the short results in a life-changing experience for the gamer.
Tippets said he’s proud of how the short turned out, how the team worked together and the BYU animation program as a whole. The students have a sense of responsibility to continue the award-winning tradition.
“The year [of students] that’s coming up, they’re probably going to be looking at our film and looking at what worked and what didn’t work, and the program is just going to continue to get better and better,” Tippetts said.
For the rest of the story on the student Emmys, visit BYU News.
For more on the student Emmy awards, visit Deseret News, KSL, and the Salt Lake Tribune.
“Owned” also recently won first place at the Student Academy Awards, earning a gold medal.
BYU animators Daniel Clark and Wesley Tippets led their team to yet another award on Saturday, June 7, for their animation project.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented a Student Oscar to the BYU animation team for their work on “Owned.” The animation was one of three to receive a Student Academy Award, but BYU animators scored first in their category, receiving a gold medal.
Students that worked on 15 different projects under the categories of “alternative, animation, documentary, narrative and foreign film” attended the awards ceremony at The Directors Guild of America Theater Complex in West Hollywood.
Other Oscar winners in the animation category include silver medalist, Teng Cheng for his work on “Higher Sky,” and bronze medalist Hayley Foster for her work on “Yamashita.”
Forty-nine students from different universities were nominated for Student Academy Awards on May 2 and the winners of the awards were announced May 15, 2014, but the medal placement was not announced until June 7.
Read more about the 2014 Student Academy Awards at Digital Universe,
For more information about the awards, visit The Oscars, and Animation Magazine.
—BYU News, The Digital Universe