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Lights, camera, awards.
Students from Pepperdine and Malibu High took home nine awards for their productions at the fifth annual Pepperdine Video Festival last Thursday in Smothers Theatre.
The festival received 38 video submissions for all categories.
“Every year it just gets better,” said Susan Salas, faculty director for the event. “This is one of the best shows we’ve had all around.”
Leading the Pepperdine field, Nicholas Sheldon took the best music video prize for his presentation of Faith Hill’s “There You’ll Be.” Clay Ewing won best news package for “Investigative Journalism with Christine Carter,” and Jonny Mars and Team Leo won best documentary short for “Real World: Griffith Park.” The special award went to Megan Willis for her animated dramatic short, “Snow Phoenix.”
Freshman Jason Eppink earned two awards in the festival — best dramatic short for producing “Samaritans” and best comedic short for “Slugman Christmas Special 2002.”
Eppink characterizes his animated comedy “Slugman,” as having rhythmic humor, contrasting the fast and slow.
“The thing that made it unique, I thought, was that it would be this superhero that moved so slow, it would be improbable for him to accomplish anything,” he said.
For Eppink, film and video production presents “tangible and intangible” aspects to his work.
“In one sense it’s an object, a story that can be watched and therefore told whenever I want,” he said. “In another sense, it’s the ability to make people feel something, whether to make them laugh, to make them wonder, or to make them frustrated.”
The initial categories for Pepperdine and Malibu High included best comedic short, dramatic short, music video and news package.
However, to accommodate the variety of entries submitted for this year’s festival, Salas created a best documentary short category and a special award to recognize a student who had submitted animation for the best dramatic short field.
“Baywatch” creator and executive producer Greg Bonann announced the winners and presented the awards. The winning entry was played for the audience after the presentation of each category.
Bonann discussed his experiences of trying to make it in the television business with the audience, comprised mostly of telecommunications-oriented students.
“We all got what we wanted and now we’ll give a little back,” Bonann said to the audience. “I’m amazed at how good you all are.”
Winners from Malibu High School included Sayo Yamagata’s “Untitled” for best music video, Matt Freund’s “Special Delivery” for best dramatic short and Katie Kramer’s “Living in a Bubble” for best comedic short.
The Pepperdine Video Festival was founded five years ago by Salas to showcase student video productions, providing recognition for talent and creativity, and promoting continued learning.
“I teach production and I saw that all of these amazing talents and efforts were being put into class work,” Salas said. “I thought, what a great idea to give students the opportunity to see their work and give them a venue to showcase it.”
Junior Nicole Flowers assisted Salas in this year’s festival as the student director. Flowers worked with publicity for the event and reached out to Malibu High School.
“I never knew how it works,” she said. “It’s cool to see behind the scenes.”
Aside from faculty and student organizers, the Seaver Board of Visitors and the Crest Associates supported the video festival to make the event possible. Bonann is a Crest Associate.
Salas said there is a possibility the festival may open competition to other universities in the future and an animation short category is also possible.
Pepperdine entries in the video festival reflected an accumulation of work by TV-26 crew members over the past year.
As school winds down, TV-26 still has some big programming scheduled for its audience. “Riptide TV” will air its eighth and final episode April 15. The show, which will be taped April 9, will showcase Student Government Association President-elect Jason Palmer, a tribute to former Pepperdine basketball player Will Kimble and various other segments featuring students pulling off stunts. Sophomores Nick Bundra and Robbie Mooring will host the episode.
Sheldon, executive producer and creator of “Riptide,” is proud of the level of entertainment the show has brought to TV-26. “Riptide” stands as the first hour-long show ever on the Pepperdine station.
“We always try to push the envelope, but never so far that people might get offended,” he said.
While TV-26 wraps up its year, the station is also looking ahead to reach out for more viewers in the coming semesters.
The station had to begin anew this year because key seniors had graduated in 2002. Now that TV-26 has taken its programming to a new level, the main focus will be station promotions, Sheldon said.
According to Sheldon, TV-26 is in talks with SGA and the Athletics Department to play a major role in next year’s Midnight Madness event.
Submitted April 03, 2003
MALIBU, CA
