Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

CSUN Students, Faculty Take Top Honors at Media Festival

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Mar. 2nd, 2011) ―

Four Cal State Northridge cinema and television arts students and the chair of the department took top honors at this year’s Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts.

The winners, graduate screenwriting students Gina Ruoti, Sara Caldwell and Christopher Childs, multimedia senior Ryan Valle and cinema and television arts professor Jon Stahl, will be formally recognized next month at the annual Broadcast Education Association convention in Las Vegas, Nev.

“Our performance in the festival reflects well on our program as a whole,” Stahl said. “ Our students are becoming increasingly well regarded within the motion picture industry. We have one of the best programs around, and I am delighted that more and more people are recognizing that.”

The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) is a professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students who are interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprise. Its Festival of Media Arts is an international refereed exhibition of faculty creative activities and a national showcase for student work.

Ruoti took second place in the screenwriting short subject category for her work “Tree of Knowledge.” Caldwell took second place in the feature screenwriting category for her piece “The Pied Piper.” Childs took third place in that same category for his work “The King of Bath.” Valle took second place in the authorship projects category of the interactive multimedia competition for his work “Ryan Valle || Media Professional.”

Stahl’s entry, “Live the Dream,” was named “Best of Competition” in the relatively new category of mobisode/webisode in faculty scriptwriting.

“It was something I started writing as a short film, but I decided that I liked the character too much to say good bye to him,” he said. “ I thought it could work on the Internet, so I wrote three episodes.”

Cal State Northridge’s Department of Cinema and Television Arts has an international reputation for producing dedicated and talented industry professionals who recognize the value of hard word as they learn and continue to perfect their crafts. The department’s alumni work in all aspects of the industry, from writing, producing and directing to manning cameras and having the final say in what project is made.

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