News

Department Honors Walter Mirisch

Tino Balio & Walter Mirisch The Department of Communication Arts was pleased to host a special event to honor distinguished University of Wisconsin - Madison alumnus Walter Mirisch (History, '42). Over 100 guests from the Department and campus recognized and learned about Mr. Mirisch's many achievements. Among campus leaders in attendance were:

Chancellor Biddy Martin
Wisconsin Alumni Association Director Paula Bonner
College of Letters & Science Dean Gary Sandefur
Several members of the Letters & Science Board of Visitors

Communication Arts Chair Sue Zaeske and Dean Sandefur welcomed guests and thanked Mr. Mirisch for his support of the Department and the College. Emeritus Professor Tino Balio then hosted a discussion with Mr. Mirish which reviewed his fascinating career.

Sue Zaeske, Chancellor Martin, & Walter Mirisch After graduating from UW-Madison (History, '42), Walter Mirisch launched a brilliant career as a film producer that eventually spanned 60 years. He produced such popular hits as The Magnificent Seven, Some Like It Hot, and the Pink Panther films. As head of the Mirisch Company, he garnered three Academy Awards for best motion picture in the course of his career (The Apartment, West Side Story, and In the Heat of the Night). Mr. Mirisch was awarded the University's Honorary Doctorate in 1989. He recently published his autobiography with UW Press, I Thought We Were Making Movies, not History.

Mr. Mirisch has been a long-time friend and supporter of the of Communication Arts and UW-Madison. His gifts to Communication Arts made possible the creation of the Mirisch Seminar Room (3155 Vilas Hall), a state-of-the-art teaching and conference room (pictured below). He has also served for many years on the College of Letters & Science's Board of Visitors and has been active in alumni outreach on the west coast. The reception provided the Department of Communication Arts with an enjoyable opportunity to convey a message of thanks.

3155 Mirisch Seminar Room

Alumnus Glenn Silber Speaks in Advanced Documentary Class

Alumnus Glenn Silber Speaks in front of CA 651 Students Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Glenn Silber ('72) recently discussed his experiences, techniques, and approach to documentary filmmaking in Professor Bill Brown's Comm Arts 651: Advanced Video Production & Direction class. A professional producer and director in the fields of documentary and news magazine filmmaking for more than 30-years, Silber discussed his landmark film The War at Home (1979) about the 1960s anti-Vietnam War protests in Madison and his new film Labor Day (2009), about the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the 2008 presidential campaign.

Previously, Silber has been an independent and network television news magazine producer for CBS and ABC. While at CBS, he specialized in social issue investigations, producing the Emmy Award winning Children of the Homeless. At ABC News 20/20, Silber’s stories ranged from investigative pieces about terrorist movements in New Jersey before 9/11, to producing the first prime-time interview with an Abu Ghraib prison guard. Silber also co-produced the one-hour re-examination of the Matthew Shepard homicide for 20/20 which received a Writers Guild of America Award in 2005. His work has been nominated for two Academy Awards for The War at Home and El Salvador: Another Vietnam (1981) and he has won the George Polk Award for The Great American Bailout (1991) and the Alfred I. DuPont - Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

Since 2007, Silber has been a partner and co-founder of Catalyst Media Productions, a media production and consulting firm.

Professor Robert Howard and CA 610 Featured on Campus News

CA 610 Student Project Still 2 Associate Professor in Rhetoric Robert Glenn Howard and his Comm Arts 610: Folklore in a Digital Age course is featured in a news article on UW-Madison's campus news page in an article by Kiera Wiatrak titled "Restructured folklore class brings local culture to life".

The course, which is crosslisted with Folklore 560, allows students to customize their own course content for the semester by having them document cultural ethnography and folklore around the state of Wisconsin.

"The students were supposed to look at their own world, the lives they lead, and ask, 'Where is everyday performance of identity? Where is everyday communication doing something important and meaningful?'"

-- Associate Professor Robert Glenn Howard

Students conducted video and audio interviews and gathered images to create final digital projects that documented portions of local culture using the video/audio and image editing features of workstations in the Hamel Digital Media Lab.

"This class stuck out because it was something kind of new and different. I assumed it was essentially creating a mini documentary, which is kind of what's happening."

-- Communication Arts alumnus Emma Vasseur ('09)

Professor Louise Mares Featured in On Wisconsin

Department of Communication Arts Assistant Professor in Communication Science Louise Mares was featured in the Summer 2009 issue of On Wisconsin, UW-Madison's magazine for alumni and friends.

Mares discusses her research into "prosocial" television that is actually beneficial to children in an article titled "Tele[re]vision" by UW-Madison alumnus Jenny Price (’96).

"Children’s interpretations of what a show is about are very different from what an adult thinks. Some kids take away the completely wrong message."

On Wisconsin is the largest circulation alumni magazine in the U.S. and is a joint publication of the Wisconsin Alumni Association and University Communications.

Students & Staff Collaborate on WI Film Festival TV Spot

Department of Communication Arts students and staff recently collaborated to create the new TV spot for the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival (April 2 - 5).

The ad was a collaborative project between:

Comm Arts Faculty Associate Erik Gunneson
Comm Arts undergraduate student Cassie Wentlandt
Nate Theis of Madison-based Planet Propaganda
Madison musician Wendy Schneider

The spot created an invaluable real-world opportunity for a Comm Arts student to learn from professionals in the field of animation and apply skills learned in Comm Arts 609: 2D and 3D animation courses taught by Professor Sabine Gruaffat.

The commercial is currently running on cable television stations around Wisconsin via Charter Media.

Alumnus Joey Garfield Directs New Visa Advertisement

Joey Garfield (Comm Arts, '92) recently directed Visa's new advertisement "Flow" (2009) which has been released in Europe. The ad marks the second collaboration between Joey and artist Bill Shannon, a performer with a rare hip disability who relies on crutches to not only dance but to walk. In 2008, they worked together on RJD2's music video "Work It Out" featured on MTV. To date, "Work It Out" has received over 1 million views on YouTube, been nominated for an MTV Woodie award, and was one of Pitchfork Media's top 50 videos of 2007.

Previously, Joey directed the documentary Breath Control: The History of the Human Beatbox (2007), which continues to be shown at festivals around the world including the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, the Wisconsin Film Festival, and the CineVegas Film Festival. He has also directed the short film Ex Bully (2008) and the music videos "Restless" (2008) and "Beeper" (2008).

Currently, Joey directs for Ghost Robot, a New York based film, video game, commercial, and web production group founded in 2005 whose clients include Björk, Interscope, Sony, Sprite, EA Games, Mountain Dew, Maverick Jeans, Microsoft, The Disney Channel, and Scion.

Alumnus Lisa Heller Honored at 81st Academy Awards

At the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony on February 22, 2009, Director Megan Mylan won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject for her documentary Smile Pinki (2008). In her acceptance speech, she noted:

"Documentary, like all filmmaking, is a complete team sport, and I'd like to thank my editor Purcell Carson...and from HBO Sheila Nevins and Lisa Heller."

Lisa Heller at Sundance Film Festival 2008 Her remark resonated with many in the Department of Communication Arts because Lisa Heller graduated from UW-Madison in 1990 with a major in Communication Arts. Currently, Lisa is Vice President of Original Programming at Home Box Office. Her producing credits are numerous and regularly appear on various productions that air on HBO.

Prior to joining HBO, Lisa worked as executive producer on the critically acclaimed PBS series P.O.V. (1988), where she was responsible for all programming as well as broadcast-related initiatives to expand the role of independent documentaries in public life.

Congratulations to Lisa Heller for another accolade in her impressive career!

Alumnus Shawn VanCour Wins Outstanding Dissertation Award

The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) has named Comm Arts alumnus Shawn VanCour the recipient of the 19th annual Kenneth Harwood Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Established in 1955, the 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 enterprises. The Outstanding Dissertation Award is named for Kenneth Harwood, former president of the BEA and Professor of Communication at the University of Houston. The annual award recognizes the top national dissertation in broadcasting and electronic media.

Shawn is a 2008 Ph.D. in the Department of Communication Arts in the Media and Cultural Studies graduate program. The title of his dissertation is "The Sounds of 'Radio': A Cultural History of Radio's Aesthetic Definition as a Broadcast Medium for Aural Communications in 1920s America." At present, Shawn is a visiting assistant professor of cinema and media studies at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.

Congratulations, Shawn!

Alumnus Stuart Bass Wins Emmy

Stuart Bass Wins an Emmy Congratulations to Stuart Bass (Comm Arts, '78), an accomplished freelance film editor for his outstanding accomplishment in the field of television editing. Bass won a Primetime Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on September 21st, 2008. He was awarded for Outstanding Editing of a Comedy Series for the ABC comedy Pushing Daisies. In his acceptance speech, Stuart said:

"I would like to thank Professor David Bordwell for inspiring me to pursue a career in show biz"

Bass has been a member of American Cinema Editors since 1995 and has worked as a freelance editor in Hollywood for the last two decades. He works mostly with the major studios in Hollywood, and has also been Emmy nominated for editing in shows such as Arrested Development (2003), But...Seriously (1994), and The Wonder Years (1988).

Congratulations again to Stuart for his exceptional achievement!

Walter Mirisch Publishes Autobiography

Walter Mirisch's Autobiography Walter Mirisch's (History, '42) autobiography, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History, provides a unique insider's view of the film industry though the life and experiences of an industry giant whose name is synonymous with numberous film classics, including three that won the Acdemy Award for best picture -- The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), and In the Heat of the Night (1967). Other films include The Magnificent Seven, Fiddler on the Roof, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and The Pink Panther.

Mirisch's work has led to 87 Academy Award nominations and 28 Oscars. Illustrated with rare photographs from his personal collection, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History reveals his own experience of Hollywood in its golden days and tells the stories of the stars -- emerging and established -- who appeared in his films, including Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Sidney Poitier, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, and many others.

Mirisch has also received many of the film industry's highest honors. He served three terms as president of the Producers Guild of America and four terms as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Hollywood Badgers Featured in On Wisconsin

Fall 2008 On Wisconsin The Hollywood Badgers, a group founded in 2005 by Comm Arts alumni Lesley Feinstein (Comm Arts, '03) and Mary Rohlich (Comm Arts, '03), were featured in the Fall 2008 issue of On Wisconsin, UW-Madison's magazine for alumni and friends. The Hollywood Badgers encourage students and new graduates to find their footing in Hollywood by joining the group, pooling resumes, finding roommates, and making connections.

Read the article in On Wisconsin here.

On Wisconsin is the largest circulation alumni magazine in the U.S. and is a joint publication of the Wisconsin Alumni Association and University Communications.

Awards to Communication Arts Faculty

Congratulations to award-winning Communication Arts colleagues Susan Zaeske and Kelley Conway.

Dean Gary Sandefur has announced that Professor Susan Zaeske (pictured at right) was selected to receive a Hamel Family Faculty Fellowship. Ten such awards were made across the College of Letters and Science in a highly competitive review of nominees from all L&S departments. Fellowship winners will receive five years of funding to support research and career development. The award recognizes Professor Zaeske's outstanding career achievements in teaching, research, and service, and the high potential of her future research. The Hamel Family Faculty Fellowships were established through a generous gift to the College from George (BA '80) and Pamela Hamel.

Kelly Conway The Department is also proud to announce that Professor Kelley Conway (pictured at left) has won a 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award in an equally competitive review. Only 8-10 UW-Madison faculty are selected annually for this award from among the University's many outstanding teachers. The award recognizes Professor Conway's exceptional skills in the classroom as well her successful outreach initiatives. For example, Professor Conway has developed an innovative course to teach French cinema to UW students in residence in Paris, and she will be the Resident Director of the study-abroad program in Aix-en-Provence in 2008-09. Professor Conway joins Professors Steve Lucas, JJ Murphy, and Susan Zaeske among current Communication Arts faculty who have won the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Governor Dreyfus (1926-2008) and Communication Arts

Former Wisconsin governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus passed away on January 2 at age 81. He is well remembered by Wisconsinites as an enlightened political leader (he signed the state's 1982 gay rights legislation), a successful grassroots campaigner, and a flamboyant public figure sporting a distinctive red vest. Those of us in Communication Arts are proud to recall Governor Dreyfus's special connection to the Department and the University.

Governor Dreyfus Lee Dreyfus earned his BA ('49), MA ('52), and PhD ('57) degrees at UW in the Department of Speech, the earlier incarnation of what is now Communication Arts. After completing his studies he launched successful parallel careers in higher education and broadcasting, teaching at Wayne State University while working in public broadcasting. He combined those interests when he returned to the UW-Madison Speech Department as a Professor of Speech and Educational Television (1962-67). A popular and dynamic lecturer, Professor Lee Dreyfus taught in areas ranging from public speaking to television studies. He pioneered forms of distance education, including an intercontinental classroom exchange between the US and Europe using early satellite technology. He also served as general manager of WHA-TV and was an effective public advocate on behalf of educational television.

He left the Department to take over the leadership of UW-Stevens Point, and, as is well known, eventually launched his maverick political career, leading to the governorship. The Department is honored by its connection to one of Wisconsin's leading public citizens.

Professor Van Swol Wins Award for Publication

Professor Lyn Van Swol, who joined our faculty this fall, won the National Communication Association Group Communication Division's 2007 Dennis Gouran Research award for the best published paper in group research. She received her award at the past NCA meeting for her article "Differences between Minority, Majority, and Unanimous Group Members in the Communication of Information," published in Human Communication Research in 2006.

Department Thanks Pamela and George Hamel, Opens Hamel Family Digital Media Lab

Communication Arts faculty and staff gathered recently to welcome two very special guests, George (BA '80) and Pamela Hamel. At a September 28 reception hosted by Communication Arts, these generous supporters received the Department's collective thanks, and the event was capped off by the public introduction of the newly-completed Hamel Family Digital Media Lab.

George & Pamela Hamel Receive Gift George Hamel is a 1980 graduate of Communication Arts and he and Pamela have been active supporters of the University and the Communication Arts Department for several years. And there was much to celebrate at the reception. Through a 2005 gift from George and Pam Hamel, Communication Arts was able to establish its first named professorship. During the September 28 visit, the Hamels met for the first time Professor Sabine Gruffat, the Department's first Hamel Family Professor. The Hamels have also provided gifts to underwrite faculty research in Communication Arts and to provide stipends for Communication Arts student interns. While offering thanks to the Hamels on behalf of the College of Letters and Science, Dean Gary Sandefur also confirmed at the reception that their recent gift to L&S will establish the Hamel Family Faculty Fellowships.

George and Pam Hamel have a special interest in the Communication Arts teaching mission, and they took the initiative to fund implementation of the Hamel Family Digital Media Lab, a state-of-the-art instructional laboratory in Vilas Hall. With the support of Dean Sandefur and the College, construction and installation on the high-tech facility took place over summer 2007, and it was ready for service at the beginning of fall classes. The Hamels joined Communication Arts faculty and guests in visiting the new lab and learning about its impressive capabilities.

George & Pamela Hamel View the Lab The Hamel Lab allows the Department to offer new courses in such fields as computer animation and interactive media. The facility features sophisticated computer work stations where students can simultaneously learn about digital media practices and develop their own creative skills. High speed interconnections allow students to view each other's work and to cooperate on projects, part of an intimate and collaborative learning atmosphere sustained by the lab'scareful design.

George Hamel described his and Pamela's feelings for the occasion and their connection to the Communication Arts Department:

"It was a thrill for Pam and me to be there for the official opening of the new Digital Media Lab. Seeing students at work in the new lab, on state of the art computer equipment, instructed by Sabine Gruffat, was one of the most gratifying personal moments of our lives that either Pam or I can recall. Our personal goal is to continue to support the vision of the Comm Arts faculty and help in our small way to ensure that it remains one of the most highly respected communication arts departments of any college/university in the country."

For such support and good will, the Department confirms its deep appreciation.