UT Headlines

A neat piece in Toledo Filmmakers Magazine (and my thanks to DW for the assist bringing this to my attention):

Dyrk Ashton on the Art of Screenwriting

As someone who teaches beginning and intermediate screenwriters, the subject of coming up with an idea, telling a story properly and even what to do with a finished screenplay is something that Ashton deals with frequently.

Something that he stresses with all film students, and not just aspiring screenwriters, is to get a handle on the basics of film. He believes that the more somebody knows about all aspects of the process, the better finished product they can create. “The more you know about film, the better screenwriter you’re going to be,” he said. “How they’re (films) put together, how stories are told. What is narrative; different kinds of narrative, and how to get ideas.”

The screenwriter has to understand that not only he or she is writing their own personal epic, but that the script is going to serve as the blueprint for the entire film. “When you’re a screenwriter, it’s like being an architect,” Ashton said. “That piece of paper itself has to represent something else. In the case of screenwriting, it has to represent video and audio images on the screen. It just can’t be there for the niceness of words themselves. It has to translate into something else.”

Ashton not only sees what screenwriters should do, but what they shouldn’t do as well. A common problem with beginning film students is that many consider themselves to be an auteur from the outset, and that they control every part of the film. “The two biggest hurdles right off the bat in teaching screenwriting– the students have to get over is that [they] write their own camera angles, shots, cuts and music and everything else in their screenplay because you don’t. Professional screenwriters do not write that way,” he said. “If you read screenplays online, and you can find screenplays anywhere, if they have that stuff in there they’re written by the director.”

UT New Media Mastermind Chris Ankney who took today off but still seems to be working (Chris, that’s unhealthy) points out to me today that while I noticed the Columbus Dispatch, Channel 24 and the Blade have picked up news of UT’s newly approved School of Solar and Advanced Renewable Energy, the real action is on Twitter.

Chris e-mails:

The twitters are a buzz with news of our solar school:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=university+of+toledo

While pieces of literature they are not, they do increase the University’s efforts to associate UT with solar energy in the minds of “those” who form the national consciousness.

Update: Chris Ankney, back at work today after working yesterday on his day off, was quick to criticize my post referencing Twitter because it didn’t include the link to UT’s Twitter page – http://twitter.com/utoledo.

Always a pleasure to talk with Chris.

Two stories this weekend provide examples of UT moving forward with alternative and renewable energy education and addressing the issue in a comprehensive way.

First, on Friday, Provost Rosemary Haggett spoke with Channel 24 about the upcoming vote by the Board of Trustees to create a School of Solar and Advanced Renewable Energy. As of late Monday morning, the Board has voted to approve the school.

So with the teaching and curriculum now beginning its development, UT is also helping students succeed as they pursue scientific degrees. On Saturday, the Blade published a story discussing a new $1.5 million grant by the Choose Ohio First Scholarship Program – matched by UT, BGSU and Terra, Owens and Northwest State Community Colleges – that will go toward creating a minor in renewable energy to help augment degrees in engineering, biology, environmental sciences and any number of additional degrees that will help students better pursue jobs and graduate education in the fields of alternative energy.

Dr. Geoffrey Martin, Dr. Tom Kvale, Dr. Daryl Moorhead and Charlene Gilbert will all play leadership roles in the administration of the program.

UT has been developing this knowledge for decades but it is now, in a systematic way, preparing for the teaching of this knowledge and putting in place programs to help ensure students interested in these fields are successful.

I enjoy absolutes. They tend to be crisp and clean and easy to articulate. Society likes absolutes. Our best stories represent obvious good triumphing over obvious evil.

I noticed a letter to the editor in today’s Blade (you’ll need to scroll down) from a student at BGSU about absolutes. She raised two; one involving this situation at BGSU last month about whether the First Amendment should be an absolute right; and another about whether BG is a business or an institution of higher learning.

I read the letter and immediately felt uncomfortable with the easy and obvious decision I was presented with. Are universities institutions of higher education (good) or businesses (evil). It’s an excellent framing of the question. But higher education earned at The University of Toledo in both the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and, currently, Business Administration, make me wonder where everyone keeps finding these easy and obvious questions.

“Universities. Higher Education or Businesses? We’ll explore both sides of the issue because there are, after all, only two tonight on Angry Cable News Talk Show.” It, like most false debates on cable news, is unworthy of the complexity between educational institutions and the financial support they need to do their work.

For years, the state government and higher education held to absolutes during this debate. State government officials said higher education was out of touch with reality; higher education said state government didn’t understand that education wasn’t something to be ashamed of. And while everyone had the satisfaction of knowing their arguments were clear, pure and obvious, higher education funding was cut yearly, tuition went up yearly and the ability of students to enter higher education plummeted.

Absolutes certainly have their place – civil rights, for example. But universities are the places where people learn about the complexities of the world, how to navigate those complexities and how to advance society by embracing complexity. Universities provide students with the knowledge to color in a black and white world. Colors? So Lame!

From Sunday’s Blade…

Speaking of food
UT series brings consumers, experts to the table to talk about what we eat

Food has a way of bringing together people from all walks of life.

The University of Toledo Women and Sustainable Agriculture Series is no different: the programs are bringing students, faculty, Toledo residents and consumers, food celebrities, and food activists to the same table.

The series recently featured a keynote address by world-renown food expert Marion Nestle and a sustainable dinner with the help of Toledo’s Slow Food, using produce from the Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio. Upcoming events will feature global and organic food presentations.

Best of all, a campus garden is being planned.

When Ms. Nestle spoke at the University of Toledo Women and Sustainable Agriculture Series last month, a dinner was held at the home of Paula Ross and her husband, John Ross. Mrs. Ross, who is the founder of Slow Food Maumee Valley, enlisted the culinary expertise of Slow Food member Amelia Contreras of Egg and Honey cooking services.

Mrs. Ross purchased fresh produce from Lee Jones of the Chef’s Garden for the dinner for 30 guests, including Ms. Nestle.

“This event is bringing people together who have the same interest,” said Ashley Pryor that night. She is UT associate professor of women’s and gender studies, and organized the series with assistant professor of environmental sciences Ann E. Krause and Stacy M. Philpott, assistant professor of environmental sciences with a $16,000 Strategic Enhancement Award.

Also, coverage of the UT College of Business Administration Pacemaker Awards on Channel 13…

UT College of Law Professor Joe Slater discussed yesterday on Channel 11 the advantages and disadvantages employees can face by attempting to unionize.

Though the issue has left the front pages and broadcasts this past week following Sen. Arlen Specter (a person counted on for a needed 60 Senate votes to invoke cloture) coming out against the bill, the Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) will likely remain a hot political and labor topic for some time to come.