January 5, 2006
Etc. Campus News & Notes
A GRAND FILM: A group of UW Tacoma students won the short-film contest sponsored by the city’s Grand Cinema right before the break, producing a five-minute film in just 72 hours with only a few actors, minimal sets and equipment, and a clunky required line of dialogue. The film, Technical Difficulties, won the team $150 and priceless exposure; it will be shown before regularly scheduled features at The Grand.
Junior Corky Coleman found out about the contest online and entered in late November. The Grand required every filmmaker to use a different prop (Coleman’s was a box of Milk Duds), include the line “I have a feeling someone’s deceiving us” and incorporate an image of a Tacoma bridge. Coleman and his team shot the film around UWT, featuring the train tracks, student center and Bridge of Glass.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if we did a movie about amateur filmmakers messing up their shots?” Coleman said. “The guy behind the camera doesn’t know how to use it, and he’s recording when he thinks the camera is off and turning it off when he thinks it’s recording.” The scenes in the film show the actors and director setting up for the shots. The screen goes black when the director says “action,” eliminating key action scenes. Because of adult language, the film will only be shown before R-rated movies.
Now that the film has won first prize at The Grand, Coleman hopes to polish the work and submit it to more film festivals.
To watch the film, go to http://grandcinema.com/filmcompetitionvideos.shtml
RESCUING BOATS: Washington Sea Grant Program’s Eric Olsson has become a hero to fishing boat skippers in waters affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In November, Olsson learned of the desperate need in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish for a mobile boat hoist to help repair and re-launch commercial fishing boats damaged by the hurricanes. He e-mailed members of the Pacific Coast Congress of Harbormasters, informing them of the situation. The City of Valdez, Alaska, responded by offering a recently surplused 60-ton Travelift®, valued at more than $200,000.
“Out of all the economic sectors affected by the hurricane, the commercial fishing community has been the hardest hit,” “says Olsson. “This lift will help put more than 3,000 commercial Gulf Coast fishing boats back in the water — and back in business.”
COVER GUY: First the UW had two chefs who made the cover of a food industry magazine; now Bob Spindel, director emeritus of the Applied Physics Lab, is a cover guy on the premier issue of Acoustics Today. Spindel, who also wrote an article for the magazine, which is a publication of the Acoustical Society of America, shares top billing with two researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
GRAMMY GREATS: When the Grammy Award nominees were announced recently, some UW names were on the list. Two albums featuring works by composer William Bolcom, 2003 winner of UW’s Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, were nominated — Bolcom: Songs and Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The former was nominated in the Best Classical Vocal Performance category and the latter in three categories, Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The School of Music also has a doctoral student, Ming Tsu, who is a member of Southwest Chamber Music, a group that performs on Chavez: Complete Chamber Music, Volume 3, which was nominated in two categories — Best Classical Album and Best Small Ensemble Performance.
HOOD CANAL HERO: Jan Newton, principal oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab, was one of three people given a Hood Canal Environmental Achievement Award, presented by the Hood Canal Coordinating Council to those who have contributed the most to preserving and protecting the Hood Canal ecosystem. Newton studied Hood Canal for 10 years before becoming the principal investigator for the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program. According to her citation, “her extensive research on the low-oxygen problem and her efforts to educate lawmakers, volunteers and many others has raised awareness about the growing dangers for sea life.”
TOP RESEARCHER: Professor of Oceanography Mike Gregg will receive the Henry Stommel Research Award from the Council of the American Meteorological Society in February. The award is for “outstanding comprehensive measurements of turbulence and mixing in many oceanic environments, and particularly for establishing a quantitative relationship between pelagic mixing rates and the energy of internal waves.”
EXCELLENCE IN ECONOMICS: Economics Professor Stephen Turnovsky was awarded an honorary doctorate by Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille, France. The citation states, in part, “Professor Turnovsky is considered a leading world specialist in the mathematical analysis of dynamic economics systems and models of growth in international economies”
