Baylor University Film & Digital Media Major Wins Student Film Festival Award

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WACO, Texas (Oct. 30, 2017) —The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) recently announced "Baylor VirtuOso Documentary Short on Use of Technology in VR Music Video" as one of the selections for the 2017 SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival.

Gustavo Raskosky, a Baylor senior film and digital media major from Houston, wrote the documentary with the help of graduate fellow Marcos Luna Hoyas and a team of Baylor students.

Raskosky’s documentary follows Baylor’s a cappella group, VirtuOso, as they worked to create a virtual reality music video. VirtuOso produced a rendition of Adele’s “Water Under the Bridge.” The film covers the challenges that the group faced throughout production, including the technological problems and solutions.

The film, also the recipient of an award in the category “Documentary Short With Technology as the Subject Matter,” was screened Monday, Oct. 23, at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on Level 3 of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California.

SMPTE and the HPA received 119 submissions from more than 30 countries and of these, the official jurors selected 17 student-produced films to screen. This year’s jurors featured a diverse group of accomplished professionals from around the world, among them Elisa Bonora, editor and producer of multiple Emmy-nominated documentaries; Tim Heindl, senior vice president of research at Sony Pictures; and Katie Hinsen, a digital intermediate artist and founder of the Blue Collar Post Collective.

To learn more about Baylor film and digital media, visit the Film and Digital Media website.
by Brooke Battersby , student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.
ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD PROFESSIONAL ASSOCATION
Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) serves the professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools, and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television, commercials, digital media, and other dynamic media content. Through its partnership with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), the leader in the advancement of the art, science, and craft of the image, sound, and metadata ecosystem, the HPA continues to extend its support of the community it represents. Information about the HPA is available at www.hpaonline.com.
ABOUT SMPTE
For more than a century, the people of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®, pronounced "simp-tee") have sorted out the details of many significant advances in media and entertainment technology, from the introduction of "talkies" and color television to HD and UHD (4K, 8K) TV. Since its founding in 1916, SMPTE has received an Oscar® and multiple Emmy® Awards for its work in advancing moving-imagery engineering across the industry. SMPTE has developed thousands of standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines, more than 800 of which are currently in force today. SMPTE Time Code™ and the ubiquitous SMPTE Color Bars™ are just two examples of SMPTE's notable work. As it enters its second century, SMPTE is shaping the next generation of standards and providing education for the industry to ensure interoperability as the industry evolves further into IT- and IP-based workflows.
SMPTE's global membership today includes more than 7,000 members: motion-imaging executives, creatives, technologists, researchers, and students who volunteer their time and expertise to SMPTE's standards development and educational initiatives. A partnership with the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) connects SMPTE and its membership with the businesses and individuals who support the creation and finishing of media content. Information on joining SMPTE is available at www.smpte.org/join.