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Professor Hobbs on federal efforts to cut ads targeting kids — WHYY-FM

Food marketers are under mounting pressure to either change their advertising tactics aimed at kids, or the foods they promote to young people. Professor Renee Hobbs, BTMM/MMC of Temple’s Media Education Lab said she expects the Federal Trade Commission and health advocates to pressure companies such as McDonald’s and Kellogg’s to adopt the recommendations. At this point, they are voluntary. “The government wants them to not use Toucan Sam and all the other slick and compelling cartoon images that attract kids’ attention and try to sell them things,” she said.

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Faculty authors talk shop during Alumni Weekend

Two School of Communications and Theater faculty members offered insights into the creative writing process April 16 as part of Alumni Weekend 2011.

Assistant Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC, and Assistant Professor Lori Tharps, JOUR, stepped out of their normal roles in front of the classroom and offered a peek into their lives as writers through a discussion moderated by Tamala Edwards of 6ABC.

They spoke of character creation and working toward an editor’s definition of “reader friendly.”

The two authors differed most on their approach to research.

Tharps says she knew her characters well when she first conceptualized Substitute Me, but she needed several years to fully develop them and her storyline.

“I didn’t sit down with a blank piece of paper and say ‘Speak to me,’” she said.

The years of research benefitted her when she finally sat down to write the novel; it only took three weeks.

Feistman, on the other hand, researched background for his novel, The War Merchants, as he wrote it. He said he doesn’t work from an outline, but knows the ending and will let the story tell itself. When it comes time to ensure he’s writing about something accurately, “Google is a wonderful tool.”

The editing process can be a gut wrenching process for both Tharps and Feistman, whether done by themselves or someone else.

“A good writer has to be a good self-editor, which is hard,” Feistman said. “If I don’t throw up [when editing], then it stays in.”

Tharps said her cousin’s criticism of a later draft was the hardest to swallow during her editing process. “She thought the main character was boring. It took a long time to care about her. That broke my heart.”

SCT’s Alumni Weekend events continued with a lunch in Annenberg Hall’s Joe First Media Center and a performance of Temple Theaters’ A View From the Bridge.

The authors share a laugh with the audience.
Assistant Professor Lori Tharps and 6ABC reporter Tamala Edwards.
Assistant Professor Lori Tharps
Lori Tharps and Gregg Feistman sign books for their new fans.
Alumni gather in the Joe First Media Center for lunch during Alumni Weekend 2011.
Several alumni take the opportunity to tour the new TUTV facility during the SCT lunch.

photos by Hillary Petrozziello/Aperture Agency

Virtual exhibit gives a new look to Brooklyn

Associate Professor Sarah Drury, FMA, is one of several artists who have augmented the reality of Brooklyn through a smartphone exhibit called “Decollage: Torn Exteriors.” She is also the curator.

According to the organizers: “Augmented reality using the smartphone allows the participant to visualize digital images ‘collaged’ over the present location, as seen through the phone’s camera. Although this superimposition of visual information onto the landscape is an additive process, ‘Decollage: Torn Exteriors’ implies a tearing away of existing surfaces.”

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Theater faculty help define dramaturgy — Philadelphia Inquirer

One of the most misunderstood roles in theater, Inquirer Theater Critic Howard Shapiro tries to get a grasp on a dramaturg’s role in a production. He asked Assistant Professors Ed Sobel and Peter Reynolds to help.

“Probably if you asked 50 different dramaturgs, you’d get 50 different answers,” Sobel says. “Because the role can be so undefined, it allows a lot of latitude for doing it well and a lot of latitude for doing it badly.”

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Assistant Professor Miller creates music magazine — WHYY Newsworks

Assistant Professor George Miller, JOUR, produces a new local music magazine, Jump, out of his own laptop and those of his network of volunteers, students and interns. With low overhead costs and no ambition to get rich, the former photojournalist is committed to creating a print magazine. “We’re a big, glossy magazine — you can rip these pages out and hang them on your walls,” said Miller. The first issue will hit the streets March 11.

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Assistant Professor Morrow explains ‘the romance of film editing’

Assistant Professor Dustin Morrow, BTMM, explained how film editors manipulate time in an episode of “Academic Minute,” a new feature produced by Northeast Public Radio. “The incredible beauty of an editor’s work with time is his/her privilege to cut out life’s boring bits — inherently, this is one of the things that make movies so entertaining. For example, you may wish that instead of enduring your morning commute, the space around you could just dissolve from home to work. That works in the movies, but not in real life,” he said.

Click here to listen to his interview.

Assistant Professor Morrow explains ‘the romance of film editing’

Assistant Professor Dustin Morrow, BTMM, explained how film editors manipulate time in an episode of “Academic Minute,” a new feature produced by Northeast Public Radio. “The incredible beauty of an editor’s work with time is his/her privilege to cut out life’s boring bits — inherently, this is one of the things that make movies so entertaining. For example, you may wish that instead of enduring your morning commute, the space around you could just dissolve from home to work. That works in the movies, but not in real life,” he said.

Click here to listen to his interview.

FMA professor’s new film to screen in Arizona

Canyonlands, a new film by Associate Professor Roderick Coover, FMA, MMC, will be featured at the University of Arizona symposium, Hidden Cinema of the Southwest and Mexico on Feb. 25, and at the Bisbee Central School Project on Feb. 27. The film examines environmental issues the American West and the legacy of provocative writer Edward Abbey.

Associate Professor Erickson’s documentary featured on CNN

Associate Professor LeAnn Erickson, FMA, was in the midst of another project when she learned of a group of women who worked as military “computers” during World War II to perform ballistics research. Based at the University of Pennsylvania, dozens of women would figure out things like weapon trajectory. Some went on to help program the earliest mechanical computer. Her research became Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II.

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