Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Center for Animation Wins 2 'Student Emmys' for DreamGiver

By Leah Hill

The new BYU animated short DreamGiver, about the origin of dreams and nightmares, recently won two student Emmys at the College Television Awards, and opened up doors for collaboration, networking and recognition for more than 140 students from four academic departments.

The idea for the 6-minute film, which seamlessly incorporates computer animation and traditional animation, came to Tyler Carter, a senior animation major who directed the short, when he and his wife were eating at a local fast-food restaurant.

“I thought it would be cool to explain where dreams come from,” said Carter, who often sleep talks and sleep walks. “I wanted the story to be about where dreams and nightmares come from and how to stop a nightmare. I started telling it to my wife and drawing it on a napkin.”

The drawing on the napkin evolved into a two-year project involving students in the Departments of Visual Arts, School of Music, Computer Science, and Theater and Media Arts.

“They had a passion for making this film a really good film,” said Cynthia Hogan, the animation faculty member who oversaw 2D animation on the project. “In fact, the film has been viewed by several professionals and even they have commented that ‘Dreamgiver’ is better than a student film.”

DreamGiver won awards for animation and best music composition from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. The awards mark the 11th student Emmy for the BYU Center for Animation in the past eight years—a prestigious accomplishment for an undergraduate program. To date, DreamGiver has been accepted into 20 film festivals, with five of those festivals bestowing top professional awards to the film.

“Animation is a very collaborative art form,” Hogan said. “It allows writers and artists and musicians and to come together and create a world that doesn’t exist. It makes it so they can do amazing things from their imaginations that otherwise we would never be able to see in the real world.”

Carter wrote and directed the film and recent graduate Lance Montgomery composed the music, recorded by 100 BYU Philharmonic students.

After interning with Disney and Pixar in 2009, Carter gained more than just experience for his resume, but a vision to direct a BYU animated short. He wrote, storyboarded, produced, raised funds, pitched the idea to faculty and gathered a creative team.

“I have wanted to make a movie since I was very young,” Carter said. “My internship showed me that I could. I came back fired up, feeling proactive and tenacious about things.”

Using his professional studio experience as a model, Carter chose about 40 students to work on the film. Each student had a specialized role in production, putting in at least 20 hours a week for about eight months.

Aaron Ludwig, a senior animation major who managed the 2D production team, said working on the project with weekly deadlines and goals felt like experiencing a real studio.

“It was really good to get familiar with the pipeline and the work flow on an actual film, but also getting used to animating faster and getting to the point faster with my own work,” Ludwig said. “We would only have a week on a certain shot, and I would have to start from scratch. That was really invaluable experience.”

Carter raised $3,000 for the film through community fundraisers, grants and illustration competitions. He had Pixar professionals mentor students in lighting and animation.

“That was just a tremendous blessing that I didn’t even expect,” said Ludwig.

Since there was no dialogue in the film, the music assisted in telling the story.

Montgomery, a composer of various professional and student films including a full-length documentary, said DreamGiver was his most challenging project and the pinnacle of his portfolio.

“It was intense,” Montgomery said. “The music had to constantly be evolving with the plot and the changes that happen every couple seconds. So the music had to end up being very complex. [BYU Philharmonic] did a really great job. It’s my best portfolio piece, and it’s already getting me a lot of recognition, so it’s exciting.”

Montgomery isn’t the only student getting recognition for his work.

When pitching the idea of working on the film to students, Carter promised if they did their part he would send their name out to connections he had in the industry.

“He is really doing that—sending it out to art directors, and directors out in Pixar and getting feedback,” Ludwig said. “I am really excited to know that my work is going out there, and I just feel like the film was in good hands from the start. I am really excited about it going to these festivals.”

Ludwig said DreamGiver differed from other student films because students were not required to work on the project.

“This was something extra that people didn’t have to sign up for, but they did because they wanted to make a cool movie and have a good portfolio piece,” Ludwig said.

Carter also held students accountable. He was strict on deadlines, and even fired people if they weren’t pulling their weight. But the crew wasn’t all work. They held BBQs together and attended two movie premieres.

“Working on this film wasn't just about making a movie,” Carter said. "It was learning to collaborate to create something special.”

Some of the animation students that worked on the film have graduated. Many of them have jobs with big studios like DreamWorks, Pixar, Blue Skies and Disney.

“It’s great that the BYU animation program is like being in a real studio,” Carter said. “You hit the ground running and start working right away.”