Wright State motion pictures alumni win regional Emmy award

Amy Faust, a 2010 motion pictures grad and instructor in Wright State’s Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures, is the cinematographer on the award-winning short film “Photography.”

Adam White and Amy Faust, both graduates of Wright State University’s motion pictures program, received a Regional Emmy in the Entertainment – Short Form or Long Form category from the Central Great Lakes Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

White, a 1995 graduate, directed “Photography” and co-wrote the script with his wife, Kara White. Amy Faust, a 2010 graduate, served as cinematographer for the short film.

“Photography” was produced through an annual workforce development workshop at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.

“It’s an eight-week course, and each week is taught by a different professional in the film industry. Amy was part of camera. Somebody would do sound, art department and so on,” Adam White said. “At the end of the workshop, the instructors — who are professional freelancers — are the department heads for a three-day movie shoot. The rest of the crew is filled out by the students.”

White’s script for “Photography” was selected for the workshop, and he was asked to direct the 13-minute film.

Set against the backdrop of 1964 Manhattan, the film is loosely based on famed LIFE magazine photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

“It’s a story of someone who’s worked her whole life building a career, and can she recognize when it’s time to put the ladder down for other people,” said White. “The storyline of ‘Photography’ comes from a very relevant place in my own life, as to when do you stop pushing for yourself and expend some energy to help others find their dream as well.”

For Faust, the evolution of the relationship between the two main female characters sends a powerful message.

“Hopefully it will inspire mentorship in others,” she said. “That piece of lending a hand to someone else is an important statement in the world today. Anytime that you can see two people connecting and bonding, it’s a universal message. Part of it is just the joy of watching two people connect over something that they both love.”

1995 Wright State graduate Adam White directed and co-wrote “Photography,” which won a Regional Emmy.

The response to “Photography” has been overwhelmingly positive. The film has received three Paris Film Awards, including the Gold Award for Short Film, the Gold Award for Cinematography for Faust and Best Director for White. In the Best Shorts Competition, “Photography” was recognized for Outstanding Achievement – Short Film, and it received three Awards of Excellence for Direction, Script and Cinematography.

The Emmy award for “Photography” is not White’s first. He previously received Emmys for his PBS films “Space Chase USA,” “The Restorers” and “Red Tail Reborn,” as well as for Best Cinematography on “Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.”

It is, however, his first Emmy for directing a narrative film and the first Emmy for the Cuyahoga Community College program.

“Photography” is not the first project on which White and Faust have collaborated.

“Part of the motion pictures program’s legacy is bringing our alumni back to teach the next generation. I met Adam when I was a student at Wright State, and then we crossed paths early in my career doing independent film,” said Faust. “We’ve traveled the world together. He’s one of my best friends and one of my most loyal clients as well.”

Today, Faust is training the filmmakers of tomorrow as an instructor in Wright State’s Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures.

“It really is an honor, because Wright State made me who I am,” said Faust. “Watching the professors as actual working professionals was a big deal for me.”

Faust landed her first job in the industry as a student, working on “A Lion in the House,” a documentary by the late professor Julia Reichert and alumnus Steve Bognar.

“I was attracted to the practicality of the program,” said Faust. “There were workshops with people from the industry and an alumni network where somebody would be calling Wright State and saying, ‘I need a bunch of students.’”

Both Faust and White appreciated the program’s dedication to teaching film theory as well as real-world production skills.

“To have a good balance between practical and theory is really rare. I kind of had a vague sense of it at the time when I was there, but certainly after I left, it became very crystal clear the education that I got from there,” said White.

While White and Faust have worked on big-budget, blockbuster films, they both prefer working independently and supporting filmmaking in their home state of Ohio.

White formed his own company, Hemlock Films, in 1999. He is based in Twinsburg, Ohio, near Cleveland. Along with hiring Wright State motion pictures graduates as crew over the years, he has also tapped into the pool of theatre alumni for talent.

“I don’t even have to think about if they are accomplished or not,” he said. “If they graduated from the acting program at Wright State, they already went to the front of the list.”

White is currently at work on a documentary about the NASA Glenn Research Center, while also raising money for a future PBS documentary about NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.

As “Photography” wraps up its run of film festivals, White expects the film to be available for online viewing soon.

Faust recently worked on a short film with fellow Wright State faculty member Selena Burks-Rentschler and has another short film in post-production.

In October, she will receive the Emerging Cinematographer Award from the International Cinematographers Guild for her work on “Photography.”

“That award is coming up as well for this film,” said Faust, “so that’s exciting.”

See the film

“Photography” will be screened at the Cindependent Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 5 p.m. in the Mariemont Theatre near Cincinnati.