Zully Sosa, executive editor

In early March, nominations for the 2022 Upper Midwest Emmy Student Production Awards, an awards program dedicated to amateur filmmakers studying media and journalism for outstanding media production, were announced and included five Augsburg students. 

Senior Nancy Yang’s film “Ee” has been nominated in the “Animations/Graphics/Special Effects” category this year. “Ee” is a short documentary that Yang animated and based on their own personal story, describing it as the moments between the relationship of a father and daughter and the impact the father leaves behind. Impressively, this is the first animation project that Yang has completed and even considered doing. As the short was acting as an assignment for a film class, Yang had a different story concept in mind but had to adapt to their busy schedule. 

“At the time of the making of the short ‘Ee,’ I was really focus on what i could [sic] do to complete the film project as time management played a huge factor.” Yang shared. “In this case, animation best fitted my schedule, even though I had no idea how to make one and was literally learning through out the process.”  It seems that animation has become a new passion of Yang, as Yang hopes to fit it into their future. “My end goal is to hopefully work on a project for one of the biggest animation productions such as Disney, Universal, Pixar and more. And I really want to portray an experience that only animation could provide and bring in a more mature and more grown themes that will inform people that animation is a medium and not a genre.” 

“The Grind” is a visually abstract film that captures the burnout experienced by college students during the pandemic, written by senior Corrine Werckman and directed by fellow senior Kobe Markworth. Though the burnout it represents is very real, the title is nominated for the “Fiction: Short Form” category, as it features a faceless protagonist to make it applicable to every member of the audience. 

Markworth found inspiration for this short from visual subjectivity he’s seen from other directors, “Edgar Wright films do this a lot, or Dexter Fletcher’s ‘Rocketman’ is also a good example, where the film shows you what the character is feeling rather than reality,” said Markworth. “Almost like the world is built around the character instead of a character built in the world.” In their short, “The Grind,” a large screen showing faceless mouths speaking to the protagonist alone in a dark room is meant to represent the lack of meaning and personal connection of Zoom classes. “This isn’t a literal interpretation of online education,” explained Markworth, “but it captures how disconnected the experience is. Here in this piece we combine that concept with the experience felt by millions of students across the world.” 

Werckman felt their filmmaking journey was especially impacted by the pandemic, stating that “A lot of my directing and producing experience got robbed by the pandemic. I’m really proud of The Grind though and working with Kobe and Jenny [Hanson] this year has made me feel caught up in a sense.” Both students have their options open after graduation. Werckman is currently directing, writing and producing a new short titled “God Save The Youth” for a senior keystone class. 

Also nominated in their respective category is Yani Foreman, who produced and directed an Augsburg centric profile on Za’Nia Coleman for “Non-Fiction: Short Form,” before graduating in 2020. As the awards program was not held during 2020, productions from January 2020 to December 2021 were eligible for nomination. Finnr Elsmo has had their coverage of the Augsburg Mens soccer playoffs against Macalester nominated in the “Sports Program ” category. You can find Elsmo’s work on the Augsburg Soccer’s instagram page @augsburgsoccer and read a previous interview with the student director from this year on the Echo website. 

The Crystal Pillars will be awarded at a ceremony on April 1, which will be streamed online on the Upper Midwest Emmy YouTube channel and The Emmy App. Good luck, Auggies!