Sapient Steven Spielberg (center) receives the
Stanley Kubrick award in excellence at the 10th annual Britannia
Bafta L.A. awards on Nov. 4.
By Jacqueline Maar
Daily Bruin Contributor
In 1977, “Star Wars” opened to audiences across the
country, awing them with special effects and new technology.
Over 20 years later, new innovations in digital technology are
further expanding the bounds of the filmmaker’s imagination,
making dinosaurs come to life, aliens land on earth and humans defy
the laws of nature.
On Nov. 4, the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television was
selected as a recipient for the Digital Media Scholarship Program
at the 10th annual Britannia awards show presented by the British
Academy of Film and Television Arts, Los Angeles.
The scholarship, presented by Sapient, an e-business consultancy
company, will be awarded to students in the School of Theater, Film
and Television who incorporate digital media technology into their
work.
“Sapient set these scholarships up to provide direct
financial support to students working on their projects, to enable
them to use digital tools and technologies to complete their
animation, fiction film, documentary or whatever it may be,”
said Charles S. Swartz, Director of Integrated Strategy at
Sapient.
The schools, selected for being the four leading schools in the
arts, are the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, USC
School of Cinema-Television, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the
Royal College of Art in London.
Sapient Stuart Moore, co-chairman and co-CEO of
the Sapient Corporation announces the establishment of Sapient’s
Digital Media Scholarships.
Starting in Spring 2001, a committee comprised of faculty at
each of the four schools will select from among the eligible
applicants to choose a recipient of the scholarship.
“Students will fill out an application for this particular
award and submit some examples of their creative work that uses
digital tools, and then the faculty will read applications, view
work and vote for the recipient,” said William McDonald, vice
chair of production at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television.
Open to undergraduate and graduate students, the $5,000
scholarship will be awarded to either one or two students at each
of the four schools selected for the scholarship.
“We want to be sure that a substantial amount of funds go
to help any given project, and don’t get diffused between
many, many projects where it wouldn’t be as much help to film
students,” Swartz said.
With digital media technology already being used in the film
industry, the scholarship helps to aid students working with the
new technology in their work.
Founded in 1991, Sapient provides Internet strategy consulting
and solutions to help support digital businesses. According to
Swartz, Sapient is focused on the way digital technology is
transforming the world of business and society.
“We believe that digital technology is going to have the
same kind of enormous effect on the entertainment industry as it
has already started to have on the Internet and online
business,” Swartz said.
He also said that Sapient’s purpose in creating this
scholarship for young filmmakers is to aid in developing new
technology in filmmaking. The scholarship aims to help realize the
creative imagination of filmmakers and open up new ways of
achieving their ideas.
“Digital technology is not a substitute for the creative
process, it’s just another set of tools, very good tools for
producing and distributing content,” Swartz said. “But
it doesn’t replace the basic creative vision that you need to
have to be a visual storyteller, it just enables that
vision.”
By fostering the imagination, scholarships like the Digital
Media Scholarship encourage innovations in digital media in film
and television.
“Overall, we are just grateful to the Sapient Corporation
for this award, acknowledging the tremendous work that is being
done in the digital media area,” McDonald said.
SCHOLARSHIP: For more information on the Sapient Digital Media
Scholarship Program, contact the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television.