Tackling the future, documenting the past
Soon-to-graduate journalism student ready for job market after delving into history
Even if the last newspaper in the country folds, soon-to-be University of Oregon journalism graduate John Rosman is ready to tackle the job market.
“The j-school’s been great to me. I can shoot, edit, and light video professionally. I am confident in grammar and writing, both of which are fundamental skills in any career,” says Rosman, a senior from Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
He first heard about the UO School of Journalism and Communication from a family friend.
Rosman and recent UO grad Eric Rutledge recently split a $1,000 scholarship as part of the 2009 Undergraduate Research Awards sponsored by the UO Libraries. The young filmmakers were among six University of Oregon students honored in the annual competitive program, which recognizes students who produce outstanding original research and scholarship using resources available through the UO Libraries. Each award carries a $1,000 scholarship.
Rosman and Rutledge were honored for their collaboration on a film project last year in a class taught by Jon Palfreman, KEZI Distinguished Professor of Broadcast Journalism. The pair shot, edited, and produced Reinventing Ed’s Coed, a ten-minute film documenting the effort to revive, or reinvent, Ed’s Coed, the first full-length, student-produced film in the United States, made in 1928 by then University of Oregon students James Raley and Carvel Nelson.
Reinventing Ed’s Coed, which aired last year on Oregon Public Broadcasting, combines footage of the original 1928 silent film with interviews of university filmmakers and historians. It also features Duncan McDonald, former UO School of Journalism and Communication dean, and UO alumnus Bryce Zabel, who are trying to make a feature-length film that tells the behind-the-scenes story of the motion picture created eighty years ago.
(In this forty-second clip, former journalism dean Duncan McDonald discusses Ed’s Coed with former university archivist Keith Richard. Story continues below.)
So, in a sense it’s a film within a film within a film. It’s a concept Rosman has embraced. He’s currently in discussions with a producer about documenting the making of another movie.
“I really want to see firsthand what goes into it,” Rosman says. “I’ve thought about moving on to film school. That’s just one direction I could go.”
Watch the rest of Reinventing Ed’s Coed by clicking here.