In a thrilling ride of creativity, BYU animation students blend humor and storytelling in an animated film that won a Student Academy Award.
A short film created by BYU animation students was recently recognized as a Student Academy Award bronze winner at an event held in London. BYU was the only U.S. university to receive the recognition in the animation category.
The film, “Student Accomplice,” depicts a nervous teenage girl taking her driving test with an old, placid driving instructor. The test goes awry when a bank robber hijacks the car to elude the police.
Viewers enjoy the ride-along view inside the car as the flustered robber urges the girl to leave the police behind while the perplexed instructor looks on. Directed by BYU animation student Spencer Baird and produced by Brielle Hansen, the film is full of sharp twists of laughter and suspense.
“We had lots of opportunities to be creative with ‘Student Accomplice,’ which was fun for us,” Baird said. “There’s a lot of hilarity and complexity layered in. It’s fast-paced in a very delightful way.”
The award is another recognition for BYU’s highly decorated animation program. Earlier this year, the student film “The Witch’s Cat” won a Student Emmy.
But bringing “Student Accomplice” to life presented a bigger challenge than any previous film. Animating an entire city was a heavy lift, and students were forced to design a large set and pay particular attention to details in the backgrounds of the various scenes.
“To make a city look full and lived in, we couldn’t get away without background characters and filling the city with lots of interesting things and background cars,” Hansen said. “All of those details, like trash on the sidewalk and leaves flying through the air, made it feel realistic.”
More than 30 students contributed to the film — skills from animation, design, commercial music and computer science played crucial roles to bring more than 7,000 individual images together in a cohesive animation.
“Everything from the design of things, the lighting and texture and the effects that are in the film comes together in a beautiful way that’s pushed boundaries for what our student films have done,” said BYU animation professor Nathan Lindsay. “I think it catches the eye of the industry because we’re doing things that take a big team to accomplish, and it’s not normal for students to pull off something of this caliber.”
Hansen says the recognition BYU animation students and graduates receive in the filmmaking industry is a reflection on the values of the university and the environment in which they study, where faith and inquiry are complementary.
“There were a lot of faith-filled actions that we took, like not working on Sunday and having prayer before our meetings,” she said. “It was small and simple things that we did together over a year and a half. We had so much fun, and it was so special.”
Baird says he’s grateful for the expert animation faculty at BYU such as Lindsay and Kelly Loosli, who are widely recognized industry professionals, for giving them hands-on opportunities to take the lead on projects.
“I think that says a lot about the faculty. They trust us and they trust in the process. They trust us as students and our work ethic to bring our talents to the table.”
