On June 23, in Columbus, OH, Professor Eric Anderson, of the RWC Department of Electronic Media, earned his third regional Emmy Award. Anderson is also Assistant Director of the RWC eMedia Program.This year’s Emmy was in the Editing: Program category, for a project that he filmed and then edited. It was a documentary called “PassionWorks: A Story of Flying,” which follows people with physical and mental disabilities as they learn about the arts in a studio in Athens, Ohio.
The show was picked up and distributed nationally through PBS. Says Anderson of the film, “It follows the artists as they learn to express themselves through art and how their work is being celebrated by the community.”
He collaborated with Blis Hanousek-DeVault, who produced the documentary and also gained an Emmy when the overall show won in the Documentary category.
“It was great,” Anderson said of the achievement. “I spent over three years shooting and editing this show and I’m honored that the judges recognized all of the hard work. I hope that it helps bring recognition to the PassionWorks studio and they inspire others with disabilities to express themselves in any way they can.”
He also added that the regional Emmy awards “is a very nice ceremony and it was fun to rent a tuxedo and head up to Columbus for the awards. Everyone was very excited for me and the Electronic Media Department made sure to let everyone know about it, which was very nice of them.”
But Eric Anderson isn’t just focusing on his own career. He’s here at RWC to help eMedia students achieve their goals as well. When asked if he expects more regional Emmy nominations to come, he replied, “I hope so, but my current focus is on helping students create their own television shows. I hope to use my insight and experience to get the best possible work out of all of the students in my Broadcast Television classes. I get to do some independent work occasionally, but I don’t have any immediate plans to start something as large as a documentary right now.”
Anderson has been on the RWC staff since 2005. He has developed the Broadcast Media certificate program and created several new video classes, including News and Documentary Production and Advanced Post Production.
Anderson’s first two regional Emmies were for the Children’s Programming category: a series in 2004 called “Hey.What’s That?” and again in 2005 for another children’s series called “Share a Story.” He has also won the Ohio Associated Press’ Ohio’s Best Photographer Award four years in a row, from 1998 to 2001.