‘Seinfeld’ Director will Teach Second UA Film Class

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For the second year, Tom Cherones, award-winning director and Tuscaloosa native, and his wife, Joyce Keener, a television writer, will teach a four-week advanced production class in the telecommunication and film department in The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences.

The class will offer 20 students the opportunity to have hands-on experience with all aspects of the production of a 30-minute drama from a student script. On Monday, Feb. 17, class will begin with an announcement of the script selected from a number of scripts students wrote and submitted last fall. During the first week, the class will make final script changes and work to staff the film, including producers, directors, cast members and support members in technical roles.

The four-week class will have an intensive classroom and shooting schedule that will mimic real-world production situations. Cherones and Keener will lead the class four evenings a week and on weekends. The accelerated pace of location shooting, editing and critiquing will allow for a rough cut of the program to be shown at the end of class.

“We’re extremely pleased Tom Cherones and Joyce Keener have decided to return to the University to teach this class and lead this project,” said Dr. Loy Singleton, chairman of the telecommunication and film department. “It gives our undergraduate students an opportunity to work intensively with an award-winning professional director and producer on a real-world project in an academic setting, and that is unusual outside a graduate film school.”

Last year’s class made a movie called “Speck.” The 30-minute film recently was selected for screening at the North Carolina Film and Video Festival, hosted by the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

“For us, the fact that the film was selected for screening is quite an honor and a tribute to the quality of the work that was done on “Speck” last year,” Singleton said.

Cherones produced or directed the first 86 episodes of “Seinfeld,” one of the most successful situation comedies in television history. He has worked as director on several sitcoms, including “NewsRadio,” “Caroline in the City” and “Ellen.” He also has won top industry awards for his work, including an Emmy, a Director’s Guild Award, a Golden Globe, a Peabody and a Christopher Award.

Cherones received his master’s degree in telecommunication and film from the University in 1967. He was inducted into the C&IS Hall of Fame in 2001. The Hearst Visiting Professional in Residence endowed fund is supporting his class.

The UA College of Communication & Information Sciences is among the largest and most prestigious communication colleges in the nation. Having graduated more than 12,000 students, C&IS is consistently ranked among the top 10 in number of doctoral degrees awarded and in many of its research programs. C&IS graduates have won four of the six Pulitzer Prizes awarded to University of Alabama alumni; the forensics and debate squad, housed within the College, has garnered 14 national championships, and its broadcast journalism competition team annually places in the top 10 in the prestigious national Hearst Collegiate Broadcast Journalism competition.

Editor’s Note: Media will be allowed access to the class. Contact Elizabeth Smith at 205/348-3782 for availability.