It was time consuming and a lot of hard work. Everything — from the script writing to lighting — was important. And in the end, this attention to detail paid off.

Students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ television, radio and film department won a bronze Telly Award for excellence in an online program for their production of “Dead Letters,” a six-episode, original TV series, according to a May 15 press release from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“Dead Letters” tells the story of Perry Glass, a struggling writer, and his two co-workers, Charlie Atwood and Richard Martin. The three work in the post office’s mail recovery office, better known to them as the dead letter office. Each day, they work together to sort undeliverable mail, searching for answers and discovering where the letters need to go.

The Telly Awards, founded in 1978, honor outstanding film and video productions. Drawing submissions from top international firms and local production companies, the 34th annual Telly Awards received more than 12,000 entries from five countries and all 50 states.

Entries for the Telly Awards do not compete against one another, but instead are judged based on a high standard of merit. All entries that receive high honors, after the judging process, are awarded either a Silver or Bronze Winner Telly statue. If no entries meet this high standard, then no winner is declared.

Mary Castellanos, a 2013 graduate of the TRF department, said the production process for the TRF 452/652: “Television Production” course was extremely time consuming and challenging, but winning the Telly Award was very rewarding.

“People that have been working in the industry for so many years enter their own work, and we won,” Castellanos said. “We’re only students and we won.”

The three-credit course, taught by the TRF department chair Michael Schoonmaker, officially met only once a week, but students put in many extra hours to produce the series. They worked to complete one episode almost every week of the semester.

Castellanos said she met with the three other writers, Rachel Samples, Marc Sollinger and Amy Zeis, almost every day. For three or four hours, they discussed their plans for the coming week and put together as much as possible to create a perfect script for each episode.

In a class of only 20 students, they worked collaboratively and often had to multi-task. Castellanos, for example, said that although she was primarily a writer, she also worked with the design team and helped edit occasionally.

Rachel Samples, a senior TRF major, worked as a writer and an actress in the series. She played “Charlie Atwood,” an employee in the dead letter office. Samples said she worked hard during production to balance her commitments to the writing team and to her character.

“It was the most intensive class I’ve ever taken, but I already miss it,” Samples said. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

Charles D Schulz, a 2013 graduate of the TRF Master’s program, said the course was almost like a job. He would arrive on set hours before filming began to work on the lighting design. And even when he wasn’t actively working on the set, Schulz said he was constantly thinking of ways to improve the series.

After screening the series to a packed audience in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium at the end of the Fall 2012 semester, the “Dead Letters” crew received an overwhelming amount of support and praise for their work.

Schulz said that the audience applauded after every episode and many viewers told him how much they enjoyed the show. However, winning the Telly Award gave credence to the accomplishment.

Said Schulz: “I feel even more validated after winning this award…people that are objective and not necessarily close to you are telling you that you did a good job. It really meant something to me.”

Published on May 22, 2013 at 3:34 pm

Contact Katie: kjrichar@syr.edu | @ktjrichards