Courtesy Ron Saltmarsh

Brigham Young University commercial music student Chance Anderson won gold this fall in the Sound for Visual Media category of the 2024 Audio Engineer Society (AES) Student Recording Competition.

He flew to New York to accept the award for his role as re-recording mixer and post-sound supervisor of “Student Accomplice,” a student film that has been nominated for and won several awards during its festival run.

BYU animation students won bronze for their work on the film in the Student Academy Award category of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards in London, and students from both departments expressed gratitude for the recognition and networking opportunities resulting from the film.

After entering the AES competition, Anderson attended the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in Los Angeles with Kevin West, the film’s student composer. “We looked at the nomination list and our names were on there, but then we looked at the other categories and saw names like Hans Zimmmer and realized the award is for professionals. There are these huge names on the same ballot as us. It’s crazy. It feels great,” Anderson said.

“This is the most intensive, in-depth and large-scale music and sound production we have attempted to date,” said BYU commercial music director Ron Saltmarsh. “It is so gratifying to see the amazing work done by these talented students being recognized by the industry as equal to their professional idols.”

Courtesy Brigham Young University

The animation faculty involved in creating the film, along with commercial music faculty, has guided commercial music students from start to finish. They asked for demos from students to select student composers and sound producers and have sent them links to contests to enter during the film’s festival run post-production.

Anderson said the commercial music program prepared students for this collaborative experience. “The commercial music program focuses on music production and post-production, but the program really encourages collaboration with animation, work with the AdLab on campus and work with the media arts department,” Anderson said.

Anderson and other commercial music students said the film experience redirected their commercial music education at BYU to focus on different aspects of sound production. West did his internship in sound production but has since decided he wants to focus on film scoring. Sound designer Michelle Howard started in song production but is now more interested in sound design and composing.

Anderson began with an interest in film scoring but now hopes to end his experience with an internship in post-audio. Part of that realization came from working in animation, where more recording is done during post-production than during the live action. Another part of it was realizing how much he enjoyed the technical aspects of the industry, and a third part was enjoying coordination and enhancement of other people’s efforts.

Both West and Anderson said that the commercial music program allows for a smooth change in focus because of the elective and internship aspects of the program.

“I think all of the skills you have to have to do the different aspects of the program work together and transfer well,” Howard said. She added that collaborative experiential projects helped clarify the difference between theory and practice.

Howard said there was a class unit on sound design (sound effects) but working on the film taught her a lot she had not anticipated. She said she particularly gained an appreciation of how layers are needed to convey an intended effect of sound. She and Anderson were selected to work on sound design, and she enjoyed working with him both on creating those sound layers and also in post-production.

“He did all the mixing and made everyone sound good. He was great,” she said. She also spoke highly of the commercial music department’s support and the animation department’s direction. She said faculty and students “exude professionalism” and that “as students, we make mistakes, but for all of us to come together and make something so professional is amazing.”

Anderson said the film is not just the result of animation and commercial collaboration. The media arts department helped with the film and (non-commercial) music students contributed. “It wasn’t just one person or one program that helped. The number of people involved with the film is incredible,” Anderson said. “I’m really thankful.”

Rebecca Packard writes for the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications.