By Wes Lukoshus
Purdue University Northwest communication student Jessica Cannell never had written a television script — any script, for that matter — before enrolling in the university’s Communication 436 Scriptwriting course in the fall.
Next month, she will make an acceptance speech before a Las Vegas audience at the 2017 Broadcast Education Association’s collegiate Script Writing Competition Awards Program. The annual competition is held collaboratively with the National Association of Broadcasters Convention.
Cannell, 28, a Griffith native and Hammond resident, served as the lead writer of a script that initially took first in the BEA’s Television Spec Series Category. In competition with four other categorical first-place scripts, judges awarded the PNW script Best of the Festival as the top overall script in the national competition.
Within the Television Spec Series Category, for which scripts of current television programs are written and submitted, Cannell and PNW classmates Adrian Benton, of Crown Point, Julio Casares, of East Chicago, Lauren Edmond, of Hammond, and Bianca Martinez, of Schererville, teamed to write an episode for the AMC network program “Humans.”
The Best of the Festival top prize is the highlight of another award-rich year of scriptwriting by Purdue Northwest students, instructed by associate professor of Communication Mary Beth O’Connor.
Other PNW students also excelled in TV scriptwriting. Janel Contreras, of Merrillville, Elizabeth Carey, of Lowell, Vanessa Matthews, of Highland, and James Mullaney, of Hammond, also earned a first-place award. The team of RoLonda Crawford, of Gary, Jacob MacDonald, of Ripon, Wis., Hardy Willis, of Valparaiso, Raquel Witherow, of Schererville, and Joe Zuniga III, of Griffith, took second. Andrew Morris, of South Holland, Ill., earned third in the Short Subject Film Category. All the students are communication or English majors.
Since 2002, PNW students and those from the former Purdue University Calumet have won eight first places, seven second places, seven thirds and four honorable mentions from the national competition — all under O’Connor’s tutelage and typically against student competitors from larger universities offering a formal scriptwriting curriculum.
“Our students have talent. They’re hardworking and competitive,” said O’Connor, who worked to learn and effectively teach attributes of effective scriptwriting after joining the faculty of the former Purdue Calumet in 1989. “When I was told I was to teach scriptwriting, I called everyone I could think of — literary agents, screenwriters and other professionals — to pick their brains.”
Cannell values the insight and mentoring O’Connor has provided.
“Because scriptwriting is a process, you want help and feedback. You want someone to provide you creative criticism,” Cannell said, “and Mary Beth is always right there to do it.”
Cannell’s talent also is a testimony to her hard work, determination and passion. The former English, Spanish and computer technology major and student journalist also holds a full-time job as an office manager of a maintenance and construction firm and recently served as a part-time chef.
She said she managed to spend 40 to 60 hours a week in the fall writing and tweaking the award-winning script. Her effort proved to be a labor of love and validated the career path she desires to pursue after she graduates in 2018: that of becoming a television writer.
“It was a very hard process, but I loved it,” she said. “I believe all my previous experiences helped me, because effective scriptwriting, I have learned, is knowing and understanding people, then conveying that understanding as succinctly as possible to create interest in a story.”
Wes Lukoshus is assistant vice chancellor of media relations and communications at Purdue University Northwest.
