OBU Faculty Publishes Series, Attends Conference

February 23, 2001

David Byland, Oklahoma Baptist University assistant professor of telecommunications, had the second article in a three part series published in the January/ February 2001 issue of the journal Movie Makers.

The series, "Character Counts," focuses on the creation of believable characters for film and television scriptwriters.

"Without believable characters, that is, three dimensional characters, a screenplay will be unsuccessful," Byland said. "It is the ability of the audience to relate to a character or characters that bring a screenplay to life."

Byland describes the "ultimate goal" of the writer as finding "the golden key" to the character's behavior. The character can only become realistic after the writer asks, "What does the character want?"

The third section of the series will be published in the March/ April issue of Movie Makers.

Byland also attended the Oklahoma Association of Broadcaster's annual conference Feb. 16 and 17 in Tulsa. One hundred and seventy-five students and faculty from 15 colleges and universities across Oklahoma attended the conference, as well as several hundred broadcast professionals.

Byland, president of the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association, moderated the panel "The Changing World of Broadcast Communication."