WSU alum Hannah Beachler played a huge part in the creation of the upcoming and highly-anticipated "Black Panther" film.
“Our alumni are doing amazing stuff. One girl (Beachler) is the production designer for the upcoming Marvel film, Black Panther. She’s the person who does the whole look for it, who did all the supervising of the costumes, the graphics the camera angles, the lighting. She is a Wright State alum. She also designed Moonlight which one the best picture award at the Oscars last year, she was the production designer which is the number two person after the director for what you see on the screen,” Stuart McDowell, Professor and Artistic Director, Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures said.
Beachler credited the art department to everything she had learned that helped her during this project, including painting, carpentry and how to build a flat, according to an interview with DDN.
"Learning every piece of it really informed where I am today. The education I got here was far and away superior to others I’ve bumped into,” Beachler said.
When Beachler found out she got the job, she was driving down the highway. “I pulled over and screamed!” she said in the DDN article, “when they hand you that type of money, you’d better know what you’re doing. At times we were working on three continents with 1,000 people, 100 sets. You are only as good as your crew.”
The assignment came with a $30 million art budget and a staff of hundreds including carpenters, sculptors, painters, plasterers, art directors, set designers, illustrators, set and prop decorators according to the DDN report.
Beachler came back to Dayton last December to speak with students at Wright State. She believes that if students here see that she made it, they will know that they can do the same.
One job on Beachler’s extensive list of success includes designing Beyonce’s visual Lemonade album.
Many Wright State music theater and film students and alumni are hugely successful, you may even see them in your favorite television shows or at local large theaters -- maybe even Broadway.
“Our kids are doing fabulously -- they’re on Broadway, they’re on West End of London. One of our students is playing the lead role in the Book of Mormon on the West End of London,” McDowell said.
