Jared Crossley and Professor James Jacobs, Department of Teacher Education

I recently made 2 documentarys film about children’s author Lloyd Alexander. Lloyd Alexander was an American fantasy novelist best known for his “Chronicles of Prydain”, a 5 book series that includes “The Black Cauldron” and the 1969 Newbery winner, “The High King”. My documentary was the first ever film of it’s kind about Lloyd Alexander.

One of the films is titled, “Lloyd Alexander: America’s High King of Fantasy”. This film is a 10 minute mini-documentary focusing on the writing of Lloyd Alexander. The second of the 2 films is titled “Lloyd Alexander” and is 69 minutes long and portrays his life and writings.

The project started by researching the life of Lloyd Alexander. Some of my main sources for my research included the dissertations, “Lloyd Alexander: A Critical Biography” by Dr. James S. Jacobs, and “The Prydain Companion: A Reference Guide to Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles” by Dr. Michael O. Tunnell. I also used books such as “Lloyd Alexander” by Jill P. May, and “Lloyd Alexander: A Bio-Bibliography” by Dr. James Jacobs and Dr. Michael Tunnell. I also conducted research by talking to people who personally knew Lloyd Alexander including his friends, family, editors, and business associates.

During this period of research I also collected as many photographs as I could of Lloyd Alexander. I obtained photographs from his family and friends.I also obtained archival photographs and video footage of Mr. Alexander and major events that would be portrayed in the film (WWII). One of the challenging aspects of finding and using footage and photographs was obtaining copyright permission for the materials used. However, I was able to learn a lot about copyright, and was able to obtain permission for the materials used in the film.

After about a year of research, I wrote the script and created the story that would be told in the documentary film. At this point I traveled to New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta in order to interview some of Mr. Alexanders friends and associates on video for the film. After obtaining all of the video interviews I recorded the narration and then started the editing process.

This was a great learning experience for me as I had never before made a film. I worked with students and professionals in various areas of film to help me make this film as high quality as possible. I was able to be heavily involved in the filming, writing, and editing of the film.

When the film was completed we held a premiere at the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. This premiere was held on October 19th, 2012. We had another screening of the film at the HBLL for the public the following week. In mid November we had a public screening at Orem City Library in Orem, UT and in late November we held a screening at Sterling Lord Literary Agency in Manhattan, NY. We have future screenings
planned at various libraries and festivals. We eventually hope to have the film free to the public on the internet. We are also donating copies of the film to various libraries, schools, and institutions across the United States.

I have had people from all over the world contact me about their love for Lloyd Alexander and their interest in my film. I hypothesize that this film will be watched by generations yet to come as readers fall in love with the works of Alexander and want to learn more about him. I am grateful for the part that I have gotten to play in the bringing forth of this creative work documenting the life and writings of Lloyd Alexander.