UNC School of the Arts alumni nominated for Emmy Awards

This year’s Emmy Awards nominations include several names with ties to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

UNCSA alumni are being represented for their work in some of the year’s most popular TV and streaming programs. Among them are Stranger Things, Barry, and Succession. And the categories are as varied as the shows themselves, including picture editing, casting, and sound editing.

Will Files graduated in 2002 from the School of Filmmaking's picture editing and sound design program and has more than 90 credits. His three Emmy nominations include outstanding sound editing for a comedy or drama series for the Stranger Things episode "Chapter Nine: The Piggyback” and for Hulu’s Prey.

He says he and his team of 12 sound designers record evocative sounds — a squeaky door, a baby elephant’s cry — and alter them into something new. Files says UNCSA mentor, the late David Yewdall — supervising sound editor for the film The Thing — opened his eyes.

"He helped me think about using sound in ways that was more evocative and more emotional," says Files. "You often get the best results from not being overly literal about the approach to sound. Especially when you’re trying to do something like Stranger Things that has such an evocative, high concept sort of world."

Thanks to industry connections Files made through another film school teacher while still a student, he went directly from UNCSA into an internship at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch where he worked for a decade before eventually co-founding his own company Pacific Standard Sound. Files credits sound design instructor Lee Dragu for teaching him how to be employable, and stay that way.

"He could really help us understand what the expectations would be once we got to Hollywood," he says. "And that’s something that I think UNCSA’s film program is especially good at is training us not only how to make films but how to function in the film business. You know, actually get out there and work."

The 75th Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on Monday, September 18. At least six UNCSA alumni are currently nominated.