May 11, 2015
50 Year Issue
Audrey Jensen
[email protected]
Sometimes taking the extra time to graduate pays off.
Brandon Fibbs, 2004 alumnus English major and film study minor, has had experience as a research coordinator for the television series “Cosmos,” producing and working on shows such as “Guiding Alaska” and “Man vs. the Universe.”
Fibbs started at UCCS in 2001 with a film class.
“In that class I discovered that I more than liked [film], I loved it. I never considered doing anything with it, because it felt like an irresponsible thing to go into, that I would be poor the rest of my life.”
UCCS professor of German and film studies Robert von Dassanowsky encouraged and mentored Fibbs in the start of his film career as a student.
Despite the uncertainty Fibbs had about pursuing a film career, Dassanowsky told him to go for it because he could tell it was his passion.
After graduating, Fibbs worked at Motion Pixel Lab in Colorado Springs to learn how to shoot and edit film. From there, he went to New York University for graduate school and started a blog with movie reviews.
In his second year at NYU, former editor for The Gazette’s entertainment section Warren Epstein contacted Fibbs, asking him to write movie reviews for the Colorado Springs paper.
After five years of evaluating films, Fibbs decided he wanted to be the person making them.
“I decided I was tired of writing about other people’s movies. I wanted them to write about mine,” he said.
Without knowing where he would work, Fibbs packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles. But he had a contact that helped.
Fibbs had previously met astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who said he would help Fibbs find a job.
As a result, Fibbs was given a tour of the set for the 2014 science documentary miniseries, “Cosmos,” received an interview from the producer and became the research coordinator.
While “Cosmos” was shut down for script work, Fibbs was asked to work at Morgan Freeman’s company Relevations Entertainment to develop a mini-series on the science channel.
He attributes UCCS for the foundation of everything he knows about cinema studies, even after attending NYU for a master’s in film.
“Even when it was small you had professors that took their jobs seriously,” Fibbs said. “I don’t think I learned anything at NYU that I didn’t learn at UCCS.”