An expert puppetmaster, a friend to superheroes and a successful screenwriter, Southern Utah University’s Bill Kershisnik has adventured deeper into the world of film than many of his colleagues in the communication department. His experiences may sound wild, but the constant in his life is teaching SUU students and sharing his passion for film.
Kershisnik’s road through life took him a great deal of places before he became a T-Bird teacher. Born in California to Bill, a military podiatrist, and Connie, a singer, the young Kershisnik rarely had the opportunity to stay in any one place for too long. His father’s unfortunate and untimely passing led his family to a life in Utah, where Kershisnik would stay until receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah.
The future filmmaker’s ideas of his college major mirrored his childhood: never staying in one spot. He initially intended to become a graphic designer, but he quickly realized drawing wasn’t for him. Kershisnik then dabbled with the idea of being an American Sign Language interpreter before he finally found himself behind the camera.
While taking a broadcasting class as an elective, he quickly fell in love with the work and decided he’d become a news director. Later, however, Kershisnik took a film elective, realizing that his preference was a more artistic method of storytelling.
“I stumbled across it, and it felt right,” Kershisnik said. “My early stuff is trash just like everybody’s early stuff, but I progressed well and people took some chances on me.”
Picking it up
Kershisnik was quick to hightail it out of Utah once he graduated, choosing University of Montana as the program where he’d get his Master of Fine Arts degree. There, he found himself heavily involved in multiple short films.
He wrote and directed a film named “Shark” about a confrontation between friends in a bar, starred in a piece called “White Lightnin” about two moonshiners learning to work together and served as the sole actor in a humorous short, “The First Mountain Man,” about a struggling fur trapper facing comical stumbling blocks.
To cap off his time as a student, Kershisnik wrote and shot his 2013 thesis film, “Things I Remember,” which proved to be one of the most emotional and intimate films of his career.
“It’s about the things that we remember as children,” Kershisnik said. “My dad died when I was really young, so it’s about not remembering my dad. I shot it all with puppets, so it was really technically challenging and could have really been weird but ended up feeling personal and sad, like a mournful love letter to what could have been. Also, I got to put a puppet in a casket, which was pretty weird.”
With his formal education at an end, Kershisnik began to explore the American South, traveling to different places while familiarizing himself with the film industry. He quickly learned how challenging the process can be, especially for an introverted person like himself.
“There’s a lot of near misses,” Kershisnik said. “Sometimes you talk to people and they say that they’re interested in your work, but when you send it to them, you never hear from them again. It can be soul-crushing at times. You have to love it enough to keep doing it even if you never get to that point.”
Having grown fed up with wandering, Kershisnik decided he wanted to settle in Utah to be closer to his family. In 2019, he found two amazing new opportunities: one with a band of costumed heroes and one with SUU.
The Aquabats, an American rock band who adopted the identities of crime-fighting crusaders, recruited Kershisnik to help with their crowdfunding campaign and write a portion of their YouTube shorts, titled “The Aquabats! Radventures!”
In the same time period, Kershisnik accepted a position at SUU as an assistant professor of media studies.
Passing it on
“The reason I came to a film school to work is because I knew that would be one place where I would always be around people who were excited about film,” Kershisnik said. “If they’re excited about film, I can’t help but be excited about film. If I’m coming in excited about film, they’re staying excited about film. It’s a nice perpetuating ecosystem.”
Kershisnik’s theory has held true throughout his time at SUU. Even while teaching his classes — video production, editing for the screen, sound for the screen and a feature lab about long form writing — he’s found success in the film community.
“It turns out that, to be a professor, you have to do like… work. With a filmmaker like me, that can show up in a few different ways,” Kershisnik said. “That can be shooting a short film, which I was able to do with a HSS grant a few years ago, but I’ve been focusing on screenwriting over the past two years, and I wrote two television pilots.”
These were no ordinary projects. His recent work has received praise and even awards at film festivals. “The Long Con” is a humorous pilot that Kershisnik wrote, described as the story of “a washed up actor battling obscurity as he makes his living touring the fan convention circuit with his overworked assistant.”
“The Long Con” won Best Comedy Teleplay at the Austin Comedy Film Festival and was a finalist for awards in a few other competitions, the most prestigious being the famed Nantucket Film Festival.
“It’s my favorite thing I’ve worked on recently,” Kershisnik said. “I was really proud of that script. It still makes me laugh when I look at it. Most of the stuff I tend to hate after enough time, so the fact I’m still on okay terms with it is pretty good.”
Thanks to his experiences in film, Kershisnik can more effectively prepare students for what to expect and teach the skills they will need to succeed. Although lectures offer a chance to share his excitement with a large group of students, he often finds that his individual chats with students are the best times to teach.
“I think [my job as a professor] takes willingness to operate in a one-on-one setting,” Kershisnik said. “I think teaching is a much stronger experience outside the classroom. Whether I’m collaborating with a student or giving them feedback or advice, I think the time I spend with students in the office can be more meaningful than when I’m in the classroom.”
Sarah Hutchings, a student majoring in filmmaking and communication with a media studies emphasis, has taken an assortment of Kershisnik’s classes in her time as a T-Bird.
“He’s involved in the filmmaking club and wants students to create work they’re proud of,” Hutchings said. “I’ve learned a lot from his editing and project development classes and am excited to learn more in his sound for the screen class.”
Next time you see this lovable legend in the hallway, just remember that Kershisnik is much more than a professor. He’s a bearded mountain man, a YouTube wizard and a friend.
“Everyone loves Bill,” Hutchings said. “He really cares about his students and wants them to succeed.”
Author: Kale Nelson
Photos: Chloe Copeland and courtesy of Bill Kershisnik and the Aquabats!
Editor: Shauri Thacker
life@suunews.net
This article was originally published in the March 2024 edition of the University Journal.
