Fred G. Thorne

Principal - Creative Communications Company

Media Specialist for Disciplinary Association Network for Sustainability in higher education (DANS), Fred is an academically honored and award-winning professor, writer, producer and director in Film and TV.  He is equally at home on location, in the studio and in the university classroom, where his students perennially won national script writing and broadcast management competitions.

Born and raised in Toronto, Fred began his career with CBC-TV as a lighting director.  He became a camera operator, then TD, and eventually switched from the technical side to become a producer and director.  On Madison Avenue in New York, his work in TV advertising can be seen as foundational for much that followed.  In Hollywood, Fred specialized as a writer/producer and director on many watershed film & video projects, creating his own production company developing children’s TV, educational, documentary and commercial films and videos.  As a writer and director, his experience ranges across the spectrum from feature motion pictures to aerospace science education, spanning the breadth of communication in depth.

Ten years on the faculty at California State University, Chico, Fred is Chair of the Writing Division of the Broadcast Education Association, Founding Chair of the Faculty Script Competition, Founding Chair of the Academic Research and Scholarly Paper Competition, a former member of the Writers Caucus of the University Film and Video Association, a member of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, and is a Founding member of the Digital Cinema Society.  His degrees include an MA with DISTINCTION in Communication - Instructional Technology, BA in Media Arts, AA in Radio/TV Arts, and Certification in Teaching (UCLA) and in Entrepreneurial Studies (USC).

Honors and Awards include Phi Kappa Phi; Emmy nominations; Cine Golden Eagle; Columbus “Chris;” NEA Blue Ribbon; National Education Foundation Blue Ribbon; American Film Festival Blue Ribbon; National Education Film Festival Blue Ribbons; NCS Blue Ribbon; Chicago Children’s Festival Finalist; New York Film Festival Opening Night Special Event; First Place – NEWS – Juried Faculty Production Competition, BEA; Second Place – Broadcast Management Juried Case Study Competition, BEA, 3 Telly Awards, Videographer Award of Distinction; The Communicator Award.

• 11 years a university professor teaching all forms of Communication and Creative Writing; Media Arts; Marketing Campaign planning and design; Marketing and Sales Research; Advertising Copywriting; Motion Picture Screenplay and Documentary Script Writing; Film/TV Production Management; Radio/TV Broadcast Management; TV Program Marketing, Sales and Promotion.
• Writer/Presenter, Academic Research and Scholarly papers - Body Language; Character is Plot; The Action is in the Writing; Moving Beyond Stereotype; The Wall, Assisting Students in Finding Creativity When Writing for the Screen; Screen Dynamics, Seeing and Hearing Like a Director; - BEA, UFVA
• Pilot Director - Sesame Street
• Writer/Producer live/multi-media aerospace science education program  - NASA
• Writer/Producer/Director Arts Alive - Agency for Instructional Technology
• Writer, Corporate Sales Promotion Campaigns - Mattel Toys, Purex Corporation,  GM/Delco, Lockheed Sales & Marketing, Investment Corp. of America, etc.
• Writer/Producer/Director national TV and Radio commercials - Fortune 100 companies
• Writer/Director Motivation and Training films - US Air Force, Warner Productions, Lipton Corp., HEW Rural Clinical Nursing Program, Marketing Associates Inc.
• Writer/Producer Instructional TV series’ for teacher training in ECE, Mental Health, Media Utilization, Integration Education Planning Units – LAUSD
• Writer/Producer/Director Educational and Instructional TV series’ for KLCS-TV, Los /Angeles Unified School District, California State University System, USC
• Writer/Producer/Director GoodNews 4 Kids - National Council of Cardinals & Bishops
• Writer/Producer/Director Documentaries for The Mission Doctors Association, Santa Fe Communications, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Lipton Corporation, Mann Productions, etc.
• Publications; The Social Critic; Feedback