Tate had digital film-making at UC Berkeley and he loved it. Tate was given the nickname “Tate Spielberg” in Anthony’s class. Tate spoke very highly of Anthony. I think he gave the kids a lot of autonomy. It was a cohesive group where nobody knew each other at first and they all got along great. We were very excited to find such a specialized camp and it really sparked a lot of interest for our son, who became quite dominant in his group in the directing of the short film they made called “Trapped”.  Each student did their own editing on group created footage and proceeded to create a pro looking trailer and a 3 minute film. Tate has since created Trapped 2, Trapped 3, and Trapped 4 – engaging as many of his friends and relatives as are willing to be actors under his direction. He even recently attended an open house at E’xpressions College in Emeryville…. talk about igniting passion! He was the youngest person on the tour. He was captivated.

Watch out Hollywood…

The Digital Media Academy, along with companies like Apple, Adobe and Sun Microsystems, is a Corporate Sponsor of the New Media Consortium. The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 300 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. Given the relevance to our own mission of providing effective and relevant digital media training, we are pleased to support a leading organization dedicated to researching and promoting best uses of digital media in teaching and learning. One of major ways DMA participates in the New Media Consortium is at their annual conference. This year in Monterey, California (June 10-13, 2009), we will be conducting hands-on sessions in a classroom sponsored by Apple. Sessions will include Final Cut Pro training and other Apple Pro-Apps training.

One of the major contributions of the New Media Consortium is the Emerging Technology Initiative. The goal of this project is to uncover emerging technologies that have potential for adding great value to creative expression and education. Emphasis is placed on uncovering how these technologies will impact the future and be relevant given emerging trends in technology and education.  The Horizon Project is the centerpiece of the Emerging Technology Initiative, and the NMC’s annual Horizon Report is one of the most widely-read publications in higher education.

This year’s 2009 Horizon Report is now available, and I wanted to highlight something I found especially interesting. One of the “Key Trends” identified is the emerging affinity for computer games as learning tools by students entering college and the workforce. One example of game-based learning is the Global Challenge Award, an online science program for pre-college students, age 14-17. Online and social gaming among kids is extremely popular (obviously), and it is fueling the success of game-based learning. Social gaming is also helping create a generation of kids who respond very well to learning methods that are interactive and social. Most learning institutions have not recognized this opportunity to engage students more effectively, but I suspect in the next several years we will see more schools augmenting their learning methods to be more social, perhaps incorporating more game-based learning where appropriate. One irony here is that many parents (myself included) do not readily make the connection between developing social and interactive learning skills and online computer games. Something to think about!

Every year since 2002, DMA has presented hands-on sessions at the annual Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs. The thing I appreciate most about this conference is the reception we get. Every year, hundreds of teachers from across California visit our 60-minute hands-on sessions, getting a taste of our 5-day immersion courses. While there is only so much you can learn in 60 minutes, I am always amazed at how much content our instructors cover, and how much people take away. This year, we will be doing sessions Thursday through Saturday in topics including Final Cut Pro, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and iLife. And, for the first time, we will be joined by our new partner, the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus.

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit 501(c)(3) mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility. Since 1998, the Bus has provided free hands-on programs to hundreds of high schools, colleges, Boys and Girls Clubs, music festivals, concerts, conventions and community organizations. Working together with some of the biggest names in music, the Lennon Bus encourages students to play music, write songs, engineer recording sessions and produce video projects using the latest audio, video, and live sound equipment. As a partner and sponsor of the Bus, DMA trains and supports the Lennon Bus staff, ensuring they are up-to-date on the latest digital media applications. In the summer, we co-teach (in collaboration with Lennon Bus staff) a summer computer camp course for teens called Music & Video Production at seven prestigious universities across the country. We also exhibit alongside the Lennon Bus at various national conferences like MacWorld and NAB.

At CUE, (in addition to the 60 minute hands-on session) DMA will offer short software demos, followed by Q & A, in an area adjacent to the Lennon Bus in the Exhibit Hall. It is a great opportunity for teachers to interact with our distinguished DMA teaching staff in a more intimate setting. We will be utilizing content created on the Bus in the demos.

If you are attending CUE this year, there will be lots of surprises, including an “special” invitation to attend DMA this summer at a discount. Hope to see you there!

By Katy Scoggin – Lead Instructor Hands On Digital Filmmaking for Teens

Right now I’m in the pre-production phase of a short film I’ll be shooting at the end of March. The project is a collaboration between me—I’m the writer/director—and a group of actors from the graduate acting program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

As a writer/director, I constantly have to communicate my vision to a bunch of collaborators: my actors, my DP (director of photography or cinematographer), my production designer, and my editor. But on set, when the camera is rolling, my most important relationship is with my actors. Directing is more about shaping and tweaking and discussing performances than anything else. It requires an ability to communicate, a strong will, great listening skills, and—perhaps more than anything else—concentration. Concentrating on performance, and knowing when you’ve got what you need, is immensely challenging to do in an environment where dozens of people and lights and equipment are always hovering just outside the frame. But once you’re in the cutting room, and you get to savor arresting performances, the hard work really pays off.

Thinking about becoming the next big game designer? DMA’s Advanced Video Game Creation class is a must for anyone serious about learning the advanced techniques that major studios are using. Don’t just take my word for it – check out this interview with Epic Games talking about the new Gears of War 2. They Explain how they used Z-Brush in their production pipeline to create the incredible detail you see in the games.

Epic Games Interview – Gears of War 2

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Next-generation game production tools and techniques

This advanced video game production class integrates the big three applications of next-generation gaming technology. Topics covered include digital sculpting with Pixologic’s ZBrush and advanced digital painting and texture mapping with Adobe Photoshop. You’ll learn essential techniques for creating architecture, characters, creatures, vehicles and pick-up items. We’ll also teach you industry techniques for normal mapping, grunge-color maps and specularity maps are also emphasized.

The course features in-depth discussions on unifying game designs using fine art principals such as color theory, layout compositional design, form and structure, as well as other techniques to expand your understanding of the art of game design. We’ll study game play and level flow techniques, with each student continually testing and refining their creation in a group setting. On the last day of class, we’ll spend a game day play-testing and critiquing our designs.

Written by Artist / Designer Robert S. Lindsey : DMA Alumnus

WOW! I had an amazing and intense learning experience at DMA! From the moment that I stepped onto the Stanford campus I new that this event would change my life forever. Digital Media Academy gave me the ability to create my own website (www.bettermurals.com) and portfolio. After returning for multiple years I have been able to design all my new art on my iMac that I bought through DMA for an amazing discounted price.I don’t wast any time or supplies when I am working on my art due to my expertise with Photoshop and Flash. 

Last summer I spent a week invested in learning Final Cut Pro and mastering my HD camera so that I can introduce streaming video onto my site with time-laps promos of my murals. This video technique has been a feature that my clients love. Clients can now see how I work, and my company has the professional, impressive edge that I need in this economy.

I actually spend most of my time in front of my Mac. If I am not designing… I am designing. I am also a partner in the very successful marketing and  design firm : www.redefinedesign.com. We specialize in building and maintaing company identities and ongoing branding through various medias: web, print, interactive, promo, etc… Our ground breaking relationship plan is specifically designed and tailored to each client. I am signed up for After Effects courses this summer and we are sending a few of our designers to get some training with DMA’s Pro courses.

By Katy Scoggin – Lead Instructor Hands On Digital Filmmaking for Teens

Last August, I taught Hands On Digital Filmmaking for Teens at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The class was a really successful exercise in collaboration and one of the highlights of my summer. I think everybody realized during that week that what you can accomplish as a group is a lot bigger than what you can create on your own.

It took me a lot of years to realize the value of teamwork. As a high school student, I loathed group projects because they always meant the same thing: I would end up doing all the work for several people. What a drag.

Since becoming a filmmaker, though, I’ve learned that teamwork is not about a bunch of slackers and the over-achievers who pick up after them. Real teamwork is about getting a bunch of creative minds together, bouncing ideas off one another, distributing work evenly and according to different folks’ strengths, and eventually coming up with a project that is bigger—and far cooler—than what any member of the group could have created alone.

That’s what my Philly students did last summer in the film camp course. They began by working individually on script ideas, which they later pitched to the class. Everybody got really excited about one student’s thriller idea. The story is about a girl who reveals the identity of a serial killer by posting a video of his latest murder on YouTube. After developing the script to suit everyone’s taste, we cast the project with some of our more performative members and broke the script down according to location.

Everyone who was interested in shooting—including the actors—had the opportunity to get behind the camera. Other students learned how to slate each take as camera assistants; lock the set down and watch for oncoming pedestrians as production assistants; and hold the boom pole as sound recordists. Everybody always had a job to do. And if each individual hadn’t held his or her own weight, we would not have completed the movie in such a short time span.

They say each movie is made three times: First you write it. Then you shoot it. Then you edit. After our two-day production period was over, we hunkered down and started to put the movie together. If you’ve ever written a paper, you understand that editing is basically rewriting. It’s the same in the cutting room: once you put the images you’ve captured into order, you can reorder them in a thousand different ways. Finding the best way to tell a visual story is one of the most challenging and, ultimately, most gratifying aspects of filmmaking.

In our digital film class, we decided to keep things collaborative through to the end: Each student picked one scene to edit, after which we cut the entire story together. At the end of the week, when we screened our short film for parents, I think everybody was happily surprised to see how much they’d been able to accomplish as a group in just one short week. The experience was a great one, and I look forward to having more like it this summer!

Learn more about DMA Teen Film Courses and Summer Computer Camps

There are a couple reasons why one of my first blogs is about DMA’s Action Sports & Media Combination Courses (Skate Boarding & Filmmaking / Surfing & Filmmaking). The first reason is that this is where I got my start with filmmaking. Upon Graduating from the UCSC film school, my first completed film was a 30 min snowboard and skateboarding film. I traveled to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado to premiere the film. It was such an incredible feeling to have my work up on the big screen and evaluated by my peers. The second reason why I write about these courses is because that is what I am working on right now. In fact I my house is covered with snow and I have been getting some amazing footage.

The idea came up for these courses when Dave Livingston – DMA’s Director of Instruction – asked me if there were any filmmaking courses that I wish I could have taken in college that weren’t available. Immediately, I thought it would be so cool to have taken a video production class with curriculum that taught actions sports cinematography and editing techniques. The classes were born and they have been a huge success. In these classes we teach students how to plan, shoot, edit, and produce their own action sports videos. At the end of each course the students even get the chance to premiere their film on the “big screen”, in front of classmates, family, and friends. It is really just awesome what they accomplish in 5 days while having so much fun!

Check out a couple of videos that one talented student Evan created while taking one of our DMA’s Action Sports & Media Combination Courses.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJV5YPnVew
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMOaIKhz6lg
Until next time,

Travis Schlafmann

DMA Instructor/ Cinematographer & Editor

In this movie, I’ll be showing you some features in TextEdit that can increase your productivity.

Here’s a recap of the keyboard shortcuts I cover in this movie.

Cmd-T: Fonts Window

Cmd-Shift-W: Wrap to Page

Cmd-Shift-T: Toggle Plain/Rich Text

Cmd-R: Toggle Ruler Bar

Hold Option to Select Rectangular Blocks of Text