DIGITAL MEDIA PRODUCTION
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// #MOREATDORDT
The Dordt Difference Digital media production at Dordt College offers students real-world, marketable skills in video production and animation. You’ll learn about pre-production, production, post-production, and marketing. You’ll learn how to conceptualize an idea, write a script, use proper lighting techniques, capture great audio and video, and much more. With the help of your instructor—an award-winning filmmaker—you’ll find hands-on learning opportunities to work with technical equipment based on film industry standards. Thanks to intentionally limited class sizes, you’ll have one-on-one attention to hone your media-making skills in a professional setting. Dordt graduates go into the media world knowing much more than how to push the right buttons, according to Mark Volkers, professor of digital media production. “Dordt College strives to turn out technically trained graduates who are equipped to move into positions of leadership in the film and video industry,” Volkers says. “In a time when so much of the media we consume is full of empty calories, it’s time to start training people who can produce content worth consuming.” The digital media production major brings Hollywood possibilities to your fingertips, all from an academically and biblically grounded basis. These courses will challenge you to work hard at developing your filmmaking skills and to serve the Lord in one of the most influential fields in our world. Are you ready for the challenge?
STUDY OFF CAMPUS Los Angeles Film Studies Center You can spend a semester in an internship that has your interests in mind. You could be on the lot of Fox Studios, Warner Bros., or others. For many, this semester leads to contacts and careers. Daystar University You can study in English in a strong communication and digital media department at the university and do an internship in media in the modern city of Nairobi, Kenya. Other opportunities are also available.
THE PROGRAM Learning by doing is a major component of the digital media program at Dordt College. Students in the program are introduced to digital nonlinear editing technology in Introduction to Film and Video Production. You will begin shooting and editing after a few weeks of practice on the lab’s state-of-the-art cameras and post-production workstations. Students work on semester projects in groups of two, with each person editing at his or her own work station. Each team has access to hundreds of gigabytes of drive space for the creation of video projects. Advanced students can work with Dordt’s production company, Prairie Grass Productions, on projects for corporate and non-profit clients, earning hands-on experience in producing video according to customer specifications. The program also offers cross-disciplinary opportunities in courses like Acting for Film, Script Writing, and more. Built on Dordt’s excellent Core Program, graduates leave Dordt with marketable visual communication skills, a reel, and a Christian foundation that will offer a positive c ontribution and help them make a difference in the world of digital media.
FACILITIES Dordt has one of the premiere post-production houses in a multi-state region. Avid is the industry standard for cutting and editing film and video; 80 percent of what you watch on TV and in theaters is cut on Avid. Instead of having each Avid editing system locked to one computer and hard drive, Dordt’s Avid editing stations are all tied into a shared media engine with terrabytes of storage space, providing the ultimate in collaborative filmmaking. For example, if a team shoots 15 hours of raw footage, the video is saved on the media engine, and each team member on each editing system can draw from the same footage and all work on the same project at the same time. That’s how Hollywood does it, and that’s how you’ll learn at Dordt, unlike at most major colleges and universities. In addition to Macs and PCs and the full Adobe Suite of products, Dordt offers students cutting edge equipment with which to work. This includes HD cameras, tripods, dollies, jibs, lights (LED and Tungsten), glidecams, GoPros, and much, much more. At Dordt you’ll learn with the best equipment, instructors, and fellow students.
THE FACULTY Lee Pitts, M.A., Northwestern University, served as imbedded jounalist in Iraq, press secretary for U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, Washington bureau chief for World Magazine. Lee.Pitts@dordt.edu Mark Volkers, M.A., Wheaton Graduate School, digital media production coordinator and instructor, has filmed, written, and produced documentaries from around the world and earned dozens of national and international awards for his films. He has created and presented workshops on photojournalism, filmmaking, and the use of technology. Mark.Volkers@dordt.edu Charles Veenstra, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Lincoln, teaches communication courses.
Charles.Veenstra@dordt.edu
Bruce Kuiper, M.A., California State University, teaches communication courses. He is currently doing Ph.D. work at Regent University. Bruce.Kuiper@dordt.edu
CONTRIBUTING FACULTY David Versluis, associate professor of art
David Griffith, instructor of marketing
See some of our work at www.DordtDigitalMedia.com Find Digital Media at Dordt College on Facebook. Aug 2015