VP - Video Production
VP150 Fundamentals of Digital Video
Credits 5Fall
Registration Requirement: Concurrent requisite: IM178, IM120, IM121, IM122, IM123 and IM124.
This class works through fundamental theories and techniques employed in digital filmmaking with an emphasis on camera, lens and existing light. Discussions cover history, technical growth and current practice in single-camera film style and digital production. Lab work involves operating video cameras, basic lighting set-ups and basic field sound recording.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Define project workflow from pre-production through post production
- Demonstrate the ability to use a digital video camera to acquire image and sound
- Delineate the basic construction of a microphones, how sound is recorded and best practices in microphone selection and placement
- Identify and implement three-point lighting techniques with the use of key, back and fill placement
- Develop competence in the fundamentals of video cameras: aperture, zoom, focus, lens angle, gain, and white balance
- Differentiate levels of quality and effectiveness of media in simple video narrative and offer constructive critical observations
- Identify basic camera shots and explain how they interact to create meaning
- Perform basic audio field recording
VP151 Digital Filmmaking
Credits 5Winter
Registration Requirement: VP150.
This class expands an understanding of the production/post-production process with an emphasis on workflow. Discussion and exercises will bring together pre-production planning, location and production techniques. Emphasis on practical applications centers on the development of story with work on fiction, nonfiction and commercial-style program materials. Lab work includes intermediate camera techniques, lighting and sound acquisition.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Develop beyond three-point lighting techniques and create lighting designs that utilize this knowledge
- Examine the essential crew positions and assigned tasks in a video production
- Identify basic narrative terms and their usage in fiction and commercial production
- Identify typical narrative constructions and their application in varied forms of media
- Produce, direct and edit basic video productions in a variety of forms/genres
- Differentiate and utilize various production support materials
VP152 Production Management
Credits 4Fall
Registration Requirement: VP151.
This course introduces the forms and processes used in planning film and video productions. Students apply pre-production techniques to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the steps involved in a professional level of production planning. The roles and duties of line producer, continuity and location scout are researched and discussed. Copyright, contracts, hiring practices and professional protocols will be examined. Students create production notebooks for a fiction short film.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Breakdown a screenplay and create a preliminary shooting schedule
- Design a non-fiction production plan that demonstrates how script and treatment interact
- Explain the copyright law as it pertains to media and intellectual property
- Explain the role of script supervisor and describe the systems used to track the production process
- Identify proper script format for a variety of production types
- Organize a production notebook around the script, breakdown, schedule and a variety of forms used to coordinate talent and crew during production
- Prepare a production budget
VP159 Story Development and Ideation
Credits 3Winter
Registration Requirement: VP150.
This course fosters creativity and critical thinking through written, oral, individual and collaborative exercises and projects. Students will examine and investigate their own creative processes, generate story ideas and develop an understanding of narrative structure as it relates to time-based media. Creative storytelling and fundamentals of narrative structure are explored to hone students’ abilities to utilize their own creative voices and apply them to the to the varieties of genres found in time-based media. Specifically, generating skills for application within film and television industries.
View Course Outcomes:
- Develop compelling content for moving pictures.
- Integrate research techniques to draw on a variety of sources that are personal, cultural or observational.
- Relate constructive critique techniques to process industry standards and procedures.
- Utilize the ability to articulate artistic identity in a manner that applies critical thinking skills.
- Utilize the creative content creation process in a variety of ways.
VP160 Screenwriting
Credits 4Spring
Registration Requirement: VP151.
This course introduces students to screenwriting. Students create a screenplay for a short film using step outlines, treatments and pre-visualization tools. Students study original screenplays, classic constructions and plot structures to learn how good story design is focused on audience. Standard formats are covered so students understand how to write scene description, describe characters and develop sequences in a professional manner.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Delineate and execute proper script format for a variety of production types
- Identify and execute research and visualization techniques used in development of a video program
- Review the copyright law as it pertains to media and intellectual property
- Write, through a series of drafts, an original screenplay for a film running no more than eight minutes of screen time
VP165 Nonfiction Filmmaking
Credits 5Fall
Registration Requirement: VP151.
This course introduces students to the documentary film through class discussion, viewings, individual and group projects and critiques. Students pitch and produce short nonfiction videos that demonstrates a historical, cultural, technical and theoretical understanding of the various elements of nonfiction filmmaking. Planning, shooting style, interview techniques, scripting and editing are addressed. Emphasis is placed on linking strong research methods to story development.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Evaluate different genres and structural concepts of non-fiction story development through a cultural lens
- Explain the impact media advances have had on non-fiction film production and distribution
- Participate in teams to create a short non-fiction films that demonstrate an understanding of the technical and theoretical aspects of production
- Examine issues of equity in non-fiction storytelling through representation, authorship, and point of view
- Provide examples of research methods and story development for non-fiction film
VP250 Advanced Digital Filmmaking
Credits 5Spring
Registration Requirement: VP151.
Students' work expands beyond the fundamental theories of field production and digital filmmaking. Exercises bring together pre-production planning, advanced camera operation and location production techniques. Emphasis is on practical applications and performance of basic crew functions and the creation of reel-worthy work. A series of production tasks brings hands-on learning as cinematographer, grip, gaffer, sound recordist and director.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Analyze lighting needs and design lighting plans for a variety of locations
- Demonstrate setup, maintenance and operation of a variety of professional video cameras
- Formulate and implement a plan for recording location sound
- Organize locations, floor space and camera angles from a script
- Prepare a script for a simple field production
- Create and edit production documentation to facilitate the post production process
VP251 Nonlinear Editing
Credits 4Winter
Registration Requirement: VP150 or VP151.
This course covers the professional application of software and hardware in digital post-production. Lab work is focused on an understanding of digital workflow, media management and nonlinear editing tools. Exercises cover the translation of scripts into sequences, sharing digital media with other post-production tools and working with layering and compositing effects. Students prepare media for delivery on common distribution platforms.
Additional Course Fee: $50.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Apply proper project workflow that manages acquisition and storage of video and non-video assets for inclusion in a video program
- Design and implement a system to maintain continuity in a production, file structure and data pertinent to project
- Develop versioned time-lines as a progression of edits on a single project
- Implement methods for mastering program material in a variety of delivery schemes, archiving work and moving assets from one storage to another
- Utilize audio elements inside the non-linear editing environment and export for sound design
- Demonstrate a facility with the editing tools on a non-linear editing platform that fosters the successful combination of multi-media elements for a finished project
VP283 Motion Graphics
Credits 4Winter
Registration Requirement: VP250.
This course focuses on the manipulation of graphics in 2.5 and 3-dimensional space for time based media. Techniques for design and implementation of motion tracking and object replacement will be employed. Students will produce title sequences, motion graphics and special effects, integrating image manipulation applications and other image processing support.
Additional Course Fee: $40.00
View Course Outcomes:
- Employ appropriate software to generate animation from a variety of media. Including techniques for object replacement, compositing and motion tracking.
- Utilize creative art direction to enhance design process.
- Identify historic and contemporary practices that address image manipulation and or animation within time-based media.
- Integrate audio with animated compositions.
- Recognize familiarity with creating motion graphics for titles, credits & animated logos.
VP289 Video Capstone Project
Credits 2Winter
Registration Requirement: VP250.
This course will facilitate the application of finishing strategies, marketing techniques and distribution avenues for the thesis video projects. Utilizing industry-standard software students will prepare their work to be used to showcase their skills to industry professionals.
View Course Outcomes:
- Apply technique in casting or directing actors
- Apply proper audio and video field recording techniques for acquisition of materials for a short film project
- Produce an appropriate promotional video to showcase on their professional website and applicable social media sites.
- Produce title graphics and sequences.
- Utilize research in the preparation for the submission of projects to the appropriate festivals, streaming sites and/or broadcasters.