If I could be a student for the rest of my life and not have to pay for it, I’d do it in a heartbeat. As a person who gets bored pretty easily, I love to learn new things and take classes. To feed that need, I regularly take video workshops at MetroEast Community Media and Portland Community Media. They offer training in state-of-the-art video equipment at very affordable prices. You can take classes in field production, lighting, audio, editing and studio production. Plus if you become a producer, you can check out their equipment for a nominal fee.

I created the PSA above in an editing workshop at PCM. They provided the video clips (which aren’t great), and I had to create the message, voice over and final edit. My video is definitely cheesy, but it is interactive and holds the viewer’s attention.

In 2009, I worked with senior digital media students at CAL to produce the first Five Minute Film Festival. We held the free event in the CAL forum and expected mostly seniors and their parents to attend. To our surprise, about 150 people showed up for the event. Needless to say we were delighted with the turnout but were unprepared to seat so many people and did not have an audio/visual system that was robust enough.

So on February 24, 2010, we hosted the event at the Mount Hood Community College Visual Arts Theater and charged $3 for students and $5 for adults. Over 250 people attended, and we made over $1000. Plus we had a professional panel of judges and gave away a $100 prize for the judge’s award and $50 for the people’s choice award. Both the event and movies were an improvement than the first year, and I can’t wait to see how next year’s event is even better.

Watch the winners and all five minute films here: http://calfilmfest.com/.

I am a Digital Media Instructor at The Center for Advanced Learning, a charter high school in Gresham, OR. My focus is video production, a media where anything can happen. My curriculum is modeled after the American Film Institute’s production process for moviemaking, so students get a real-life experience from pre- to post-production. If you’re not sure what that means, watch the above video I created that describes what students must do to create their movies.

Pre-production is a time where I hear lots of initial complaining from students, but then they realize the importance of planning in the end. Once students move to production, they have the great opportunity to use equipment from MetroEast Community Media, an organization that became our partner in September 2009.

During post-production, students learn to edit using Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. They learn that video has so many variables that can go wrong, and troubleshooting is a valuable skill to have.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

This summer I was fortunate to teach a week-long camp for middle schoolers on comics and graphic novels. This was the first time that I ever worked with middle schoolers and I now appreciate that their sense of humor and adventure. They aren’t as jaded or self conscious as some teenagers can be.

We did many fun activities from the new book Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel & Matt Madden. I was impressed with the lessons in this book and adjusted them for a younger audience.

Now I want to take the class myself!

Louis Armstrong

This is a design I created in my Advanced Photoshop class at PNCA. It’s an interpretation of Louis Armstrong beltin’ it out on his trumpet.

I did a companion piece with Miles Davis but it’s not as good. So Louis stands here alone.

The experience was interesting to say the least; I learned a lot (maybe too much) about country livin’.

Here’s my favorite story about one student in French class who we’ll call Billy.

Mme. Myers: Salut class. Today we’re going to talk about food.

Billy: Uh, Madame My-er, do the French like beef jerky?

Mme. Myers: No particularly, Billy. So class, this is a book from Balthazar Restaurant, a French bistro in NYC. Check out the photos of some of these dishes. (Holds up a photo of a scallop nestled in a delicate ring of creme fraîche and a pesto sauce.)

Billy: Um, Madame My-er, uh…what’s that?

Mme. Myers: Billy, that’s a scallop.

Billy: (pause) Ohhhh, potato!

However, Wittenberg is stalking me. They somehow always track me down to ask me to donate money. No matter where I move, their spies find me.

The other day I accepted a Witt “friend” on Facebook (c’mon, we’re all guilty of accepting invitations of people on Facebook with whom we’re not truly friends anymore). We’ll call him Joe.

Well, a week later I got a letter from Joe on Witt stationery asking me to donate some money to our alma mater. A SASE envelope was conveniently included.

I know the money goes to a good cause but I recycled the letter. I do, however, give Witt credit for planting spies on Facebook. Sneaky, Witt. Very sneaky.

The quality of the classes/instructors has been hit or miss, with a growing number in the misses column. They have, however, inspired me to work on my own, and I’m currently much more skilled than I was at the start. Plus I love to be around other creative adults who give me inspiration.

I’ve also recently used online tutorials at Lynda.com that give clear, explicit instruction for just about any software program (at $25/month). I can even learn more technical coding skills with their videos.

So I’m trying to decide if I should continue with the PNCA program or just do my own thing. I also wonder…does a certificate in graphic design mean anything to anyone?

Anyone have an opinion or advice?

The school has an interesting structure that other high schools are starting to consider.

• Students come from various districts (Gresham, Reynolds, Centennial, Corbett).
• They attend their home high school and CAL every other day.
• They study engineering, design, medicine, IT networking, etc.
• Learning is project-based and community-centered.
• Students WANT to be there!