Classes: Digital Video Intensive

(Courses are subject to change.)

DVI Course List

TECHNICAL
After Effects
Audio
Compression for Web and DV
Final Cut Pro 101
Pixels 101
Video Tech: Production Gear
Web Basics for Video Professionals

CREATIVE
Aesthetics (camera, editing, lighting, color)
Directing
Fundamentals of Screenwriting
Music for Film

BUSINESS
Producing (project management, laws, etc.)

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the study of certain sense perceptions and how these perceptions can be most effectively clarified, intensified, and interpreted through a medium, such as video, film, painting or photography, for a specific recipient. People react to stimuli such as color, sounds, distance, time, and motion, in similar ways. In this course, you will learn why people respond the way they do and with that knowledge, learn how to affect a person's perception, and ultimately their behavior, by a precise, calculated application of aesthetic variables.

After Effects

This course teaches popular effects software Adobe After Effects, stressing its strengths in the production environment. Students will learn the skills needed to create common motion graphics, titling and effects and to make informed decisions when working in post-production.

Audio

Audio covers the technical aspects of sound for visual media. This is broken into three areas: technical specifications of digital audio and equipment, principles and techniques of location recording and principles and techniques of post-production and sound design. Tools include Final Cut Pro, Digidesign Pro Tools, shotgun mics, fish pole booms, and blimps.

Compression for Web and DVD

Once a project is edited, the “DVographer” has a number of options when choosing a delivery medium. This presents the filmmaker with numerous compression options for web and DVD This course emphasizes compression for those delivery systems. Focus software tools are Compressor and Apple QuickTime Pro.

Directing

The Director is ultimately responsible for every creative decision on a video, film or multimedia project. His task is to guide a talented group of collaborators, which include actors, writers, cameramen, editors, designers, and composers, towards a single vision. We will examine the Director's journey from the first reading of the script to the delivery of the final project. Along the way we will cover working with writers, the script breakdown, collaborating with key members of your creative team, the casting process, the rehearsal process, production, and post-production.

Final Cut Pro

Apple Final Cut Pro is a cutting edge software NLE (non-linear editor), which makes it possible for independents to create anything from shorts to full length features on a shoe string budget. This course covers the essentials of logging, capturing, editing, compositing and rendering. Final Cut Pro acts as the hub of all post-production work in the DVI. Software integration with After Effects and Photoshop will also be covered.

Music for Film

This half-day seminar is designed to make the visual artist aware of how their choice of music will impact an audience's perception of a film or other visual media.

Pixels 101

This short course helps the filmmaker to understand the technical specifications behind working in digital media.

Producing I

The three main documents, or blueprints, needed for any video, film, or multimedia project are a script, a schedule and a budget. We will focus on the latter two in this class. Using Movie Magic Scheduling and Budgeting, we'll learn how to break down a script to account for all of a project's needs, from actors and props to locations and vehicles. Then we'll learn how to transfer that information into a time-saving, cost-efficient shooting schedule. Finally, we'll figure out how much it will all cost by discussing the decisions to be made when creating your budget, with an emphasis on budgeting for miniDV.

Producing II

Managing even the simplest digital project can be a formidable task. There are the questions of union vs. nonunion, clearances and releases, negotiating with vendors, even which caterer to hire. Through it all, the Producer is the one responsible for keeping the project running on schedule and on budget. We'll discuss the Producer's role in that process from the inception of an idea, through pre-production, shooting, and post, to delivery of the final product, and even on through distribution and exhibition.

Video Tech

Video Tech teaches the students how to use DV equipment and supporting accessories. This includes nuts-and-bolts “how to” with the camera and its components, decks, and accessories as well as developing and understanding of the terminology and specifications pertaining to DV. DV tools include: Sony PD150 camera and Sony DSR-11 DV deck.

Web Basics for Video Professionals

Whether it's for promotional trailers, teaser clips, or entire projects, the web offers a unique platform for delivery of DV. This course provides the fundamental knowledge needed to use the web for exhibition of DV on the web.

For detailed descriptions of DVI courses and more information about the Digital Video Intensive, please see their website at http://msp.sfsu.edu/dvi/.