| The Department of Communication Arts &
Sciences at Calvin College launched its first annual Festival of Media
Arts showcasing student audio, video and multimedia productions from both
introductory and advanced courses.
Attendees from on and off campus called it a remarkable success with high-quality
productions that reflect Calvin students’ growing interest in media
production, their itch to get behind cameras and in front of microphones,
the resources of the new DeVos Communication Center with all of its serious
technology and finely equipped editing suites; the steady increases in
CAS faculty with diversified media experience… the list goes on,
as the laws of supply and demand have resulted in an explosion of media-making
activity on Calvin’s campus.
Hosted primarily by professors Daniel Garcia, who teaches video production
and screenwriting, and Robert Fortner, who helms the audio and screenwriting
courses, the festival featured a variety of media projects – short
narrative films, documentaries, screenplays and sound recordings –
that were voted the best of their category by the students in the classes
out of which they originated. Also showcased were projects from students
in the newly formed Calvin Media Company (CMC), a one-hour credit course
taught by are TV professional Lori Cook.
The Introduction to Video Class started off the evening with group “remakes”
of scenes found in popular films. A remade clip from 1995’s El
Callejon de los Milagros, produced by Erin O’ Connor, Jason
Kornas, Dave Meyer and Nick Zondervan was shown; also 2000’s Erin
Brockovich, produced by Sarah Bergy, Jonathan der Nederlanden, Mieke
Jones and Kari Rabenhorst.
The segment from the Advanced Video Production Class included two original
narrative films: a remarkably well-photographed film noir-style Midnight
Rendezvous, produced by Timothy Kreft, Brian Posslenzny and Dan Swierenga,
and Betrayal by Eric Vroom. This segment of the program included
experimental films from Scott Beahm and Jonathan McGlone, and the documentary
Dance with Me, about a Cuban immigrant and lifelong lover of
dance, from producers Alejandra Garcia and Abby Leja.
Audio Design and Aesthetics courses turned out a variety of recorded songs,
featuring the talents of Joel Fisher and Jeff McBride; Pete Dewey, Kim
Scott, Drew Johnson and David Buick; Emily Kochon, Ashley Payne, Rachel
Dik and Melanie DeNooy; and Dave Boomker. Interspersed with the segments
of video and sound recordings were live readings of works from the screenwriting
classes. Waiting for News by Rachel Dik, Tongue Tied
by Davis Watson, and Black Fist by Matt Harris were read early
during the program, followed after intermission by Scott Beahm’s
Sweatshirt, Chris Buma’s The Story, and Returning,
by Mieke Jones.
Late in the program the Calvin Media Company (CMC) showed the shorts Pearling,
produced by Sam DeBoer, Christina DeVos, Ryan Terpstra; Food at Calvin,
by Dan Troost, Ryan Terpstra, David DeBoer, and Jeff McBride; and Downloading,
by Jordan Horras, Jeff McBride and Dan Troost, as well as several 30-second
promos of the CAS department created by students who had taken the computer
animation interim course, “AfterEffects and the Sixty-Second Seduction.”
The evening concluded with a highly professional video documentary, The
Life & Legacy of John Vanderburgh, produced by advanced media
production student Mikael Jackson under the supervision of Professor James
Korf.
—Rachel Zylstra
View clips from CAS
290 - Advanced Video Production, spring 2004 |
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