Teenagers preview future careers at media camps

By Beau Hayhoe | Originally Published: 07/20/11 10:01pm |Modified: 07/20/11 10:03pm | No comments

Matt Hallowell | The State News

From left, Flynn Drew, 16, media arts and technology senior Zachary Hall, Liam Britton, 14, Brendan Reed, 14, Ryan Carlson, 14, and Kelley Waterfall, 16, walk to the location of the next scene they planned on filming Wednesday afternoon on Bennett Rd. The group is part of a summer camp held by the MSU Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media that gives middle and high school students the chance to get hands on experience with video production, music recording, and video game developing equipment.

Middle school and high school students from across the state are getting a hands-on crash course in three different types of media technology through summer camps held this July by MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media.

The first of three weeks of camps kicked off July 11, with high school students taking a course of their choice, geared toward either television production, music recording or video game design. Middle school students will attend day-camp courses covering video game design next week.

About 65 students are slated to attend each of the camp’s sessions, said Jillian Winn, the department’s outreach specialist.

Students learn the basics of using editing programs, producing video and working with audio, either in teams or individually. Classes generally are small, with one instructor sometimes working with as few as 10 students, Winn said.

The camps provide students with valuable experience related to potential academic and career areas, Winn said.

“It’s very hands-on. By the end of the week they leave with something,” she said. “In the TV camp, they leave with a TV show they’ve made. … Really it’s giving them the idea what it would be like to major in one of these fields.”

This week, students have been taking courses covering digital cinema and advanced video game design.

Campers have stayed in Shaw Hall and dined in campus cafeterias as part of their experience. Winn is optimistic many students might return to MSU based on their time spent on campus.

“We have had students who have come back who have been in classes,” she said.

As many as 96 percent of last year’s campers said they liked or loved the camp, and 99 percent said they could see themselves using camp skills in the future.

Some students have enjoyed this week’s edition of the camp, including Sean Vincke, a high school junior from New Lothrop, Mich. Vincke is taking the camp’s digital cinema course and, by week’s end, will have helped produce a five-minute short film.

“I think it’s kind of fun,” he said. “I think I will have a better understanding (of digital cinema).”

Vincke said, so far, he’s learned about different variations of cameras used in filming and said later courses will incorporate specific instruction on film editing.

Lisa Whiting Dobson, an instructor in the department who is leading television production courses, said although the camps are hard work, many students thoroughly enjoy them.

“A number of our campers have never had the opportunity to try anything like this before,” Whiting Dobson said in an email. “I think, for many of them, it cements their interest in the field.”