Digital Media Practices

COORDINATE MAJOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICES

The creative industries are an important part of New Orleans culture and its economy. The Digital Media Practices Major gives students the opportunity to develop and refine their skills in digital media as they relate to the creative industries. Students pursue fundamental coursework in content creation, storytelling, and media manipulation before choosing from one of five focus areas for a year-long senior Capstone project. Coursework available exclusively to our majors focuses on the art of practical filmmaking. Our program offers courses covering industry standard use of cameras, lighting, cinematography, editing, color grading, sound and music for video, screenwriting, directing, and producing.

In addition to the coursework offered exclusively to our majors. Our program relies on its relationships to several other coordinating departments on campus. Students choose electives from a wide variety of courses to prepare for their senior exercise. For example, the Narrative Filmmaking aspects of our program are closely aligned with the theater department, including courses in storytelling, directing, acting, lighting, and producing. Our Documentary Filmmaking focus area allows our students to pursue digital media expertise as it relates to faculty specialization in the Communications, History, and Anthropology departments. Our Sound Practice focus area is aligned closely with Music and Communications department faculty interest areas. Our developing Interactive Media and Creative Coding focus areas allow students to take advantage of faculty expertise in the Computer Science, Digital Art, Photography, Music Technology, and Digital Design departments.

Many of our students choose to create fully produced narrative short films. However, our program also wants to be surprised by the projects students choose to pursue, whether these projects are documentary short films, full length screenplays, multi-episode podcasts, radio dramas, interactive media exhibitions, experimental video games or a combination of all of these elements. Our program gives students the opportunity to work closely with experienced and supportive faculty interested in allowing students’ imaginations to help to define their goals.

Courses

The coordinate major in digital media practices first requires students to declare a major in another discipline before declaring the DMPC coordinate major. The program is an interdisciplinary, 30 credit program that can include courses from Music, Theatre and Dance, Communication, Art, or English. Students will take 5 required courses and 5 electives:

• DMPC 2001 Digital Filmmaking Fundamentals I
• DMPC 2002 Digital Filmmaking Fundamentals II
• DMPC 5550 Advanced Digital Filmmaking I
• DMPC 5560 Advanced Digital Filmmaking II

And one of the following:

• COMM 3150 Film Analysis
• COMM 4750 New Media Theory
• ENLS 4750 New Media Theory

Electives

The full list of courses available for elective credit in the Digital Media Practices major are as follows:

DMPC:

• DMPC 1110 Intro to Creative Industries

Any DMPC 3000 or 4000 level course. For example:

• DMPC 3220 Digital Production Non-Profits
• DMPC 3030 TV & Film Sound Design
• DMPC 3040 Lighting and Cinematography
• DMPC 3750 Media Health & Wellbeing
• DMPC 3910 Special topics in DMPR
• DMPC 3910 Color Grading and Digital Image Correction
• DMPC 3911 Introduction to Screenwriting
• DMPC 3913 Introduction to Documentary Filmmaking
• DMPC 4070 Contemporary Film as Art and Industry
• DMPC 4570 Service Learning Internship
• DMPC 4910 Independent Study

Art:

• ARST 1550 Foundations of Art: Digital Arts I
• ARST 2550 Digital Arts II
• ARST 1350 Foundations of Art: Photography
• ARST 2350 Intermediate Photography
• ARST 3550 Time Based Media

Music:

• MUSC 2300 Introduction to Computer Applications in Music
• MUSC 2310 History of Electronic Music
• MUSC 2218-03 Composition for Electronic Media
• MUSC 3213-03 Composition for Electronic Media
• APMS 2210/3210 Voice/Vocal Jazz
• APMS 3330 Music For Film
• MUSC 4400 Music and Digital Signal Processing
• MUSC 4410 Music Performance Systems
• MUSC 4420 Algorithmic and Computer Music

English:

• ENLS 4750 New Media Theory
• ENLS 3610 Creative Writing
• ENLS 4660 Topics in Adv Creative Writing

Theater:

• THEA 2100 Fundamentals of Acting
• THEA 2110 Beginning Acting
• THEA 3210 Directing I
• THEA 3340 Production and Design I
• THEA 6110 Acting for Other Media

Dance:

• Dance 4600 Choreography and Media

Communications:

• COMM 2700 Visual Communication
• COMM 3650 Feminist Doc & new Media
• COMM 3825 Digital Media in Theory and Practice
• COMM 4170 U.S. Film History
• COMM 4850 Cinema Technology Modernity

Computer Science:

• CPMS 1500 Introduction to Computer Science I
• CPMS 1600 Introduction to Computer Science II