Format Dynamics :: CleanPrint :: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2…e Moss | Digital storytellers are thriving in graphics technology setting
Dale Moss | Digital storytellers are thriving in graphics technology setting December 30, 2010
One student passed popcorn; another switched off the lights. A classmate clicked a keyboard, and Nicole Melton's group project popped onto the monitor. A girl walked through a field to captivating music from an Icelandic band. Focus shifted; scenes dissolved. John Finnegan, the professor, made notes in the dark. Transfixed, few of his students took advantage of a platter of cookies. Minutes later, lights back on, Melton explained the project, fellow students critiqued it, and Finnegan suggested what he called tweaks. “I would definitely submit it to a film festival,” Finnegan told Melton and her three helpers. This is college today — not entirely, but increasingly. It is college every bit as pertinent and demanding, if not more so, than college yesterday. It is college in Southern Indiana, as well as in Southern California or wherever. Melton, of Lanesville, is among dozens of computer graphics technology majors at the Purdue University College of Technology in New Albany.
1/2/11 8:57 PM
Washington High School who chose the local, cutting-edge Purdue program from among many choices. Not so long ago, a young man like this might have been steered to medicine or law. Clements appreciates that he wasn't. “Once they see my work. … I want to make it a huge part of my life. They respect that.” With longish curly hair, shirt untucked, glasses down his nose, Finnegan looks like a professor. He challenges students in anything but stereotypical ways, though. Clements is part of a group, for instance, with an entry in this year's Super Bowl commercial contest. Students in Finnegan's digital audio and video class actually submitted three commercials for the first time. “It's a lot of time, a lot of sweat equity,” Finnegan said. “But I'm really proud of these projects.” Jonathan Kuo of Louisville counts on such work to help not only his grade but his portfolio. These are students determined to be animators, not accountants. They intend to produce movies, not spreadsheets. They master video editing, get a
Advertisement
She can live at work, serve ostensibly a related internship and learn what she's wanted to do since high school. “They support me,” she said of her parents. “They do, however, want me to get a master's degree in business — just to be safe, I guess.” Classmates include Brandon Clements, of Hardinsburg, a former valedictorian at West
http://www.courier-journal.com/fdcp/?1294017632305
Page 1 of 3
Format Dynamics :: CleanPrint :: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2…e Moss | Digital storytellers are thriving in graphics technology setting
1/2/11 8:57 PM
feel for special effects. Books seem all but obsolete. As Finnegan noted, this generation communicates like none before it. It is one of digital storytellers, he said, studying a blend of art, technology and computer science. “I can make something come to life,” Kuo said. “It's really intriguing to me.” “It gets what's in here out,” said Camber Griffin, of Louisville, pointing to his head. Kevin Ho of Louisville said he, too, was assumed to head to a future in medicine or engineering. “I told them (his parents), ʻGraphic design is everywhere.' ” Ho said students learn from one another. They are encouraged to push classmates and instructors. “There's always going to be something new,” Ho said. “It's what you put into it.” Nicole Banet of Borden took a flier on one of these courses and gladly stayed. “We're all creative-based,” she told me, minutes after showing a video that included characters with torsos of Post-it notes. Banet hopes for a career in print or Web design. Clements aims for nothing less than the employ of movie giant Industrial Light & Magic.
Advertisement
“This is just the beginning,” the freshman said. “You can bet I'll be on to bigger and better things.” To reach Dale Moss, call (812) 949-4026 or email dmoss@courier-journal.com. Comment on this article, and read his blog and previous columns, at www.courier-journal.com/moss.
http://www.courier-journal.com/fdcp/?1294017632305
Page 2 of 3
Format Dynamics :: CleanPrint :: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2‌e Moss | Digital storytellers are thriving in graphics technology setting
1/2/11 8:57 PM
Advertisement
http://www.courier-journal.com/fdcp/?1294017632305
Page 3 of 3