Scripps College High School Media Workshop challenges students in new ways

High school students from across the United States are more excited about their future in media production after taking part in the Scripps College of Communication’s High School Media Workshop in June. Forty-seven students participated in the five-day, on-campus experience where they worked with professors to create original work in Ohio University studios and lab spaces.

“Students came from as far away as Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and mostly Ohio,” said High School Media Workshop Director Andie Walla. “All the major Ohio areas were represented included Cincinnati, Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland, and even a couple students from Athens.”

The students were able to choose from several session topics, which included video production, music production and technology, animation, advanced narrative film production and sound for the moving image.

“Sound for the moving image was new this year with the addition of Assistant Professor of Instruction Jen Poland to our staff,” said Walla. “We also had the opportunity to make sure all students were able to participate in two short sessions with Jen in the advanced post-production Sound Studio. This allowed the students to explore building soundscapes for their animation or video projects.”

Evan Flesvig is from Naples, Fla., and focused on learning more about sound for the moving image during the workshop.

“As an incoming freshman at Ohio University, I wanted to experience what classes in my major may be like, get a chance to work with the studio equipment, and experience dorm living,” said Flesvig. “As a participant in Sound for the Moving Image, I learned how to be a Foley artist as well as how to edit and mix sound effects into the final cut of a movie.  In the future I hope to work exclusively on music and sound design on different pieces of media like film, TV, and gaming.” 

The newest collaboration was with the creation of a video production team. This group spent time learning manual camera operation with DSL cameras. They also learned how to edit footage in Adobe Premiere Pro. They learned about multi-camera production and were able to bring in local artists to create music videos. 

“Students from the music production team were able to join the video production students in the studio to learn about live remote recording and the audio equipment that goes with that setup,” said Walla. “It is much different than working in a studio.”

Walla said the students had a lot of creative freedom during the workshop, which opened up new opportunities.

“I love hearing about their ideas for lighting, cinematography, and even discussing storylines for short films. The video production team had not planned on creating a short film. However, the students took it amongst themselves to spend a couple free hours creating a short film that premiered on Saturday at the end of the workshop,” said Walla. “It made me feel good to be able to provide them the skills and tools to create something like that, in such a short amount of time, with a new group of friends.”

After participating in the workshop, Flesvig is more excited about coming to Athens this fall.

“My favorite part of the workshop was being able to work on a movie and learn how to cooperate with a wide range of people in various specialty areas to coordinate the movie making process and develop a quality final product,” said Flesvig. “I would highly recommend this program to anyone school who is interested in anything music, sound or media production related.” 

For more information about the annual workshop, please see the High School Media Workshop website.