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title: TDM98 Workshop 20221103
tags: [jessi]

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tags: jessi
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# TDM98 Workshop 20221103

Where: LL Studio
When: 11/03/2022
Course instructor: James Stanley
Enrollment: 3

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In this workshop, Jessi and Marlon led TDM Junior Capstone students through a series of Learning Lab "tasters" that invited them to use different mediums to develop their ideas for their senior thesis projects, as well as get a taste of the different ways the Learning Lab (LL) can be a resource for them when they are working on their senior thesis projects next year.

In the week prior, Jessi visited the TDM98 class and listened to the students present on both their working project description as well as specific artists they want to emulate throughout their process. Jessi used this information to curate a workshop that allowed each student to dive deep into a particular tool or approach that met their interests. 


**Objectives:**
1. Familiarize students with Learning Lab capacities
3. Give students opportunity to play with different media elements that are relevent to their projects
4. Blur the line between process and product outputs

**Workshop structure:**
* [Welcome & gather](#Wecome-and-gather)
* [Student Introductions](#Student-introductions)
* [World-building through mini-modeling](#Mini-modeling)
* [Scoring your world with Logic Pro](#Logic-Pro)
* [Film principles and integrating film on stage](#Filming-principles)
* [Green screen interaction](#Green-screen)
* [Documentation](#Behind-the-scenes-documentation)

Bonus: Behind the scenes documentation



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## Welcome and gather

As students entered the space, they saw various screens set up around the studio with different shots from within the studio, including a close up of a mini-model of Farkas Hall. 

![alt text](https://files.slack.com/files-pri/T0HTW3H0V-F04A5RF4B3P/20221103_gif1_360.gif?pub_secret=c7ca5550db)

## Student introductions

To start off, each student used small colorful cards and our tablescape camera set-up to introduce themselves and their working project idea. They were encouraged to be creative about how they used the tools and space to represent themselves.



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## Mini-modeling
    
Each student then moved to their own individual work table, where they each had a Mac computer, a camera, and a variety of craft materials. They were first invited to use the craft materials in front of them to create a mini-model of the world that their script-in-progress takes place. They were also invited and taught how to use the camera at their station to set up a close-up shot of their mini model on the table. Each student took a very different approach to their mini model, finding creative ways of utilizing the materials to develop distinct structures. 

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/003OWao.jpg"  width="350" height="250">
    
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/rdmhGGv.jpg"  width="350" height="250"> 


## Logic Pro 

After building their mini-models, students shifted to the computers and were taken through a brief tutorial on Logic Pro, a digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application, by one of the Learning Lab Undergraduate Fellows, Andrew. Once they understood the basics of the program, students built an audio track that complimented their mini model world.
    
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## Filming principles

The students also learned how to set up a basic close-up shot for filming an interview, with a focus on how to adjust the camera and lighting: 
 
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We also worked to recreate a shot from a Jason Lester music video, who was chosen by one of the students as an artist they want to emulate through their thesis project. This student was particularly interested in how one could recreate some of the moves that are usually done in post-production, live on stage:
    
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## Green screen

Finally, students used the cameras at their stations to set up a balanced, static shot of their mini model and we keyed that shot onto the greenscreen, so that students could interact with their mini models as if they were to-scale:

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## Behind the scenes documentation 

All the while students were doing tasters of the different tools and skills, we were capturing behind the scenes footage of them and interviewing them about their process as they created. As some of the students plan on conducting practical research for their projects and expressed an interest in documenting that research, we wanted to give students a taste of how process documentation not only serves archival ends, but can also be used as it's own output to be included in a portoflio, or even incorporated into the final creative product (e.g. layering interview audio over behind-the-scenes footage to create a short process film that can be screened before a performance, in a lobby isntallation, etc.)

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###  Key Takeaways:
    
* Moving through mediums allowed students to engage with their creative ideas through different entry points. While all the students seemed engaged in each part of the workshop, they each seemed to gravitate toward a particular tool that they find most applicable to their senior thesis goals. 
* Inviting students to introduce themselves using our nontraditional presentation capacities allowed them to get comfortable with touching, experimenting, and utilizing the LL resources, so that when it came time to create at their maker stations, they were ready to dive right in, even asking for additional materials that weren't on the tables. 
* One student in particular seemed to develop a more concrete idea about his project through creating an audiotrack. He was able to make connections between his musical approach and writing approach:

>    ` More specifically, the student, whose project involves centering black characters in the Star Wars universe, created a soundtrack that, rather than sampling the original Star Wars soundtrack and manipulating it in Logic Pro, instead wanted to create his own track that resembled the mood of a particular musical theme from Star Wars, but is rooted in a hip-hop style. He was able to draw a parallel between this choice and his writing approach, discovering that rather than literally placing black characters within the Star Wars universe, he wants to create a world that resembles the Star Wars universe rather than placing his own characters directly inside of it. `
    
* By the end of the workshop, students were actively thinking about ways to incorporate media into their projects next semester, and were even asking when they could come back to prototype more. This workshop seemed to expand their ideas about what is possible for their future project. 
