Since Fall semester, 2015, I have been an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama College of Communication & Information Sciences. Originally the Department of Telecommunication & Film, we merged with the Department of Journalism in Fall 2016 to become the Department of Journalism & Creative Media.
As a media creator for various purposes and clients, I have applied my broad range of skills and experience in my classes, passing along my knowledge to my students in an effort to prepare them for a future in media production.
Presentations & Extracurriculars
Million Dollar Band Video Content Creator
2018 Season
Black Warrior Film Festival: Aspiring Filmmakers' Workshop Production
Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Black Warrior Film Festival Judge
Spring 2019
Faculty Technology Showcase
Video Production for All Majors (Spring 2018)
Frame.io for Instructor and Peer Review of Digital Video Projects (Spring 2016)
Global Communication Teachers' Academy
Co-Presenter: Introduction to Broadcast Production (January 2018)
JCM 102: Fundamentals of Media Technology
For Fall Semester 2017, I worked with a colleague in the JCM department to craft a course that would give a overview of various media production concepts, skills, and tools that they may use in any possible area of their future Journalism or Media Production endeavors. I have taught this course for 3 semesters.
Throughout the semester, I guide students through basic photography skills such as framing & composition, graphic design in Adobe Photoshop, "podcast" style multi-track audio production in Adobe Audition, production of a short documentary edited in Adobe Premiere, and finally showcasing and reviewing their semester's work by creating a blog post that is featured on a class Wordpress website.
Visit https://uajcm102.blog to view projects that the students in my section of the course, as well as other professor's sections.
JCM 145: Media Production (for Non-JCM Majors)
In this course, I guide students through basic principals of video production. The students in this class are not media production majors, and each semester presents a unique group of students from various fields of study. We begin the semester with a simple framing & composition exercise to familiarize them with camera settings and framing techniques. The students then produce short documentary and narrative pieces, building their skill set along the way.
For the last two semesters, I have ended the course with a class-wide group assignment where we all participate in producing video content for a cause or organization that is promoting positive values and helping others.
In Fall 2017, the first semester we did this, my students came from theater, music, advertising, and business backgrounds. I had been approached to produce a video for the Dragon Master Foundation. My students were able to utilize the skills they learned in my class, as well as skills from their own areas of study to create a very nice promotional video. The music was written, performed, and recorded by the music minor in the class, students who appear on screen are studying acting or reporting, the script was written by students who are in advertising and creative writing. Every student in the class contributed to shooting some portion of the video, and everyone made their own edit. The best one was sent to our contact at Dragon Master Foundation and used in their social media.
In Spring 2018, I hosted a student from the CrossingPoints program at the University of Alabama in the JCM 145 course. For the final class project, we interviewed CrossingPoints students, teachers, and administrators to help raise awareness for the program. My students conducted and shot the interviews, and edited in groups to create videos that discussed different aspects of the CrossingPoints program.
JCM 201/TCF 201: Introduction to Media Production
I have been involved in many different iterations of this course for production majors- first as a Graduate Assistant, then teaching the lecture and lab portions together, and now as the primary lab instructor. Since the creation of the JCM department, we have fashioned this class in a way that students produce work throughout the semester to build skills that culminate in individual end-of-semester projects to be used in their reels and to determine how they proceed with the rest of their JCM career.
Naturally more in-depth than the non-majors course, I get to demonstrate and teach concepts and practices the students need in order to create polished, professional looking projects- including planning and shooting narrative and documentary videos, using lighting and secondary audio equipment, and more advanced editing skills such as color correction and audio mixing.
The last semester I taught this course as TCF 201, I piloted the concept that I now use in JCM 145- having the class work as a group to produce a final project that is used by a group or organization. Students worked in sets of crews to shoot different interviews and gather concert footage and b-roll for the University of Alabama Trombone Studio. This video is still featured on their homepage: www.RollSlide.com.
JCM 433: Advanced Post Production/TCF 361 Intro to Post Production
In the post production classes I have taught, my students edit various types of footage from action and dialogue scenes to sports and music performance, and work with creating graphics in Adobe After Effects and enhancing audio in Adobe Audition. While we use the Adobe editing software, we spend a great deal of time discussing concepts and the craft of editing video regardless of what program they may use in a given situation. My goal in these classes is to not only teach them how to use a non-linear editing program, but to prepare them for changes in technology.
MC 315 (University of Montevallo): Video Field and Post-Production
Similar to JCM 201 at the University of Alabama, this course presents elements of digital filmmaking using single camera production skills. Projects include visual storytelling, documentary portrait, scripted narrative, and a short 30 second promotional video meant to highlight aspects of the University of Montevallo campus life and activities. The semester ends with a final project decided by each student incorporating the elements of production learned through the semester.