The community and events organized by Dawson’s Cinema Communications department, paratechs & media lab and this semester’s Media Night
Matteo Di Giovanni
Arts & Culture Editor
This November, Dawson's Cinema and Communications department is developing various opportunities to unleash the creative potential for students in their program. These creative pursuits include: Media Night, the 24 Hour Film Challenge, Mosaic and the re-opening of the department’s Media Lab in 3B.1.
Dawson’s CinCom department put together a new team of paratechs to help out with student affairs. This team includes Aurora Becerra Granados, Matteo Di Giovanni (me), Linda Kang, Isabella Maldonado and Holden Worsley. They recently reopened the Media Lab for all Cinema Communications students. It is open from Monday to Thursday at 6pm-8pm and Fridays at 3pm-5pm. Students in that program finally have the chance to work on their creative endeavors with the use of the various equipment available.
Terryll Loffler, a CinCom professor, feels happy towards re-opening the Media Lab. "I think it's fantastic because it feels like we're getting back to where we were before COVID. What I always loved about Cinema Communications is that we have such a great collective of faculty, staff and students," said Terryll. He further explained that, "I see the reopening of the media lab as one step forwards in the rebuilding of the community that is Cincom." Terryll also expressed enthusiasm towards seeing CinCom students' final projects for this semester and hopes that opening the lab “will heighten the level of quality of work again.”
In the Media Lab, Cinema Communications students can access many types of equipment such as the 24 iMacs available in the room, various applications from the Adobe suite, an animation stand and a backlighting studio available to use for production. Paratechs will be there to help with how to use this equipment and software.
Of course, one thing both staff and students in the department share excitement for is the upcoming Media Night for the fall semester. Media Night is an end of semester screening of Cinema Communication students’ final projects. Terryll explains that Media Night is a recurring tradition that has gone on for many years. Lex Milton and his Integrating Activity class are organizing it for December. The short film submissions are juried and programmed and additionally, awards are given out to the best works. You can submit via tinyurl.com/DawsonMediaNight. The submission deadline is November 28th, 2021. Media Night will be held at Dawson’s theatre on December 3rd, 2021. It will also be streamed online. For more information, please visit https://cincommedia.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/media-night-2-0/
Another upcoming event showcasing students’ hard work is Mosaic. Mosaic is an online and interactive festival featuring all the other types of media created by Cinema Communications students. This includes such things as video essays, podcasts, graphic design, interactive environments, photo essays, short films, radio plays and more. More information to come.
In regards to plans organized by the paratechs, Linda, a paratech, and Terryll are very excited towards bringing the Cinema Communications community back together. Linda explains that not only will they plan on “workshopping Premiere Pro and other editing programs,” they are also excited to plan “fun events like the 24 hour film challenge and possible monthly film screenings” in hopes of “feeling the community and finding like minded people.” Terryll also hopes that the media lab will allow students to “begin a dialogue” with each other and lead to collaborations. “The paratechs are there to assist and help students navigate through the experience of making a piece of artwork. In the past, people would be in the media lab during the open hours and they’d become best friends and then they’d work on things together. I think that's what's really important about it. That and to have the access to the equipment to get their work done is really important to being a student and achieving success,” says Terryll.
For more information on the upcoming events and plans within the Cinema Communications department, please visit @dawsoncincom on Instagram and https://cincommedia.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/.