Behhind the Camera : Filmmaking with Albright’s Digital Video Studio

Digital Video is one of the several Digital Arts classes taught at Albright College, focusing on the history, skill and development of the production of Digital Video. The class allows students to learn the meaning of developing and producing their own videos through their individual styles and personality. Digital Video is a two-semester class, with Digital Video I in the fall and Digital Video II in the spring. Digital Video teaches students how to storyboard, produce, direct, shoot and edit their own work while participating in in-class critiques to help improve their work.

Professor of Art and Digital Media

Matthew Garrison teaches these classes with his passion for video shining through. Garrison specializes in Digital Art and Design, Video and Special Effects and Multimedia Installation. Additionally, he works in sculpting, which he studied prior to becoming a professor at Albright. Garrison has worked with technology and across media and is interested in the conversation throughout media as well as the messages built into these different areas. The teaching of Digital Video comes very effortlessly to him as he has a heartfelt love for video.

“I just love video. I love to do it. I love to see anything on the screen like that. It does not even have to be a great work of art; a ‘Citizen Kane’ or a ‘Taxi Driver.’ It could be some underground experimental piece, somebody trying to break through with new ideas. To me, that’s all part of what the video is about,” says Garrison. “It’s a conversation across generations coming from many, many, points of view. So, in terms of why teach it? I guess in some ways, it is just part of who I am.”

Garrison thinks Digital Video is instrumental for students to learn as the world becomes ever more visual. He believes visual literacy is equally important and contends that it is just as important as verbal literacy due to the amount of information people see on an everyday basis. The possibilities of the current digital age are endless. With all the platforms and opportunities to see film and video in the theater, almost everyone can self-publish, even on their social media feeds. People are constantly discovered through these mediums, presenting their own unique style and personality.

“I hope for students to find their own voice,” Garrison says. “Once they have accomplished and know what they want to say, then their ability to say it through, in the case of video, through the moving image, through sequential images, and its construction as we talk about in the class.” He believes students should find their own style in video through themselves and even other people’s works, not just through what he emulates.

Referencing Alfred Hitchcock’s editing process, Garrison explains how editing is all about assembling a mosaic rather than simply cutting footage together. In his class, students learn how to assemble and bring together footage “from their own world,” conveying whatever they want to say to their audiences.

Digital Communications Major, Dylan Sokolovich, is a junior who has taken both Digital Video courses. Through taking the classes, Sokolovich has learned and gained confidence from Garrison’s teaching. “Being proud of what you make is something I never really had before taking Professor Garrison’s class, but it is something that he seems to really push for,” he says. “I might come into class not being proud of something, but he shows the good stuff in it, and even if there are bad things, he helps us work towards getting better at that.”

Sokolovich thinks even with this class being a requirement for his major, it was beneficial to take otherwise. He learned how Digital Video is applicable for marketing and getting out there and meeting new people. Getting out of his

by Alicia Cone

comfort zone and expanding his horizons was one of the many opportunities gained from taking Digital Video. Although this course was a part of his major, Sokolovich advocates Digital Video because of the valuable projects and lessons he learned along the Garrisonway.welcomes students to take Digital Video regardless of experience with technology. He says that people generally have a sense of navigating social media which helps the creative process of creating video, however, he does note it is a different process. He hopes students taking this class will be excited about figuring out what they want to say, how they want to say it and what media they choose to use as a medium. His class intends to motivate and empower students to make their inspirations and ideas come to life through the power of video.

“It’s a conversation across generations, coming from many, many, points of view. So, in terms of why I teach it? I guess in some ways, it is just part of who I am”