Reggie Thompson
The Paw Print
For those who are interested in media and creating fun, creative, film-based projects, here is your new activity. Grizzly Media Productions is the student club that allows its members an opportunity to “express themselves through visual media.”
Based on the this past summer’s Digital Filmmaking course, this club will be used to teach students the ins and outs of the expanding field.
“Vocationally, the visual media industry continues to grow and there is demand in many employment sectors for skilled visual communicators,” says club adviser Danny Ledonne.
Ledonne, a San Luis Valley native, realized he wanted to be a filmmaker while attending Alamosa High School around the time that the school’s media technology program was on the rise. From there, he graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Media Arts. After starting his own business, Emberwilde Productions, and working on media projects for AOL, PBS, and LinkTV, Ledonne is back in his hometown to help bring up potential future broadcast journalists, Hollywood filmmakers, documentarians, and videographers.
The Mass Communication program has offered some limited video production courses in the past but there has not been a united effort on campus to create a media production program before. There was quite a bit of talk and interest around developing a true program for a while, but budget cuts prevented it from becoming a reality up until this point. However, the declining cost of quality video cameras and editing systems made putting together thesew activities feasible with less investment in hardware.
Speaking of the current progress, Ledonne adds, “We are in the process of allocating our resources and pooling together existing departmental interests to offer students a place to check out cameras, edit their projects, and release them on the campus cable channel as well as online.”
Courtesy Photo: Filmmaker Danny Ledonne
To add to the growing list of media-related programs at Adams State, Ledonne is also offering a Video Practicum course for any student to take as an independent study for 1-3 credits. This course is JOUR 179/379/579 (depending on class standing) and is designed for students who want to create their own media for college credit. Ledonne will be advising them on their projects and looks forward to watching their vision unfold throughout the semester. Course registration will be open until late September so there’s still time for students to sign up. If they are enrolled in at least 12 credit hours, they can take this course tuition-free as long as they do not go over 20 credit hours.
Lastly, Ledonne is offering a program for students who want to get get paid for the finished films they produce. He will be hiring two paid student positions, a General Manager and a Content Manager, who will be commissioning and overseeing the completion of these projects. After enough content is gathered, it will be aired on the campus cable channel (GRZ-TV) and uploaded to the Grizzly Media Productions YouTube channel.
It is not too late to join Grizzly Media Productions, there are still spots available. To get involved or for more information regarding the other visual media activities, e-mail Ledonne at dledonne@adams.edu.
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