Media School, India Gateway present workshops on media production, design
Andrew Behringer — The Media School game lab director/digital production specialist/lab instructor — and Senior Lecturer Steve Layton presented at a two-day workshop on Jan. 29 and 30 for high schoolers in India. The virtual workshop, titled “Media Production and the Visual Arts,” was organized by The Media School and India Gateway.
Schools were allowed to nominate up to five students to attend the workshop. There were 129 nominations from 28 schools (from 12 states/15 cities across India and two schools in Nepal) and 104 registrations. The final attendance was 75 on both days.
“They are two of our finest instructors,” Associate Dean and Herman B Wells Endowed Professor (Class of 1950) Radhika Parameswaran said of Behringer and Layton. “Passionate and enthusiastic about what they teach to the point that they are genuine geeks. They love what they teach, and they can really, really get into it.”
Behringer’s presentation — “Moving Image Production: A Taste of the Cinematic Arts” — opened the workshop on the first day and covered cinematic arts as a method of visual production. Through discussion and interactive activities, the group went over narrative production process, genre analysis, and career paths.
Behringer took note of how both workshop days had beneficial similarities and differences.
“While they have certain concepts that are separate from each other, they have a lot of crossover concepts as well,” Behringer said. “That’s one of my favorite parts about The Media School: the collaboration between departments and between various courses.”
His own presentation focused on many aspects of film.
“Every aspect of filmmaking has an opportunity to contribute to the process of telling the story, whether you’re operating a camera, or setting up the lights, or you’re a costume designer,” Behringer said. All of those things are relevant to telling the story. And if they’re not all working in sync, then your story might get a little bit off.”
On the second day of the workshop, Layton’s presentation — “Still Image Production: A Taste of the Graphic and Design Arts” — covered the ten rules of “good design,” discussing the influence of imagery, color, and typography and how designers select, compose, and arrange visual elements to convey messages.
“One thing I would always recommend to any designer is that your design has to be led by the content,” Layton said. “You cannot simply design something using the color that you always use or the font you always use. I remember an early college design of mine that I made just because I thought it looked cool. But it wasn’t appropriate to what the message was intending to be — and therefore, it was unsuccessful.”
Layton made sure to emphasize his best advice throughout the presentation.
“The most important rule of any design is to have a concept,” Layton said. “To have an awareness of what you’re trying to convey.”
Special thanks to Minu Thomas, the program manager of IU India Gateway, and Zafeena Suresh, the director of IU India Gateway.