Career in Digital Filmmaking & Video Production

It has been said that video is a great synthesizer. It is a medium where you can work with cinema, music, theater, literature, photography, and others to represent (or generate) the world according to one’s own vision. You can do this by using digital moving images as a language and within this language represent the world through different genres such as: documentary, fiction, narrative, non-narrative and experimental. You may also be interested in multi-media shows (music concerts, theater and performing arts), where the use of video is a component of the whole presentation or, perhaps, you would like to be involved in the broadcasting of live events related to news, politics, sports, or entertainment where video technology allow for a simultaneous transmission of reality.

In order to become a professional, you must first speak the language of film and video.

Today’s digital filmmaker and video producer provides the creative content for a diversity of digital “message distribution” channels such as movie theaters, cell phones, web sites, digital TV, digital arts, iPhone applications some of many ways of communicating.

The world has become a matrix of audiovisual communications and demands creative individuals capable of producing original content for diverse platforms of communication. A professional filmmaker and/or video producer is at the center of this experience.

As a high school graduate interested in becoming a film director or participating in the world of film and media communications, you should consider attending a film school that will help you to transition from being a consumer (passive observer) into a professional expert that understands the technical, formal, cultural and artistic characteristics of the medium.

Filmmaking and video production schools seek motivated students who want to record and represent the world through video and influence culture by learning to experience, communicate and share an artistic vision.

As digital media technology evolves, the possibilities to learn various aspects of the film language (technical proficiency, aesthetic understanding and innovation within the professional field) continue to expand for new aspiring generations of filmmakers.
Fundamentals include learning how to operate video equipment and there are technical requirements to be gained such as camera operation, editing and post-production tools, lighting and sound equipment.*

As education progresses, the focus shifts to learning how to tell a story and/or to communicate a message. Therefore, courses such as conceptual storytelling, scriptwriting, history of film, media theory and criticism will be as important to you as hands-on courses and workshops such as video production, digital filmmaking, multi-camera production, sound design, and lighting.

Academic experiences are designed to help you to gain technical proficiency and intellectual understanding about your own work. Stimulating studio critiques will also help you to develop your own sense of identity and a cinematic style.

A strong technological background, a creative spirit of communication and the capacity to tell a story is what will prepare you for your college experience as a digital filmmaking and video production student.

* It is, certainly, to your advantage to have had some experience with video technology, but you should be up to the challenge of developing your expressive skills and your imagination.

Editorial and photos are provided by Andres Tapia-Urzua, Department Chair of the Digital Filmmaking & Video Production / Visual Effects & Motion Graphics of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.