This past June 22-25, we welcomed several high school students to campus from near and far for four days of high-energy, hands-on media exercises. Professor Chris Fletcher and I could not have been more pleased with our inaugural group of campers. They were creative, curious, and enthusiastic, and they embraced every challenge we gave them. Our counselors, Katie Hauschild and Gavin Leuthold, and industry guests, Cade Stinson and Mike Welsh, were equally impressed. We packed so much into this camp. In just four days, campers left with original photographs, edited portraits, animated sequences, and short films they could share with family and include in their growing portfolios.
The best way to recap is through images. We kicked things off on Monday with digital photography sessions including light painting (long exposure photography), in-camera double exposure photography, and noir lighting experiments in the studio.
We also demonstrated a standard three-point lighting set-up and used the resulting portraits during an Adobe Photoshop session.
On Tuesday, campers began with screenwriting and a table read before completing equipment training and experimenting with slow-motion cinematography using confetti, colored smoke, and water balloons.
On Wednesday, campers spent the better part of the day filming shorts. They also worked together to shoot a zolly (dolly zoom), experimented with our RGB lights and fog machine, and closed with an exercise in hand-drawn rotoscoping animation. We kept the animation load light for year one—each camper completed 9 frames of the final sequence.
Finally, we began Thursday morning with multiple animation sessions. Campers created stop-motion animations in Dragonframe, explored 3D design and animation in Unreal Engine, experimented with sound design, and took turns flying drones supplied by Mike Welsh of Sky Candy Studios.
To close the camp, we invited family and friends for a final showcase that included many of the photographs, designs, animations, and films made by campers during the week. Many of these clips made it onto our Instagram profile, check it out if you'd like to see Chris take a water balloon in the face! More importantly, it was incredibly rewarding to meet parents and family members and hear such positive feedback about the camp experience. Chris and I are already brainstorming ways to build on this year's success, and we're excited to make next summer's camp even better. Stay tuned—we'll be announcing dates for Media Camp 2027 soon.
I'll close with another thank you to our guest leaders, our food helpers, and our tremendous group of campers. We hope to see many of you back on campus soon!
