DMS Student Showcase 2021

DMS 435/535 Scriptwriting

In this production workshop students concentrate on writing and editing script elements for all kinds of media including film, video, game, installation, AR, VR location- or web-based projects. The course explores traditional and experimental methods for generating and structuring text for any genre of fictional, documentary or hybrid work. Scripts include original writing, interviews, collaged or found fragments - which may be performed, heard or displayed in the final piece.

Spring 2021 was a dynamic semester. A diverse group of writers worked on scripts for games, animation, feature film, video essay, TV pilots, theater, autobiography and video installation. Topics ranged from a coup in Africa to a Victorian woman canoing Lake Superior; from dystopic visions of technological societies to the co-creation of utopias; from family trauma to trolls. The final product for students working on time-based pieces is a solid script-in-process, students working on games have produced playable versions of their scripts.

Marion Rose McDonnell

The irish maid

The Irish Maid image.

Mary Frances is a young girl living in Buffalo New York during the 1920s. Her family owns a successful business which allows Mary Frances to enjoy the finest things life has to offer. One day, unexpectedly, her mother leaves with the Irish maid and goes to the family countryside estate. Mary Frances suspects there is something more to her mother leaving than just her mother wanting to spend more time at the stable. John III, Mary Francesâ€™ older brother, comes home from university which makes Mary Frances wonder if there is something her family is not telling her. With the help of her friends, Abigail and Helen, Mary Frances unearths a family secret that could ruin everything the family has worked for. The Irish Maid is a drama filled story based on the life of my great grandmother but all events are completely fictional. The script presented for this showcase includes the most important scenes in the film.

The Irish Maid - Screenplay PDF

Joan Nobile

euphoric_past

euphoric_past image.

"euphoric_past" is a video game about technology, decay, and recovering from grief. You play as a young woman, Vicky, who is still dealing with the sudden death of her mother six months ago. Despite her father's insistence otherwise, Vicky is determined to go where her mother's past lies – in the decay of the Old Web. Traveling to technology's past, Vicky, her father Angel, and family friend Debra set off to discover the secrets of the ruins. But Vicky soon realizes that not everything is as simple it seems, and some things are best left buried in the past. "euphoric_past" is a game created in the RPG Maker MV engine, and has been developed over the course of the Spring 2021 semester for DMS535: Scriptwriting: All Media.

Play "euphoric_past"

Olu Akanbi

the last Emperor

Emperor Image.

In a fictional foreign country ruled by an Emperorâ€™s iron fist, Aiden Nuway returns home after studying abroad. Aiden is married to the Emperorâ€™s niece and appointed an important position by the Emperor. However, Aiden quickly discovers the corruption and backwardness of his country due to the Palace. Eventually Aiden along with his brother see no other way forward but to overthrow the Emperor.

The Last Emperor Screenplay PDF (Click Here)

The Last Emperor Reading WAV (Click Here)

Famous Clark

Project if

Welcome to a city built upon existentialism and objection. You have been invited to witness the construction of a man-made paradise. Set in an idyllic fool’s paradise, a cast of solipsistic characters struggle for the right to influence an automated city. Barred from departing, strong ideals will consume, weak philosophies will be devoured, and the faint of heart will submit. Take part in a unique narrative exploration amongst child-like automations as you work to influence a newly crafted and artificial society. Engage in thrilling battle of unyielding, war-styled debate as you engage in the construction and condemnation of a fool’s paradise alongside the consequences of one’s imposed ideals. Let’s us play a game of wits and words. Its rules are very straightforward. I challenge you to resist my propaganda. Our playing field will be a series of anthological postcards, and you and I will be opposing factions in their transit. You and I, sender and recipient, will deliberate on building a shared utopia; however, I will be a narcissist and you a quiet reader. Our positions and actions will differ, but our heaven must be whole and consistent.

2021 DMS Courses

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DMS 534 Media Archaeology
5/11/21
In this theory/practice seminar, students will interrogate the strain of scholarly and artistic practices concerned with the cultural and material histories of media technology known as media archaeology.
DMS 606 Sound and Space
5/11/21
In this course, students interested in learning more about music and sound, and sound’s relationship with and existence ins pace, have been experimenting with creating virtual spaces. (This was particularly germane since the class took place over Zoom, an entirely virtual space.) We have analyzed how sound behaves in real spaces, both natural and human-built, with the goal of understanding how these spaces influence sound, and human perception.
DMS 474 Media Theories and Approaches
5/15/21
Media theory investigates the technoculturaloperation of media, including media technologies and social practices. The basic question media theory must ask is “what is media?” If something is identified as media, is it always media or only under certain circumstances? For example, paint is a mediumwhen used for a painting, but what about on a wall or in a can? Air is a medium for sound and music, but what about when the world is silent? Fiber optic cables, wifi signals, and the internal operations of a computer delivering a film on a laptop are media, but so is the film. How do they relate? Conversely, what is not media?
DMS 213 Immigration & Film (Section 2)
5/21/21
This course offers an introduction to South Korean drama and cinema with attention to
Korean culture and history, TV/cinema/visual cultural analysis, and within the contexts Korean cultural global reach also understood as Hallyu or the Korean Wave. Students will study South Korean drama and film through thematics such as historical development, aesthetics, genre, auteur theory, stardom, subtitling, and the politics of distribution.
DMS 201 Green Media
5/11/21
This course analyzes fictional and documentary media that investigate our relationship to nature: climate change, pollution, environmental justice, wildlife extinction. The course interprets the word media broadly to include film, games, social media, media-art, big data visualization, simulation and sensing. It examines the consciousness-raising power of film, media and journalism; traces the ecological impact of our obsession with the latest media device; and ponders the relationship between our feelings about our changing planet (denial, engagement, optimism, hopelessness) and our actions.
DMS 448 Games, Gender & Culture
5/12/21
DMS 448: Games, Gender And Culture provides a comprehensive investigation of the emerging field of Games Studies, the critical analysis of games and interactive environments made possible by the computer. We will address different theoretical perspectivesthat view games and gaming as historical, social, cultural. aesthetic, technical, performative, and cognitive phenomenon.
DMS 103 Basic Video (Section 1)
5/14/21
Basic Video is a beginner level production class on the uses of digital video, moving image, and media as a medium of artistic expression and communication. There is a mixture of history, theory, artistic practice, technique, analysis, and there is a distinctive focus on learning while making.
DMS 342 Intermediate Documentary Workshop
5/13/21
Intermediate Documentary is an intensive workshop in nonfiction film production, with an emphasis on both hands-on practice of documentary filmmaking and in-depth study of the art of nonfiction filmmaking. Production projects helpedstudents develop conceptual and technicalproficiency, including knowledge of the development, production, and post production ofnonfiction films. Readings, writing assignments, and class presentations will deepen students’understanding of nonfiction filmmaking and storytelling.
DMS 462/562 Game Design
5/12/21
DMS 462 is a production course that allows students to explore the fabulous and sometimes frightening world of Game Design. Games are all around us in modern culture, ranging from video games to board and card games to sports to politics (Game of Thrones, anyone?) and beyond.
DMS 103 Basic Video (Section 2)
5/12/21
This course provides an introduction to the technical and aesthetic practice of video production and post-production, with a critical eye to both form and content. Through lectures, readings, exercises, and projects, as well as screenings of historical and contemporary film and video work, students will gain an understanding of film and video language and explore conceptual strategies for the development of creative approaches to digital video making.
DMS 418/518 Landscape Projections
8/18/22
“Landscape Projections” is an advanced special topics course exploring landscape as a medium, predominantly through the lens of time-based media. “Projections” implies cinematic presentation, but we expand this idea of projection (from Latin projectio(n-), from proicere ‘throw forth’), exploring ideas around forecasts, mappings, visions, and transmission, as we consider a wide range of artists and filmmakers re-envisioning both the natural and manufactured landscape through cinematic geographies and spatial practices.
DMS 598 Project Supervision
5/12/21
Graduate Student Project Supervision taught by Margaret Rhee
DMS 341: Intermediate Video
5/13/21
This course took place in the fall of 2020 and was an intensive workshop in fiction film production, with an emphasis on both hands-on practice of fiction filmmaking and in-depth study of the art of fiction filmmaking.
DMS 480 Social Media & Networks (Section 1)
5/21/21
In this online course, we will learn about, critique, and create social media and networks theory. Through media theory and case studies, we will analyze social media and networks; through online discussion, we will develop our ideas; and finally, through creation we will implement our learning into action. By the end of the course, you will have a better understanding and will be able to critically read, analyze, and write about social media from a variety of perspectives. Along with rigorous reading and writing, students will engage through creative making and collective presentations. In doing so, we adhere to learning through creating.
DMS 441 Advanced Video Production
5/14/21
This production course is designed to build on and further students’ conceptual and technical skills in video production. Through a combination of in-class workshops and exercises, assigned projects, and close attention to visual, creative motion picture ideation, students will strive to produce thoughtful, personally meaningful, technically proficient videos.
DMS 435/535 Scriptwriting
5/15/21
In this production workshop students concentrate on writing and editing script elements for all kinds of media including film, video, game, installation, AR, VR location- or web-based projects. The course explores traditional and experimental methods for generating and structuring text for any genre of fictional, documentary or hybrid work. Scripts include original writing, interviews, collaged or found fragments - which may be performed, heard or displayed in the final piece.
DMS 302 Experimental Moving Image
5/14/21
“Experimental Moving Image” is an intermediate level undergraduate production class introducing students to alternative approaches to the moving image, from abstraction and collage, personal documentary and hybrid narratives, to stop-motion and video installation, across single and multiple screens.