Final Cut Pro, Canon 7Ds and Flash—oh my.
These are just three of what seems like 1.2 million things I have learned about in just the past month and a half as a graduate student of the Interactive Media master's program.
I just began my mere 10-month tenure with Elon iMedia and I am excited to be on this new, but short, journey of learning more than I ever thought I could.
While getting acquainted with campus, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with several new and delightful people. The unavoidable question you get as a college student is, "So, what are you majoring in?" I proceed to say that I am not actually an undergraduate student, but a graduate student in the iMedia program.
Cue glazed-over look, raised eyebrows and a polite nod and smile.
In my short time on campus, more often than not, I have encountered the issue of having to explain what the iMedia program is and that it is indeed a program that Elon offers. I have decided I want to make it my duty to let the school know what our program is all about.
Simply, we are iMedia. Nice to meet you.
Forty-one students moved on campus on Aug. 1. A select few arrived two weeks earlier to complete some workshops to begin what was called iMedia Bootcamp. For three weeks, we learned the basic ins and outs of every piece of technology, software and strategy that we would be using over the next few months. By Thursday of the third and final week, we were ready to have our break when we had a bomb dropped on us. One of our professors, Phillip Motley, explained our final project for bootcamp. We had to create a media campaign in which we had to shoot and edit a 30-second commercial, make a website, take and edit photographs, develop a logo and create a few Flash projects.
I will admit that I can be a token ditzy girl at times and asked, "So, this is due next Sunday, right?" Motley said, "No, it is due this Sunday at midnight." We had only four days to complete a project that would normally take months to complete.
So did we sink or swim? For me, since I happen to be a good swimmer, it felt like I was swimming with a few bricks tied to both of my ankles. But I had the chance to finish my project on Sunday afternoon with all of the required elements and some time to spare.
This story, in my opinion, sums up what our 10-month program is all about. The journey will be about learning a vast amount of information, implementing the ideas into several practices and projects simultaneously and completing it in a short amount of time.
My classmates and I are a group of individuals ready to take on the world that is iMedia. I am excited to continue giving the campus an inside look to our program and what we will work on in the upcoming months.