UChicago’s media center sponsors initiative focused on training in digital production
The Digital Storytelling Initiative (DSI) partners with various organizations on the South Side and the University of Chicago to help with accessibility in digital media.
DSI is a joint project between Jonathan Logan Media Center and Logan Community Arts that uses workshops, summer camps, workforce development programs, and feature programs to give participants a hands-on learning approach to digital media. The initiative showcases the digital media projects of various media practitioners as well.
DSI came to fruition by Jonathan Logan, a supporter of investigative journalism, who wanted to bring accessibility of media and journalism to the South Side of Chicago. He founded the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, which funded the media center with the necessary allocations for the program.
“[Jonathan Logan] has a real interest in...investigative journalism and that intersection with media and making opportunities available on the Southside of Chicago,” says Elizabeth Myles, the program manager for the Initiative. “He’s had conversations with Beau Micheal, who works at the [Reva and David] Logan Center for the Arts. And they...came together and decided to fund this program.”
Myles explains that the goal of the initiative was to create a hub for media and literacy media making. She also mentions how the DSI Production Institute makes certain resources like equipment and LinkedIn Learning available to participants of the program.
The DSI Production Institute partners with the Community Film Workshop of Chicago to provide access to high-quality training in digital media. It has a film production course that’s taught by experienced professionals. The institute allows participants to build both their digital media skills and their professional portfolio.
“The goal of the initiative was to really involve community partners,” explains Margaret Caples, executive producer of the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFWC). “The goal is to involve Chicago filmmakers who live on the Southside, to help them develop stories about the community.”
Caples was asked to design the DSI Production Institute due to her experience as executive producer at the Community Film Workshop. She also developed the curriculum for DSI based on how she taught. The curriculum focuses on filmmaking and storyteller while helping the filmmakers develop stories.
With the Community Film Workshop of Chicago, an organization founded to create job opportunities in the film industry for people of color, Caples has helped independent filmmakers produce media. She explains that her background in print media and developing artists was an asset to the program.
The Initiative is a part-time program where the participants only meet once during the week and then on Saturdays for four hours. During that time, participants watch films, not just for entertainment value, but to analyze the film’s structure.
“We start with film aesthetics because that’s to teach our applicants how to look at movies, not just watch them for the entertainment value,” explains Caples. “After we do some aesthetics, they make an application, they’re interviewed, and are accepted into the program. “
With this application process, participants come in knowing how one puts together a movie and they can dive into the curriculum. Each participant comes into the program with a story idea; it’s part of the application that they have a treatment, a written document that explains the story idea for a film.
Participants have to have their stories and their treatment ready during the application process as the actual program doesn’t allow time to find a story. The program helps the participants bring their story idea to fruition. They deal with the three phases of filmmaking — pre-production, production, and post-production.
As Caples tends to have an overseeing reach over the program, Myles works in-between Logan Community Arts and the Logan Family Foundation Media Center. She also helps with the administrative side of things as well.
“I have...administrative duties such as planning zoom meetings and budget meetings on the back end to plan for the Production Institution and any of our other programs,” explains Myles. “I also work with the Community Arts Department to make sure they feel supported by the media center. So, I’m sort of a bridge between these two departments.”
Myles hopes that DSI creates more opportunities. She hopes to see more workshops and programs like DSI throughout the entire year rather than just in the summer. She also wants to make more resources and programs available to those on the Southside of Chicago.
Caples explains that the participants learn to work in a community and she hopes that they understand that filmmaking is collaborative. An outcome of the program is that the participants learned to support one another.
“They learned different aspects of how you work on a crew,” says Caples. “And that’s good because they worked on each other’s projects.”
Not only do the participants learn to be collaborative, they also learned about their own voice. Caples says the participants established their voices due them working on their own story idea.
Applicants can sign up for a Film Aesthetics course, which allows them to apply for the Digital Storytelling Initiative. Plus, if potential applicants missed an information meeting, they can watch the recordings and they can download the presentation slides as well. The last session of the Film Aesthetics course is April 28th at 7 p.m. CST.