February 3, 2016 | SharkAdmin [image 1]Northwest Vista College’s Digital Video & Cinema Production program has put up some impressive numbers in the last few years. It has more than doubled its amount of declared majors to about 250 students from a year ago; and has saved nonprofit organizations thousands of dollars worth of video production. Ron Wojnar, NVC’s DVCP coordinator, said the popularity of the program has spread so much that he doesn’t have enough space or equipment to add more classes. The program currently offers about 10 different film and video classes that students must take, in addition to other classes to earn an Associate of Applied Science in Digital Video & Cinema Production. “Kids are coming out of high school wanting to do this, and everything we have is what is used in the industry,” Ron said. As far as I know, we are the only college to teach the Red (high-end) camera work flow.” [image 2]The Red camera is what many high-end production companies use or would like to use. The big-budget movie, “The Hobbit,” used Red Epic technology to make the film series. At Vista, students get to put their hands on this camera at the community college level instead of waiting to graduate school to use similar equipment. Ron also credits his small team of two full-time and five adjunct faculty, plus one full-time lab supervisor and four part-time lab techs for helping students succeed. A recent alumni went on to attend The University of Texas at Austin's film school and now hires Vista DVCP students to work on film projects. Another graduate of the program is now an anchor for a Spanish-langue network news show. The San Antonio community has also benefitted from NVC’s talented DVCP students. Each semester, students take on video projects from nonprofit organizations to showcase how these groups help or benefit the community. Ron said many of these projects would cost the nonprofit about $4,000 to $5,000 a piece. To date, DVCP students have completed about 100 video projects and saved nonprofits about $500,000 that they instead can use for their causes. [image 3]“About 12 years ago, Deb Morgan (former NVC employee and now director of Strategic Initiatives and Performance Excellence for the Alamo Colleges) gave me the idea, and after students created the first video for The Arc of San Antonio, it just took off,” Ron added. Just last semester, a group of students showcased their videos to NVC leaders and their nonprofit clients. The video for Epilepsy Foundation of Central & South Texas moved some of the audience to tears and representatives of the foundation were immensely thankful.
