Students working in Digital Cinema degree program

Digital Cinema promo makes it to silver screen

A video created by SOU students to promote the university’s new Digital Cinema degree program will screen before films at Coming Attractions Theatre locations across Oregon, northern California, Washington and Alaska.

“You’re always excited when your students’ work gets screened,” said Professor Andrew Gay, the program coordinator of Digital Cinema. “Usually that’s in film festivals … this is the widest audience any SOU production has ever had.”

The pre-show promo will be shown at 18 theaters, including the Varsity Theatre in Ashland, between Oct. 11 and Dec. 31. The promotion was an entirely free show of support for the Digital Cinema major from Coming Attractions.

“(The promo) was a lot of really hard work,” said Sophia Miller, an SOU alumnus who directed numerous segments of the promo. “It helped a lot of people bond across departments.”

The video was created by SOU students attending Gay’s class. He wrote the script for the promotion but the rest of the production – camera operation, acting, editing, visual effects, etc. – was handled entirely by SOU students.

“I didn’t know that (the promo would be shown in theaters). That’s really exciting because a lot of people will get to see the work we did, and it’ll bring more students to SOU and to the program,” Miller said.

The Digital Cinema degree was introduced earlier this year, and focuses on pairing traditional film school experiences with education about new forms of video media and the teaching of innovative problem-solving techniques. Learn more about the Digital Cinema degree at www.sou.edu/digital-cinema.

Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer