Cogswell College’s unique MediaWorks initiative marks one-year anniversary with nine completed audiovisual projects for real-world clients.
Sunnyvale, CA -- Cogswell College, a leading educational institution offering a unique curriculum fusing Digital Art, Engineering and Entrepreneurship, is marking the one-year anniversary of its highly successful MediaWorks initiative. MediaWorks is a project-based learning course in Cogswell’s Digital Audio Technology (DAT) program. MediaWorks produces short audiovisual pieces in collaboration with students of the Digital Art & Animation (DAA) program, for various real-world businesses and organizations based in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Since its launch in Summer 2013, MediaWorks students have developed nine audiovisual pieces, including logo animations, branding pieces, promotional videos, PSAs, and other corporate communications media for a number of companies and organizations. Completed projects to date include: a product presentation film for Panasonic; original sound design for a Panasonic product; a PR/communication film for ALearn, a nonprofit organization committed to helping underrepresented students succeed in college; a corporate logo film for Argus Insights, a company that collects consumer data to reveal consumer trends for corporate decision makers, and a promotional video for Redux Labs of Great Britain, a company that develops cutting edge technology that enables high-resolution speaker-less audio in flat surfaces. MediaWorks students have also created a logo film for Cogswell College, and in-house agency logo animations for the MediaWorks program itself.
"Cogswell's MediaWorks students created a very powerful minute," says Kathryn Hanson, CEO and co-founder of ALearn. "With only 46 percent of California students qualified to enter the university system, this production dramatically illustrated the problem we have with education in California, and how ALearn works to address the challenges that minority youth face."
Celebrating the first anniversary of this initiative, Julius Dobos, Distinguished Lecturer and Audio & Music Director for Cogswell MediaWorks, said: “We are very proud of our MediaWorks program, which provides a ‘real-life client’ working experience to a diverse group of students. These students take part in the entire process, from the first client meeting, through formulating a creative brief and concepts, pitching, production and revisions, to the final delivery -- all under tight deadlines. The concept is really the best of both worlds: students with advanced skills gain experience by creating original music & original sound design for visuals made from scratch to satisfy established businesses’ actual needs in highly creative ways at, or above, industry-standard quality. It's a unique, 21st Century educational experience. It’s also a professional service MediaWorks provides at a fraction of the cost that a real-world business would pay to any full-service production company.”
Dobos is a composer, music, and audio production professional, with 20 years of industry experience. He injects his knowledge and passion into every project by working closely with his MediaWorks students.
Anthony Dias, Instructor of Digital Audio Technology and Visual Director for Cogswell MediaWorks, adds: “The production quality that the MediaWorks visual team has achieved is staggering -- especially when you consider the time constraints. Our students have already completed nine portfolio-ready pieces. These are available for them to showcase their areas of skill -- from Storyboarding to Animation, Live Action, VFX, Compositing, and all other areas of CGI. On each of these projects, the MediaWorks visual team has delivered a final product in a professional manner, time and time again. One of my biggest challenges has been to rein in the intense creativity of my students in order to maintain an appropriate scope relative to our deadlines. We have benefited tremendously from interacting with real clients and collaborating with our Audio counterparts. These are real-world activities that most other students never have a chance to experience until after they have graduated. The MediaWorks program gives our students a real leg-up in this competitive and dynamic industry.”
Dias is a Cogswell alumnus himself, with professional experience in music & audio production, team building, multicultural markets, broadcast advertising, video production and video post-production.
Completed films produced by MediaWorks are available to students for immediate use in their portfolios -- content that gives Cogswell graduates an enormous advantage in their employment search. Currently, MediaWorks is producing audiovisual pieces for a Prairie Rainbow Company / Cogswell Game Studio joint venture, and for Bookshare, a Benetech Global Literacy initiative, the world’s largest online accessible library of copyrighted content for people with print disabilities. The initiative includes over 300,000 members worldwide.
Source: Cogswell College
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
