The Digital Media is a media design course of study and will prepare students with the technical skills and practical experience to plan, produce, and present creative solutions to communication problems using a variety of digital media. All students will take courses in video production, and web and graphic design. Digital Media is comprised of two elements, Digital Communications and New Media.
Something New... This year we will be adding a voiceover component to the curriculum to teach students about audio commercials, audio books and character voiceovers.
Digital Communications
Digital Communications is taught by Elizabeth Abell, Ed.D. It prepares students to apply their knowledge and skills by communicating information through the creation and production of videos. This gives them the skills to work within the many areas of the communications field. These production areas include corporate video, television, film, and audio. They will plan, prepare, and produce a variety of projects for real clients. Students will learn the theoretical and practical applications of lighting, audio, control room operations, TV studio operation, on-location production, graphics, directing, scriptwriting, and non- linear editing. They will use an online, interactive college text for the bulk of their reading assignments that is updated regularly by the author. Students will use the latest computer software including: Adobe’s Creative Suite (After Effects, Photoshop, and Apple’s Final Cut X, Motion 5, and GarageBand. Client projects can be output to removable media and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Emphasis will be placed on problem-solving and creative contributions as a team member.
Elizabeth Abell
Elizabeth Abell, Ed.D began working in the communications field at WNS-TV, Channel 2 in New Castle. From there she worked at the DuPont Experimental Station as a scriptwriter, videographer, producer, and editor. She began her teaching career at Wilmington College (now University) in 1993. Since the fall of 2007, she has taught all aspects of video production at Delcastle Technical High School. Subject matter includes but is not limited to scriptwriting, non-linear editing, studio and on-location production, motion graphics, and audio production.
New Media
Gary Phillips teaches New Media studies the use of strategic social media and web design to communicate a message in the media communication industry. Sophomore and junior students will study highly regarded, successful web and social media sites and evaluatethe basic principles of good web page design, social media marketing and management. Using this knowledge, students will develop a site plan, site structure, design sites, shoot and produce video for the web and social media, publish/ftp to the server, and perform routine tests/maintenance. They will examine the different browsers and computer platforms, learn how to design for all browsers (including mobile), and understand the differences and limitations with Mac and PC platforms. Students will also learn media podcasting, basic digital music composition, and the benefits of creative typography in communicating the message. Seniors will work as independent entrepreneurs with actual clients on professional real-world projects and produce internal web information programs. In short it’s all about “telling a client’s story” and finding a way to be an innovative entrepreneur and leader in the industry.
gk phillips
GK has been teaching at Delcastle since 2003. He has also taught at Wilmington University for 14 years. GK has over 40 years working in the media communication industry including as a designer for Delaware Today magazine, UNICA Multimedia and being an entrepreneur for over 12 years with his own media design firm before beginning a second career in education.
Highlights
Some the highlights of each year include working with non profit agencies like, Child Inc, DCRAC, local politicians, iStorybook, a national award-winning concept for elementary schoolteachers to share their creative students writing projects online, DM/AM/PM, an innovative 24 hour film competition, Good Morning America, for the past 10 years Digital Media has enjoyed a VIP status with ABC-TV in New York. We take 50+ students up to their Times Square studio to get a first-hand experience of live television production and get a private meeting with a director afterward.
Guest Advisors
Each month, we invite media professioinals into the classroom to share their secrets. Here are just a couple:
Artie Kempner is the lead director for both the NFL and NASCAR on Fox. He joined Fox Sports in the fall of 1994 for its inaugural season covering the NFL. In 2001 Kempner and his production crew took over the number one team at Fox working with Troy Aikman, Cris Collinsworth, and Joe Buck. Kempner is also the coordinating director of NASCAR on Fox, and directs the Sprint Cup telecasts. Fox took over NASCAR in 2001, and garnered an Outstanding Series Emmy in that first season. The coverage was honored twice more with the Outstanding Series Emmy in 2005 and 2007. A eleven-time sports Emmy winner, Kempner is very active in fundraising efforts for Autism Delaware and the Autism Speaks organization.
Dan Perri has been a film and television title sequence designer for over 30 years and has created main titles for more than 400 film and television projects, including Star Wars, Taxi Driver, The Warriors, Raging Bull, Airplane! and many others. Dan has just launched his first feature film, Sharkskin, that is being screened in Great Britain and available on HULU.
Check him out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggw8Gqi4-Z0 and www.danperri.com
Clients
Here is a sampling of some of the clients we have served:
Child Inc., Delaware Governor Jack Markell, U.S. Senator Christopher Coons, DCRAC, The Precisionists, STRIVE, Association of Builders and Contractors, Carla Markell, Scott Phillips (author), Christiana Care, New Castle County School District Superintendent, Delaware STEM Awards.
More highlights
DM/AM/PM
DM/AM/PM is a 24 hour film competition open to all 3 grades of Digital Media students. Students develop a plan for a film, write the script, and shoot it on a Saturday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Then they come back into the labs to edit, animate, create special effects, original music compositions, and title credits. The films will be sent to local filmmakers for judging on certain categories, Best Film, Best Director, Best Script, and others. Later the films will be publicly screened in the school auditorium, hosted by local media celebrities.
Check out some of them here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjO29fwpdmQr5MN-ciFEc3ncI2vHnLKnq
Web Design
Here's one of the sites one of our students created this year.
For more information or to see how we can help you market your business contact us at
Delcastle Technical High School • 1417 Newport Road • Wilmington, Delaware 19804
302 995 8100