In 2011 shy, unassuming Writing Center director Dr. Cole Bennett stunned audiences with his riveting portrayal of a shmarmy boss in their first promotional parody of The Office. This fall he returns in a more ambitious role inspired by the hoity grammarians at Downton Abbey.
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The shorts were written and directed by Christina Johnson and Learning Studio alum Ben Weaver and feature student tutors from the Writing Center. Christina has been working with Dr. Bennett since she was an undergrad, finishing a BA in English in 2011. This last spring she was the first Masters candidate to defend a screenplay thesis to complete her MA in Creative Writing.
Christina is now an Associate Producer and Researcher for AMS Pictures in Dallas, working on a number of television and documentary projects including shows for HGTV.
Congrats Christina and Ben, and we’re looking forward to seeing bigger things in the near future.
We released our first short documentary We Are Makers in June and it keeps on rolling. We’re approaching 10,000 views in the first two months in over 60 countries, so obviously we’re pleased with the initial reception.
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Two opportunities we were equally proud of were a couple guest blogs we were asked to write this summer alongside the release. If you’d like some detail on the film, here are those links.
Last week we released a short documentary on the Maker Movement as part of broader discussions on campus about the value of “learning by doing.” We’re pleased to share it with the ACU community as so many here on campus contributed to its final shape.
We spent several weeks in March interviewing key voices thinking about the impact of making in different contexts—in community centers and libraries, in education and museums, and in hackerspaces and online.
We’ve already had a chance to thank those who welcomed us into their makerspaces and workshops while shooting in Austin and NYC, but we did want a chance to share a few of the Abilene connections.
thanks to Michael Daugherity and the department of Engineering and Physics for return visits to film their 3D printer and begin thinking about its future impact
Sandy Freeman welcomed us into the ACU Theatre Costume Shop where Amanda Martin made a dress on the spot
we spent a great afternoon with James Langford dusting off our macro lenses to shoot tools in his shop
Megan May in the library not only shared her lightening-fast knitting but also introduced us to student maker Brittany Bunch who is both an Etsy seller (at Projects for Bliss) and a part-time Disney princess
Evan Young helped edit the additional footage for wearemakers.org while Matt and Nathan were heads-down on the final film
and finally Elvis Sanchez who worked with Nathan to score the transitions in the film with stunning work on a tight deadline
The production of the film itself just reminded us how many makers surround us here in Abilene, making this a logical spot to open a makerspace of our own.
This spring the Learning Studio worked with Dr. Houston Heflin as part of our first digital storytelling project overseas. We worked with Houston and his students before they left the States to begin thinking about media projects they would complete mid-way through the semester and then at the end, reflecting on their own experiences in East Germany.
It was also our first storytelling workshop entirely on the iPad. Students had access to a couple Blue Snowball USB microphones (that perplexed TSA officials going and coming) and all the photos and video they had taken while traveling. We had strong scripts in an intensive three-day timespan for their first project in April. Then each student reflected on their overall experience abroad in a final project in May. Here are a few examples of their work.
Al Haley, writer-in-residence and professor of English, was an alum of our very first digital storytelling workshop in 2011 and has been helping us lead faculty workshops on campus for the last year. His work with the scholarly storytelling group last December helped many of the participants see the potential of mixed media writing and storytelling in their teaching and research. Here are a couple of Al’s past stories.
This semester Al asked students in his Creative Nonfiction Workshop and a new class on Micro-Narratives to produce their own digital stories as an extension of their other writing in both courses. Here are a few examples of their work.
