CTEL SUMMER FACULTY FELLOWS GRANT & RESEARCH PROJECT

 
Image: Stephanie Burgess, VCDMA Student, Rough Character Study for Amira (for animated opening) music video "Decompose/So What" by Bilal Salaam and Op Swamp 81.

Prof. Melchishua and Prof. Gina Lewis both received funding from the CTEL Summer Faculty Fellows Grant, with the purpose of encouraging student recruitment and retention. From this grant Prof. Melchishua created a two-fold project that focused on creative research, production and program development. This involved BSU students, alumni, mentors, professional artists, designers and strategic partners/consultants.

Prof. Melchishua co-developed the forthcoming fashion and textile design concentration under the new and proposed Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts program (VCDMA) in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. This major and concentration was approved by the University and should be submitted to the University of Maryland System & MHEC soon for review and hopeful approval. The consultants for this proposal included fashion designer/artist and author, Carmen Webber, of Sistahs of Harlem (SOH) and recently featured on the 4th season of Bravo TV's "Project Runway."  Also spearheading and contributing to this effort was consultant, Dyanne Marte, a Baltimore-based fashion designer, who runs the boutique and clothing line, Dennya.

Prof. Melchishua is working with students in DFPA/VCDMA and Communications (TV Production) and recent alumni to produce two music videos. One, which was for local jazz artist, Lulu Fall, for a song titled, "Senegal." The video was shot by Sheldon Boodie (Communications, '09). Sam Famoyegun, a student taking courses in VCDMA and a Computer Science major, created animation/motion graphics with Prof. Melchishua.

The other,  ongoing music video production is for local artist/musician Bilal Salaam and his group Op Swamp 81 . This video will consist of animation, and live action and is based of two songs: "Decompose" by Bilal's group Op Swamp 81 and "So What." The students from the DFPA include working on the animation are Stephanie Burgess, Steven Stephenson; as well Sam Fameyogun also. Communications students, Kyle Catching also worked with the production of the video, editing, etc., as did recent graduate Pete Vidal (Communications, '09). Students worked directly with Prof. Melchishua through every stage of pre-production, production and post-production and with mentors directly that assisted them with animation and directing.   Both music videos will be submitted for broadcast to various cable and national music video stations, as well as promoted and marketed online.

Prof. Melchishua and VCDMA is grateful to all of the mentors, consultants, students and volunteers that contributed to the Summer Fellows projects and activities, and most importantly to CTEL and The Summer Faculty Fellows. For more on this project, please visit our blog as updates, images and video clips will be posted.

NEW!!

VCDMA Future Programs Survey 2008-09

Dear current, prospective and future students (high school, college/university, community colleges, continuing education and BSU students). VCDMA is conducting a very important survey and your participation and input is vital. Please take a just a few minutes to complete the following survey. This information is for research purposes only and will assist us in determining new and improved programs. Your information will not be shared. Thank you for completing the survey. Simple copy and paste the following URL or click on the link below to begin the survey.

VCDMA Survey: http://vcdma.ennectsurvey.com/vcdmaatbowiestateuniversityfutureprogram