Hi, welcome to my Indiegogo campaign
for me to study abroad in Berlin for the summer 2015 through New York
University’s Tisch School of Arts Multimedia Projects Workshop. My name is
Joshan, as if I am just “joshing” with you, but not really, because it is
actually my name!
As a Film & TV Production
major at the University School of Cinematic Arts, I have the opportunity to
expand my knowledge of filmmaking by working with other students from the top
rated program at NYU. As a junior, I have been pondering whether I will work in
the U.S.A. or abroad after graduation. With the opportunity to Study Abroad in
the summer of 2015, I will have the opportunity to feel what it is like to live
in a different country for an extended period.
The tuition, room & board to
attend USC are approximately $65,000.00/year. In addition, the film and video
production courses taken require substantial additional expenses beyond
tuition. These expenses include lab fees for the course, stockroom cards, which
must be purchased for using the School’s equipment, editing and camera supplies
which each student must buy, and miscellaneous expenses such as props, gas for
driving to locations, food for actors, and so on.
And, I’m not “joshing” you. It
cost a great deal of money to attend USC and major in Film & TV Production.
So, no pun intended based upon my name. I need your help raising $20,000.00!
My drive and commitment to excellence are exactly
the characteristics I believe are sought-after for Hollywood’s success. I
find adventure under every rock and use this grand sense of exploration to
influence my filmmaking. I understand that the best films come from a
filmmaker’s personal experiences. I desire to make fun and captivating movies
and believe this comes from the filmmaker’s ability to have fun and experience
life. On my deathbed one day, I would like to be able to smile pleasantly
knowing I lived life to the fullest. I feel that by helping me study abroad, you will
be making an investment in building and shaping a future leader.
About the Program - Multimedia Projects Workshop
With a young, creative population and an energetic,
cosmopolitan art scene, Berlin has been enjoying a unique artistic revival that
celebrates multimedia projects and unconventional spaces. Students will have the opportunity to explore
the city and to develop multimedia projects. The program features two
complementary courses: Creative Computing and Live Video Performance Art.
From fine art to computer programming, from live
performance to animation, this workshop has applications across
disciplines. There are no prerequisites,
and the program welcomes students from all areas: e.g., film, music, computer
science, dance, theater, fine art, multimedia, graphic design, performance art,
photography etc.
(Source)
Program Curriculum
Students will enroll in the following two courses
for a total of 8 units.
Live Video
Performance Art
This course will combine a history of video art and
experimental film with practical training in the use of live video performance
art technology. Students will explore new ways to create and edit films and
videos using VJ software, projections, and multi-channel video surfaces.
Workshops will demonstrate concepts and software that can be integrated into
the creative process of video performance art and video art installations.
Drawing inspiration from the recent history of video and multi-media artists,
students will use live VJ software to manipulate digital media in real time as
well as projection mapping techniques to project video art onto 3D surfaces in
order to create original video art, video installations, and other performance
pieces.
Creative
Computing
What can computation add to human communication and
creativity? Creating applications, instead of just using them, gives a us
deeper understanding of the possibilities. Creating projects that you are
excited about and invested in, whether the domain of art, design, performance,
humanities, sciences, or engineering is the best way to learn the skills needed
to realize those ideas. This course will begin with the expressive capabilities
of the human body and how we experience our physical environment. The physical
computing skills learned in this portion of the course will allow you to go
past the limitations of the mouse, keyboard, and monitor interface to build
your own, perhaps more expressive interfaces. The platform for the class is a
micro-controller (Arduino brand), a very small inexpensive single-chip computer
that can be embedded anywhere to both sense and create action in the physical
world. The second portion of the course focuses on fundamentals of programming
as well as more advanced techniques such as animation, image manipulation and
processing, projection mapping, and computer vision. The Java-based
‘Processing’ programming environment is the primary vehicle that will be in
use. Processing itself is oriented towards displays but can also connect back
to the physical sensors and controllers from the first part of the class in
order to create more applications with more expressive interfaces. The course
is designed for computer programming novices but the project centered nature of
it allows for more experienced programmers the opportunity to play further with
their project ideas and make lots of friends by helping the other students.
(Source)
Cost Breakdown
·
Tuition & Fees - $12,000.00
·
Room - $1,500.00
·
Food - $1,500.00
·
Airfare - $2,500.00
·
Incidentals - $2,500.00
Insight into Joshan
The main crux of my producing
goals is to provide proper representation for marginalized people through the
power of cinema. This can range from producing content such like “Selma” or “12
Years A Slave” that shares the stories of the oppressed and a truer look of the
past that is often romanticized.
However, I am also very
interested in going a step further than that, and placing oppressed people in
roles that are usually given to the privileged. For example, a black Indiana
Jones or a Muslim woman being James Bond or a transgender Superman. These roles
are traditionally given to people who fit the criteria for the most privileged
of society. That being straight, white men. The roles of women are usually
there only to advance the character development of the male protagonist or
could easily be traded out for with a lamp.
The roles given to people of color, LGBT individuals, or people with
disabilities are steeped in negative and damaging stereotypes that turn this
marginalized group into a joke. Or, their roles are completely nonexistent. I
want to change the traditional casting that exists in the entertainment
industry.
My immediate goals are to produce
projects at USC where proper representation is given. Sure, the audiences of
these projects are small. However, the main audience would be my classmates who
are trying to go into the entertainment industry. By educating, those about
proper representation will make them more socially conscious filmmakers. They
will move up the ranks of the entertainment industry with a ground firm base of
socially awareness and will reach positions in the future where they understand
that the past practices of Hollywood are unacceptable.
I also desire to build a network
of filmmakers and artists of other mediums who are already educated on social
issues and share similar goals or proper representation. By building this
stronghold, we can venture into the industry, hand in hand, fighting the good
fight to fix the wrongs of the media.
My long-term goals are really
about maintaining proper representation in my work and all the projects I
desire to work. I want to work in children’s media because I feel that is the
area of the media where representation is most important. By including harmful
stereotypes and the lack of representation in children’s TV and movies, we are
teaching them racism, sexism, and homophobia and a slew of other ideas that will
be internalized in the minds of children. By putting a higher standard on what
we show our children will assure that events and situations, such like
Ferguson, will not happen because we will live in a world where the
privilege/oppression dichotomy is not taught to be the norm of how society
runs.
I also want to give back! I want to create
infrastructure that allows more diverse creators to have their work shown. In
the current Hollywood system, it is rather difficult for creators who are not
straight white men to get the work recognized. I want to create a way for
anyone to be able to get their foot in the door so that they may color the
black and white vision of Hollywood!
Thank You!
Thank you for visiting my campaign page. Please
consider donating by reading through the various Perks of donating!
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