Over at a corner table at the Ozo coffee shop, someone was
doing a video interview. As colorful dancers of the N. Arapaho tribe performed
downtown, I counted at least three videographers, with numerous digital photographers
shooting the event. There were Flips, iPhones and Nikons recording the Arapaho
“Coming Home” gathering.
Boulder has long been one of the more “plugged-in” and early tech adopting cities in
Colorado. Now I think we could start promoting our fair city as the “digital
media” capital of the Rockies.
A thirst for digital education, meetups, tweetups and film
festivals has brought in a new downtown digital media incubator as well as an
ambitious digital media program at the University of Colorado that’s hoping to
connect to some of the best in the business.
Bruce Borowsky, a producer at Boulder’s People Productions,
was one to catch the wave early on as co-founder of the successful Boulder
Digital Arts. Demand by area businesses, he says, keeps growing to stay on top
of whatever new digital technologies emerge.
Now in its fifth year, BDA averages about 15 classes a month
and is designed as an affordable way (average costs is $50) for companies to
cross-train their employees in everything from Photoshop to video editing to
Web design. “Our audience is the
working professional,” Borowsky says.
BDA, online at www.boulderdigitalarts.com,
operates from about 800 square feet at 47th and Pearl. Lately he’s getting requests for
classes on iPhone applications and video podcasts, two fast-growing areas in
the evolving social media world. BDA also maintains a free online directory for
local digital experts, and user groups are growing for specific interests such
as Final Cut Studio editing and photography.
One of the people I saw with a camcorder for the Arapaho
tribe was Alan O’Hashi, who started Boulder Community Media in January 2008.
It’s now expanded to 11 incubator-style offices with shared meeting and studio
space at 13th and Walnut.
As space filled up, his landlord worked with his nonprofit
to expand, with prices ranging from a desk cubicle at about $200 a month to
larger spaces running from $350 to $600.
“It’s an opportunity for networking, business sharing or just a resource
for people to become involved” in digital media business ideas, he says. O’Hashi says he’s taken the “hard
knocks track” to learning filmmaking, and he’d like to help others tackle the
digital learning curve.
The Boulder Creative “Media-Plex” will have an open
house from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday,
Sept. 2 and, of course, invites are going out to Facebook “friends.” How
else does one get to a party these days? The mixer runs at the same time as the
monthly “schmoozer” of BIFF, Boulder International Film Festival and Colorado
Film Society, also at 1906 13th St. Info at www.biff1.com.
O’Hashi just jetted off to Uganda for a film project on
foreign aid reform, and he’s also working on a Boulder Arts Commission grant
exploring Georgia O’Keefe’s time when she lived in Ward.
More details are being announced about the new Boulder
Digital Works program, an “industry driven” effort headed by David Slayden, an
advertising professor in CU’s Journalism School. Its goal: Create new digital
leaders and entrepreneurs. The program is a joint effort including both the
School of Journalism and Mass Communications and CU’s College of Engineering
and Applied Science.
A 60-week digital media certificate program that starts in
October, with partnerships including MDC Partners, parent firm of ad agency
Crispin Porter + Bogusky as well as professionals from Hyper Island in Sweden (www.hyperisland.se), is
expected to be limited to about 21 students, with a cost of $25,000. The
program also is working with SoDA, the Society of Digital Agencies.
Slayden says the graduate certificate program has to be
flexible and innovative because by the time curricula is typically approved in
graduate programs, “the technology has changed.”
Slayden sees a much broader program shaping up with executive
workshops designed for business professionals who want to upgrade their
“digital game.” The first one,
scheduled for Oct. 7-9, is priced at $3,000, but course designers are looking
how to create more workshops that will be “price competitive.” Information is
online at bdw.colorado.edu/
“We’re already hearing from people as far away as
Singapore,” Slayden says.
In an opportunity to put all this digital creative to
work, Boulder will host its sixth annual 24-hour Shoot Out Film Making Festival
on Sept. 25-27 (www.theshootoutboulder.com), with
invites to filmmakers, including beginners, to take the challenge.
“Wise words” on the Shootout’s Web page: “For me, the
cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.” – Alfred Hitchcock.
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