Digital Media Production

The Media Production concentration at SUNY New Paltz prepares students for the challenging, competitive world they'll face in the media industry. Staying on the cusp of technology, students gain hands-on experience with a well-seasoned faculty that continues to gain professional experience from the field.

The Media Production curriculum consists of three basic media classes, a minimum of four elective classes, and a performance class. The meat of the elective is a sequence of four production classes offered exclusively to production majors: Audio Production, Studio Production, Portable Production, and Seminar in Production.

In Audio Production, students learn to manipulate and master sound. They deal with every application of audio in media today. Students write and produce their own radio commercials, conduct their own interviews, create news packages, and re-create entire audio tracks for their favorite movies. The work students have done in this class has been aired by our local NPR affiliate, WAMC and our own campus radio station WFNP. Students have access to two audio suites running ProTools on Macintosh G4 computers.

After students master effective use of audio, the visual element is added. In Studio Production, students gain experience in creating video in the controlled environment of a studio. Our studio suite consists of a control room and a large, closed-environment production studio equipped with three 3-chip cameras and chroma-key capabilities. Students learn about the aesthetics of light and how to manipulate it. They also learn about how a studio is organized and how it operates. Students learn standard shots, lighting, and shoot formats for drama/comedy and information for television.

The third semester takes what students learn in a controlled environment and teaches them what to do in the field, where they must solve many unexpected problems. Portable Video Production requires that students make full use of their ingenuity, creativity, and group-working skills. Students take on many different roles to allow a small team of students to be mobile enough in the field to allow them to capture the footage they need.

Seminar in Production is the concentration's capstone course. Students create professional quality work suitable for their portfolio. By this time students are expected to know all the basics and can now focus on learning the finer points of production, whether it be news media, TV entertainment, or even filmmaking.

Career Connections:
Media Production students could find themselves in any aspect of the media industry including: producers, documentary/fiction film-makers, technical directors, TV show hosts, script writers, studio engineers, camera operators, technicians and many more.

Media Production (Radio/TV Production) Major Plan (.PDF Format)