Workshops

Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts offers workshops in various program areas to encourage students, alumni, and the public to continue their education by keeping up with the latest technologies and trends.

For more information or to register for an upcoming workshop, please complete our online registration form: REGISTER ONLINE or contact us by phone at 800-808-CDIA (2342).

Upcoming Spring Workshops:

May:
(05/18/12) – Search Engine Optimization
(05/26/12 – 05/27/12) – Drupal Workshop with Dani Nordin

June:
(06/08/12) – Google Analytics for Business: Introduction
(06/15/12) – Google Analytics for Business: Advanced
(06/16/12) – Introduction to Photoshop: The Basic Tools & The power of Layers and Masks
(06/16/12) – (06/17/12) & (06/23/12) – (06/24/12) – Three-Hour Intro to Digital Photography
(06/23/12 – 06/24/12) – Studio and Independent Production Bootcamp

September-November:
(09/17/12-11/05/12) – Acting for Film and Television

Search Engine Optimization

When: Friday, May 18, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Jay Murphy
Cost: $199 CDIA/BU; $249 Public

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

In this course students will learn:
- How Search Engines work – how they view a website and webpage
- Keyword research
- Parts of a website page
- Titles, Descriptions, Links, Images, Keywords
- Robots.txt and sitemaps.xml
- Offsite optimization
- Referrals
- Social media
- Baseline measurement
- Ongoing optimization

Search Engine Marketing
- Intro to AdWords
- Campaign Strategy and Setup
- Text Ads
- Keyword and Bidding
- Landing pages
- Measurement and optimizations
- Banners
- The Google Content Network

Students will receive all course material electronically and in hardcopy.
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of websites and marketing.

Drupal Workshop

When: Saturday, May 26, 2012 – Sunday, May 27, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Dani Nordin
Cost: $199 CDIA/BU; $249 Public

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

Topics covered in this workshop include:
• A strategy for setting up a local development on the Mac platform for faster development;
• How to install and configure Drupal 7 on their local development environment;
• How to talk to clients about information architecture, and what information you need up front to work efficiently in Drupal;
• How to find the right modules to support your site plan;
• How to break down a wireframe or design layout, to determine how Drupal constructs content within the site;
• The basics of setting up content types, blocks and Views (two fundamental activities in Drupal site building);
• How to choose the right base theme for your project, and create a sub-theme for customization;
• An overview of the theme layer, LessCSS and theming strategy.

Prerequisites: Students should be familiar with HTML and CSS, familiarity with some PHP is a bonus. Students must be proficient in Dreamweaver or Textmate and know how to look at code in order to take this workshop. Also, they should understand the basics of developing for content management systems.

Suggested Reading:
Note: these books are not required for the workshop; however, they have a lot of valuable information that will help you as you move forward in using Drupal.

• Using Drupal, Addison Berry and Angela Byron. This book focuses on “recipes” for building a variety of websites in Drupal, and is extremely useful to have around. The newer version focuses on Drupal 7, the focus of this workshop.

CDIA will be providing computers installed with software for this workshop, however If students would like to use their own laptops, you are expected to:

• If on Mac, have installed Less.app (incident57.com/less) and MAMP (mamp.info) on their laptops.

• If using Ubuntu, visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP for help installing the LAMP stack on your machine.

• If on Windows, visit http://www.wampserver.com/en/ for information on how to install the WAMP server on Windows. NOTE: Unfortunately, some aspects of Drupal development (particularly Drush, the Drupal shell module, which we won’t discuss in the workshop, but you should know about) are known to be problematic on Windows machines.

• For both Windows and Ubuntu folks who don’t have site editing software installed, check out Aptana Studio 3. It’s open source, free, and pretty comprehensive. There’s a Mac version available, but I prefer Coda, for ease of use and Terminal access right within the application.

Dani Nordin is an independent user experience designer and strategist who specializes in smart, human-friendly design for progressive brands. She discovered design purely by accident as a Theatre student at Rhode Island College in 1995, and has been doing some combination of design, public speaking and writing ever since. Dani was one of several contributors to “The Definitive Guide to Drupal 7”(Apress); she is currently writing “Drupal for Designers,” a series of guides for Drupal designers, being published by O’Reilly Media. She blogs almost regularly at www.daninordin.com.

Google Analytics for Business: Introduction

When: Friday, June 8, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Jay Murphy
Cost: $199 CDIA/BU; $249 Public

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

* Learn how web metrics can drive business success
* Installing Google Analytics
* How to use the built in reports:
o Visitor Reports
o Content Reports
o Referral Sources
* Managing Reports
o The Basics of Custom Reporting
o Setting up Visitor Goals and Funnels
o Landing Pages and Keywords
o Linking to AdWords
* Students will receive a Google Analytics book, all course material electronically and in hardcopy.

Prerequisites: Basic understanding of websites and business.

Jay Murphy – Jay has been using Google Analytics since the beta product was released in 2004, he holds a Google Analytics Individual Qualification certificate and has delivered lectures on Google Analytics to audiences of more than 400 people.

Jay founded his own company, Trionia (www.Trionia.com) in 2001 and began teaching at CDIA BU in 2009. Trionia provides online marketing services – including Google Analytics – for mid-sized to Fortune 100 businesses. Some of Trionia’s projects include the global rollout of the world’s second largest Intranet site, with approximately 340,000 daily users as well as numerous CMS (Joomla!) based websites.

Before Trionia, Jay worked at Sapient where he was responsible for delivering websites to a variety of industries including financial, entertainment, health care and energy services. Jay’s earlier experiences at Draper Laboratory helped him to hone his analytical talent where he analyzed guidance systems and created spacecraft navigation software for the U.S. Navy, U. S. Air Force and NASA.

Google Analytics for Business: Advanced

When: Friday, June 15, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Jay Murphy
Cost: $199 CDIA/BU; $249 Public

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

* Advanced analysis
* Understanding Google Analytics cookies and JavaScript
* Advanced Techniques:
o Event Tracking
o Custom Variables
o Advanced Segments
o Data API
* Advanced Analysis
o eCommerce maximization
o Landing page optimization
o SEO Reports and Analysis
* Students will receive a Google Analytics book, all course material electronically and in hardcopy.

Prerequisites: Google Analytics Introduction and basic understanding of JavaScripting, tagging and search optimization.

Introduction to Photoshop: The Basic Tools & The power of Layers and Masks

When: Saturday, June 16, 2012
Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Damien Hickey
Cost: $125

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

An introduction to the basic tools of Photoshop and how they are used and applied to layers and masks to bring about the vision of the photographer. Through hands on guided exercises, students will learn not only the basic Photoshop skills that every photographer should know, but also incorporate the philosophy of “Lean & Flexible” into their Photoshop workflow.

TOPICS COVERED:
1) Overall Workspace & Interface
2) General editing tools.
3) Layers
4) Masks
5) Adjustment Layers
6) Selections
7) Simple Retouching

EQUIPMENT NEEDED: External Hard-drive or flash drive.

Three-Hour Intro to Digital Photography

When: Saturday June 16 10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm
Sunday June 17 10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm
Saturday June 23 10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm
Sunday June 24 10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm

Where: Waltham, MA Campus

Cost: $99

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

If your pictures of the cherry blossoms were washed out and the photos of the family’s Easter gathering ended up blurry, focus in on today’s workshop for a hands-on Intro to Photography class at the Georgetown campus of Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts. In the three-hour course our experienced instructors will walk you through every button, function, setting, and menu on your digital camera. Learn how to frame a photograph,what settings are best for every subject from portraits to landscapes, and the difference between shooting for raw files versus jpegs.

Studio and Independent Production Bootcamp

When: Saturday, June 23, 2012 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday, June 24, 2012 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Waltham, MA Campus
Instructor: Jeremy Jed Hammel
Cost: $199

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

Join us for this intense 2 day intense workshop of studio and independent production and a specific roadmap of how to plan your own shoot or to thrive as a professional crew member.

Topics which will be covered:

* Explain the particulars of Development Pre-Production, Production, Post, and Distribution
* The differences/similarites between the studio production “arc” and that of the independent world
* The importance of being clear about your distribution plan before you start working on your film
* The importance of and how to realistically Budget a shoot
* What paperwork is involved in production
* The Do’s and Don’t's of professional “Set Etiquette”
* The role of unions in production
* An overview of what each department of a production does
* Step-by-step breakdown of how to plan and execute a production
* Tips for how to deal with challenges that can come up during the process
* The role of the internet in independent film marketing
* Present techniques that increase social media involvement, “foot” traffic, and sales

About Jeremy Jed Hammel

After working on local Boston films, such as “Next Stop Wonderland,” Jeremy got his start in LA at NBC late night (Leno, Conan, Access Hollywood, etc.,) including a producer credit for “Later with Cynthia Garrett,” and as a PA in production office of the drama, “ER.” He has produced a number of award-winning features and shorts, including one for the American Film Institute’s “Directing Workshop for Women.”

In the directing realm, he won a Golden Kahuna Award for Excellence in Filmmaking from the 2008 Honolulu Film Festival for directing/producing/editing a music video, “The Night Divine” by international techno-music songstress, Lo-Fi Sugar. A number of his screenplays have won awards in screenplay competitions across the country, including the 2008 Woods Hole Film Festival and the 15th Annual Fade In magazine/Writer’s Network competition.

Since moving back to the Boston area, he has created a charitable local film festival called Filmshift (www.filmshift.org.) Prize sponsors last year included Script Magazine, Final Draft, Beatles Rock Band, and Powderhouse Productions, just to name a few. It’s designed to support local, small, and green businesses as well as local and student filmmakers.

The most recent project that he produced, “The Legacy,” (www.seasidepictures.org/thelegacy,) won Best Comic-Related Film at the 2010 Comic Con International Independent Film Festival, was accepted into the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner, and it was named one of the Top 10 best independent films of the year by Pulpmovies.com…among other film-oriented sites.

Acting for Film and Television

When: Monday nights, September 17, 2012 – November 05, 2012
Time: 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Where: CDIA – Waltham Campus
Cost: $450 public + $350 for Digital Tool-kit

Please contact us to register: REGISTER ONLINE or by phone 800-808-CDIA (2342)

Workshop Description: Film Acting: A Digital Tool-kit for the actor! CDIA is excited to offer a new opportunity. Learn the craft of film acting and also develop the tools you need to compete in the biggest markets. Students will receive advanced actor training from the area’s top professionals and will also have the opportunity to create a website, a demo reel and professional headshots. Everything the evolving professional actor must have in today’s digital marketplace!

Who is target audience: This workshop is designed for seasoned stage actors, newly trained actors and even beginning actors who wish to learn the craft of film acting.

What will students get out of this workshop: All participants will develop auditioning and cold-reading skills, learn how to adapt the basic principals of truthful creation of character and action to the screen, on camera acting skills and more. The digital portfolio will consist of a headshot, one page website template, and short sample reel.

SAG or AEA (Actor’s Equity) members are offered a $50 discount on both the class and the digital tool kit, combines to $100 off for both. Same discount applies to current students at Boston colleges, (BoCo, Emerson, etc), alumni of those colleges, and BU CDIA students and alumni.

Prerequisites: Some acting training preferred.

About the instructors:
Maura Tighe has been a prominent film and television casting director on the East Coast for 20 years. She has cast principal roles in feature films, among them Next Stop Wonderland, Session 9 (Brad Anderson), State and Main (David Mamet), Moonlight Mile (starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon), and My Best Friend’s Girl (Dane Cook and Kate Hudson). As a TV casting director, has worked for Bravo, ABC Family, Oxygen and PBS, casting such shows as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Fetch with Ruff Ruffman. She has also cast hundreds of commercials and voice-overs. She has lectured at many area colleges and taught Film Acting and the Business of Acting at Emerson College.

Lisa Rafferty has directed and produced for over 20 years, in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. As a playwright, her original comedies about motherhood – ”The MOMologues’ – have appeared around the country and on the international stage in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Brazil.

When registering, please be sure to pick the date you wish to attend. Workshop dates include: September 17, September 24, October 01, October 08, October 15, October 22, October 29, or November 05.

Events Calendar

Upcoming Events at BU CDIA:

See our Events Calendar for a list of upcoming workshops, guest speakers, and networking events scheduled at BU CDIA:
Calendar Page