About This Course

The most important message for COM 535 students, at the outset, is that this course is designed as an introduction to the process of producing visual media. There are far more skills, techniques, and strategies to know than what is covered in this course, but your completion of COM 535 will prepare you for whatever you encounter next.

If you were to pursue visual media production to an intermediate or advanced level, you would be introduced to a wider range of production project types and more in-depth exploration of aesthetics, editing techniques, music selection, graphic animation, and other elements that are common in the media that you watch every day.

The emphasis in this course is about establishing the kinds of habits and techniques that you can build upon if you choose to pursue visual media production further than the extent to which this course is designed.

Put another way, think of this course as the process of building a go-kart so that you may someday learn to construct a race car, dragster, school bus, dump truck, or any other kind of vehicle that may suit your needs or interests in the future. As you go through this course, you are likely to realize that there is much more that could be done in your projects than we are actually doing, and this is intentional. As an introductory course, it is designed to be limited.

Time Management

For those of you who have never done visual media production before, it is likely that you will find the software and hardware experience to be complex and time-consuming to deal with. This is a normal feeling for your first encounter with the tools and accessories for visual media production. Becoming proficient in visual media production requires a lot of hands-on focus, trial and error, resilience, and patience. You will soon discover that you will be spending a lot of time on something that probably should not have taken that much time to create, but you “burned” the time anyway because you were so immersed in it. This is perfectly normal, and it is also a habit that will make your work improve very quickly.

The best resource you will have in this course will be your instructor and your classmates. Be reassured that whatever you are feeling as you apprehend the challenges of this course, your classmates are feeling exactly the same.  Your instructor has also gone through all of the same paces on the way to becoming an expert in the field, just the same.

What’s at the End?

The promise this course presents to you is that, once you have established the foundation skills to produce visual media using Snagit and Camtasia, you will be able to grow at your own pace to whatever degree of professional proficiency you desire. Media production work is difficult. Few people are attracted to the commitment that is required to become good at it.  That is why there are many people who are willing to pay visual media professionals to do this kind of work so they do not have to.

Some students who take this course may choose not to pursue it any further than an introductory level, and that is perfectly fine. If that is the case, one of the great benefits that you will gain from completing this course is that you will have the ability to interact with other visual media producers with an understanding of how they do their work. You will be able to interact and negotiate intelligently with them so that you can get the greatest value from your professional partners. This holds true whether it is a one-time, for-fee relationship, or a  long-term formal business partnership.