New production studio opens: Vineyard Community Media

0

VineyardVoice.org, the Island’s online magazine for arts and ideas, will celebrate its new education center and video production studio, Vineyard Community Media (VCM), with an open house event tonight, Thursday, June 3 between 5:30 and 8 pm at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs.

Refreshments and musical entertainment from local artists provide the backdrop for demonstrations of the media classes, video production, and marketing services available at the new facility.

VCM, an operating unit of Vineyard Voice Inc., will operate as a nonprofit production facility and offer courses in web video arts and journalism, and website development. Other VCM services include web marketing (including marketing through popular social media networks).

For example, VCM will offer a week-long (July 5–9) video arts camp for kids aged 10 to 18. Classes will be held between 9 am and 12 noon, Monday through Friday. Tuition is $350. For adults, there are three-day video courses, scheduled to begin on June 28 and again on August 9. Tuition is also $350.

Vineyard Voice Inc. is a three-year-old nonprofit publishing and education organization. Its online arts and ideas magazine, Vineyardvoice.org, publishes video about the visual and literary arts and serves as a platform to share ideas about work, life, and the environment.

VCM will be based at Featherstone and has been designed to offer a place for the Martha’s Vineyard community to produce media content for the web, including video clips, audio segments, live video interviews, video features, profiles, or advertisements, Patrick Phillips, according to executive director of Vineyard Voice and VCM.

VCM students and clients can also learn how to distribute their media on the web through social networking and platforms including blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, email, and their own websites, he said.

“Think what people can do when they know how to create web video, get help with publishing and share ideas online,” Mr. Phillips said in a press release. “It’s pretty powerful stuff, and we make it easy for everybody. Featherstone and Francine Kelly have provided us with a tremendous opportunity to teach, to share new ways of exchanging ideas, and to create web media for the Island community.”

For more information, call 508-693-2125, visit vineyardvoicemedia.org, or email info@vineyardvoice.org.

Jack Shea is a regular contributor to The Times.