One more week!

With only a few days left of the last term of the year, students are working hard to create year-end portfolios featuring the work they accomplished over the year. This is a new assignment for me, and I'm liking the way it is turning out. Every student is creating a blog, embedding the videos that they were a part of, and writing reflections about the experience. I think that they are having fun creating their own websites and I'm looking forward to the finished product. Some of them are looking very cool already. I'll post one more time this year with links to each portfolio. They will also be posted on the Digital Media Academy's Facebook Page.

The Screenwriting students at MTS Digital Media Academy have produced another volume of The Last Draft, a compilation of some of the best screenplays written by DMA students over the past two years. The Last Draft is published bi-annually with the help of the non-profit publishers, Lulu.com.

Lulu is an interesting organization and the way they do business allows us to produce this book with no initial cost to the district. We upload the artwork (produced by the Graphic Arts department), and the content (produced by the screenwriting students) to Lulu's site and they create a blueprint for the book. When a consumer purchases the book, Lulu manufactures that copy and sends it to the buyer. Lulu takes the cost of manufacturing the book and a cut of the author royalties as their payment for the printing. The rest of the money goes to the author, in this case - the students of the screenwriting department.

This year, Lulu again chose our book to be one of the titles featured on Amazon.com, as well as the Lulu website. I think this is quite an honor, although I advise you to buy directly from Lulu - it's less expensive!

Notes:

• Shout-out to Dustin Barnes - the Graphic Arts student who created the cover and inside graphics for The Last Draft.
• We are in the process of creating our year-end DVD for the video students. We will also publish this DVD using Lulu this year and it will be available for purchase soon. I will keep you posted on the progress.
• All .EDU screenings are available to watch, just as they were presented, at Vimeo.com. Check out the festival from the comfort of your home!