More than button pushing

October 26, 2023

When asked to write about what it is that people may not know about DIFT over the last 50 years, I would like to express that there is much more to the major than simply pushing buttons.  From ‘Radio, TV, Film,’ ‘Electronic Media,’ and now ‘Digital Innovation, Film and Television,’ there has always been a robust sense of community built around the act of visual storytelling. This community integrates a wide variety of disciplines, ethics, and cultural impacts, cultivating the students into informed and engaged citizens. They learn to seamlessly apply their writing, research, technical, team building, creativity, and critical thinking skills to comment on the human condition, promote civic engagement, and give back to the Xavier Community.
 
Along with learning technology and aesthetics, students develop a deeper understanding of civic engagement and social justice over their four years at Xavier. The expectation of every senior film project, whether narrative or documentary, is that it reflects an idea of social justice or spotlights the Human Condition. In their third year, students create a script that is workshopped and then taken into production in the DIFT Senior Seminar. This script-to-screen approach has created projects such as:

“Got Nic?,” which follows a young man and his family as they deal with his addiction to vaping, 

“Living Alright,”  a story of a man living with a disability and his quest to become a school teacher, 

“Flipping Pennies,” a story of a woman’s journey with her Grandmother after the passing of the Grandfather,

“Now I Lay Me,” a story about conflicts that arise between a mother and her daughter’s sexuality.

Students engage with important issues that spotlight challenges in our world.

 
Every spring, students in DIFT 354 Field Production and Storytelling complete a final project for a non-profit, resulting in promotional videos that partners may use on their websites. DIFT has worked with the Eigel Center over the years on some of these projects. The commercial value generated from this community engaged assignment equates to over $500,000 in donations to the community from the past 15 years.
Mill Creek Alliance: https://vimeo.com/875263552

In addition, 24 DIFT 254 students participated in the production of 13 Faculty UAP stand-up videos for the Presidential Inauguration Academic Symposium Day, highlighting the diversity of research and teaching by Xavier faculty
Video A: https://vimeo.com/678748899
Video B: https://vimeo.com/678756776
 
For seven years, in partnership with Gene Beaupre and Sean Comer, DIFT majors and second-year PPP majors collaborated in DIFT 401 Political Reporting Practicum. This cross-disciplinary course built an understanding of election campaigns and the video production process. Students in both fields were amazed at the amount of work required to get a campaign message to the screen.
Issue 22: https://vimeo.com/148638757
 
For 20 years, DIFT and its predecessors have sponsored the Xavier Film and Television Club, which is open to majors and non-majors. Every Friday, a live News and Sports Program is produced and streamed to Facebook and YouTube. The show features the tagline, “Your campus, your region, your world.” Tune in on Fridays at 2:30 pm to watch it live on Facebook or You Tube.

The students and faculty take pride in the multiple ways the program gives back, and although technology is part of the process, these visual stories go far beyond the task of button pushing.
 
Dr. Blis DeVault
Communication Department / Director DIFT Program / Director Film and TV Studio
 
Here are a couple more links just for fun! “Mike's Double BBQ Burger” and “Powder Room”