By Sidney Murillo

The Media Production Department serves the college by filming campus events — small and large — and editing them together to accommodate the desired message.
The department is made up of a team of three: Sarah Sheldon, who was hired last year; David Yonley, who has been a part of the department for 12 years; and veteran videographer Michael Forshee, who has 15 years of media experience.
Inside the Media Department in L-112, there is a large whiteboard calendar on the wall covered with dates and events written in red, green and brown highlighters and markers.
“We don’t look at the calendar and choose what we want to cover,” Sheldon said. “The people who run the event request us to tape it and film it. That’s a lot of our day-to-day work.”
Yonley said the department used to have small office calendars for their projects, but as time progressed, there were too many requests to fit.
“We eventually needed a huge calendar to organize our busy department,” Yonley said.
On top of its daily work, the Media Department also receives long-term projects to work on such as developmental math boot camp during the summer and their biggest project to date, a video parody of the television show “Dallas” for a conference the DCCCD is hosting this summer.
“Those kind of projects are my favorite,” Sheldon said. “We actually come up with a storyboard and what kind of shots we need and if we need any talent to come and act. It is a bit harder because it requires a bit more planning, but it’s also more fun because we are getting to be more creative.”
The creative process can be the most fun, but the real work is in the cutting, editing and sound work, Yonley said.
“A small event can take about four days maybe to fully edit and put together,” he said “And big projects like the one where we shot in downtown Dallas can take a couple of weeks just to edit.”
Though the team is small, its accomplishments are significant. The three of them complement each other when it comes to all facets of video production.
“We get along great,” Forshee said. “Dave and Sarah are both hard workers, and we help each other by bouncing ideas off of one another. I could not have never asked for two better teammates.”
Digital imaging professor Steve Burnes is hoping to collaborate with the Media Department and help students interested in cinematography pursue a hobby or even a career producing videos and movies.
“Merging with the Media Department could help students, I think,” Burnes said. “It’s one thing to learn about how to shoot video and cut and edit, but it’s another thing to put that knowledge to use and work with your hands.”
Yonley believes a partnership could help develop a new program on campus and maybe even a degree plan in cinematography in the near future.
“This is basically Eastfield’s little Hollywood,” Yonley said.