Meet the Masters
– Student Edition –
NAME: David Ciura
CAMPUS: Online
What is your capstone project?
For my masters, I produced a musical, short film called ‘Who Is Nate Nixon?‘ I wrote, produced, directed, acted and composed the music in the film. The film was selected in the Toronto Film Channel Festival and I have submitted the film for consideration for other film festivals.
What are your motivations behind creating the project?
First, I wanted to examine the relationship between music and visuals. Second, throughout the Master of Creative Industries program and through various subjects I studied, my interest in film developed and I decided that this was the medium I wanted to explore in my masters.
Could you please tell us about the workflow and processes behind your project?
First, I started with some instrumental pieces of electronic music.
I next wrote the script and in parallel developed the music further.
I then put my team together for my film and we worked in detail on the visual design of the film using storyboards and imagery from other films to serve as inspiration.
We filmed the project on location in Sydney and employed various lighting techniques on set to achieve the desired visual intent of the film.
In post-production, colour-grading was a key component as I had a certain visual aesthetic I wanted to achieve with the film and doing this digitally was critical to the end result.
In tandem with the colour-grading, the sound editing was done, and I had to complete the work on the music compositions for the final cut of the film.
In summary, my workflow has several components that are worked on at any one time, but these were often interconnected and have to be considered as a whole.
What drew you to work within the creative industries and become a creative practitioner?
I had a passion for drawing and music since I was a child, and this has remained influential in my education and creative practice.
How does completing the Master of Creative Industries online suit your lifestyle?
It has been very flexible which has worked very well with my commitments with work, family and friends.
What are your top three tips for working online?
- Work on it every day even if only a short time.
- Do the most demanding tasks when you are most fresh and invigorated (leave the less demanding tasks to when you are tired and lower on energy).
- Keep connected with people and collaborate.
