Providing Industry Experiences
A consummate teacher and experienced professional, David Weekley makes certain his film and video production students learn by doing. His classes are self-contained production “companies,” with real projects for real clients on real deadlines.
His classes provide the kind of experience vital for graduates to land jobs in the profession. His work with students in internships and practicum allows them to produce media products for nonprofit organizations. This work allows students to apply what they learn in their classes, while teaching them professionalism, and helping them build resume tapes so they have experience and samples to show prospective employers.
“In this setting, the students learn not only the workplace skills they need in editing, camera work, lighting, and production, but they also learn how to work with a client and the professionalism that is part of that relationship,” said Dr. Jamie Byrne, associate dean of the College of Professional Studies.
Weekley’s students have produced a series of podcasts for the Department of Arkansas Heritage for the state’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. The popular series of 30 podcasts about Arkansas in the Civil War are being repurposed for teachers who want to use them as teaching tools. A “Stop Meth” documentary for the Saline County Prosecutor’s Office was featured in the Ozark Foothills Film Festival in Batesville and has been incorporated in the MidSouth Summer School training conference for social workers.
“The thing I appreciated most was that Professor Weekley has worked in the industry,” said student Rita Tuggle. “If you were doing something wrong or something that would get you fired in the working world, he didn’t sugar coat it. He gave us real commercial experience in the classroom. That kind of knowledge you can’t get just anywhere.”
Weekley, instructor and production supervisor of mass communication, earned a B.A. degree in radio and television from the University of Houston in 1980, a bachelor of theology degree from The Way College of Biblical Research, Indiana Campus in 1987, and an M.Ed. degree in instructional resources in education from UA Little Rock in 2000.