Professor Scott Arundale is a man of many talents…one of which is literally writing the text book for his class! What’s even more amazing about it is that he co-wrote it with one of his former students, Tashi Trieu (BFA/Film Producing ’10). The book is Modern Post: Workflows and Techniques for Digital Filmmakers.

Arundale met Trieu when he was a sophomore here at Dodge, and immediately knew he was gifted with Digital Media. Though Trieu never took any of Arundale’s classes, they two struck up a friendship. Trieu arrived at Dodge just at the cusp of everything moving over to digital. This provided an unique opportunity to work a bit in both the realm of film and digital media at the same time.

After graduating, Trieu began to work as a freelance colorist, DI editor, and workflow supervisor on major Hollywood films, such as Godzilla, Gravity, and some of the Marvel movies. Meanwhile, here at Dodge, Arundale was developing the DI guide for students, to help with their own projects.

When he realized that there was no clear cut guide on how to prepare a project, start to finish, for how to streamline the work flow between the many tools at student’s disposal, he called upon Trieu to help write the book.

They submitted a proposal three years ago, but it is initially rejected for being too specific. Once they broaden their range a bit, the publisher accepted, and they got to work.

Trieu came up with outline of book, having created a Google document that broke it down into its chapter and sections. As they began writing, Arundale was still teaching, and Trieu was still working in Hollywood. The two rarely, if ever, were able to get together in the same place at once, so the book was essentially a child of the Internet.

“Writing a book is hard enough to keep organized with one person, but we found a good method to work together, work remotely, and share content with each other,” Arundale said.

It took almost two years for them to write the book and then get it out into the world, but to them, it was well worth the wait.

“The book helps define the work flows we used to do at Dodge, and what they still refer to now. It acknowledges film, and its contributions, but is looking forward toward the future of digital entertainment,” Arundale said.

Though the book is primarily a text book, it’s also for directors, producers, and anyone interested in understanding the process more fully.

“It’s important to acknowledge and study past practices to understand where we are headed,” Trieu said.

The book is available now on Amazon.