Film and Engineering Students Work Together for Dodge College Film Showcase

At the end of the spring semester, Dodge College of Film and Media Studies hosts the Student Work Showcase as a senior thesis required to graduate. Faculty and fellow students assist filmmakers with the film production over the semester. While Dodge students work together to complete their final project, some benefit from reaching out to students outside of Dodge to assist with production. More specifically, engineering students who have an interest in sound production and prop engineering.

Credited for their participation in Dodge films, Nick Mirchandani and Logan Welsh are engineering students whose contributions made an impact on the final product.

Nick Mirchandani ’22

Although Nick Mirchandani came to Chapman University as a Computer Science major, he took classes across multiple disciplines, such as Music Technology and Animation and Visual Effects. His exposure to these classes helped him navigate his own academic experience resulting in his interdisciplinary background in engineering and programming.

As an engineer, problem-solving came naturally and he used his background in electrical engineering and programming to understand audio. “I was able to help Dodge students with sound mixing, because I have an interest in electronics and figuring out how to adjust the sound levels.” 

Nick, credited on three different Dodge films, enjoyed participating behind-the-scenes on set. He enjoyed exploring opportunities to hone his various skills including sound engineer.

Logan Welsh

Logan Welsh, currently a Computer Science major, started off with an interest in Broadcast Journalism. His interest and background in electronics, specifically for digital media, helped to prepare for his participation in the Dodge film. 

Through a posting in Slack, a messaging channel used to communicate with others within the Fowler School of Engineering, he signed up for more information about participating on set on the Dodge film. The film required prop guns and a retractable helmet. Carlos Vergera, Tech Shop Manager helped him to learn and use the electronic equipment to become the Prop Engineer on the film.

He used Nerf guns and gutted them and glued triggers in place using 3D printed parts to make them look like prop guns. Not only did he 3D print parts, he also learned how to program them for a more realistic look on screen.
 Logan signed on to participate in the film in September and finished the helmet in February.

“When I came to Chapman and found out they have a Makerspace, I’m a really big fan of Makerspace. Anyone can use these tools and I think it’s cool when I was able to bring in the director and producer to this space and expose them to the tools and space. It’s really cool what we have here and we should share this with as many students as we can.”