Classes at the Africa Digital Multimedia Academy, the first of its kind in Africa, have kicked off, according to a top official.Jerome Gasana, the Director General of Workforce Development Authority (WDA), told The New Times yesterday that classes began on Saturday, last week, with 20 students enrolled. “After two months we will adjust the time table and recruit 40 students more. This means that in three months time we shall have approximately 60 students at the academy.”Gasana mentioned that students started with “introduction to multimedia” as their first course. The academy supported by Pixel Corps, a US-based digital media firm, will focus on quality video and film production, basic production skills such as computer graphics, shooting/editing, and audio lighting and most of its productions will be done in High Definition (HD). The US Pixel Corps has specialised in computer graphics and video production for close to 30 years and has worked with some of the largest visual production companies in the US, such as Industrial Light and Magic and Lucas Film on the Box Office hit movie, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.Louis Kamanzi, the Director of Flash FM said that multimedia lessons are of great importance and highly needed in Rwanda.“Even those with production skills need to improve. I hope the academy will enable students understand the technical steps needed to produce effective multimedia documents,” he noted.The government will fund the academy, while Pixel Corps will provide the requisite technology.
