Alex Boivin, of Wakefield, listens to instructions from the control room at the Koffler Center at Bryant University.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

Everyone’s got to start somewhere.

For would-be TV directors, somewhere could be the control room and TV studio at the Communications Complex of Bryant University, which is holding a “Digital Video Summer Camp” this month.

In the control room last Monday, camp director Tom Dooley, a faculty member in Bryant’s communication department, was listening as 17-year-old Leigh Kumpe, of Wrentham, Mass., sat in the director’s seat before a wall of TV monitors and gave orders to her camera operators, who were in the studio one floor below.

“Camera 2, tighten in on Ben,” she said through her headset.

“Say ‘Zoom in,’” suggested Dooley.

“Camera 3, move lefter,” Kumpe said.

“Say ‘Pan left,’ ” suggested Dooley.

Then he warned her to be careful of the “amputee effect,” which is what happens when the camera frame cuts off a seated subject at the knees.

Bryant divides its video summer camp into two parts. The first, held last week, was the On-Air Studio Camp, during which campers learned to produce a newscast and a talk show using Bryant’s professional-grade studio and control room. The campers rotated positions — director, producer, sound technician, camera operator, on-camera performer — to get a taste of the different roles involved in producing studio TV shows.

This week Bryant is holding an Avid Editing Camp, in which participants learn to edit using the Avid computer editing system, the standard for the film and TV industry. Students will learn both the technical and creative side of editing, and by the end of the week they will have edited prerecorded footage into their own three- to five-minute movie trailers.

Capacity for each camp is about 10 students. There are still spaces in this week’s editing camp, which starts tomorrow and costs $575. (Interested people can e-mail dvcamp@bryant.edu).

Bryant was not the only place for video campers last week. At the University of Rhode Island, the Flickers Arts Collaborative, producer of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, held its ninth annual KidsEye Summer Filmmaking Camp. URI donates the space for the camp, which costs $335, while the equipment is provided by Rule Broadcast Systems in Watertown, Mass.

While Bryant’s program concentrated on studio TV work and editing, KidsEye divided its 34 participants into three teams, and had each of them make a short film and music video, using digital video cameras. The results will be shown Aug. 25 at the Columbus Theater in Providence. The premiere is free and open to the public.

Keith Brown and Christina Mealey, codirectors for the KidsEye Camp, said they started the week with a discussion of screenwriting, then moved to storyboarding and a description of different kinds of shots and techniques used in shooting a film.

The final few days were spent by each KidsEye team shooting their films and music videos, which will eventually be edited by Brown before they’re shown at the Columbus Theater.

“We have fun, but if the kids come and think it’s vacation-time, they’ll be disappointed, because we work very hard,” said Brown.

The KidsEye participants are between 10 and 16, generally younger than the Bryant video campers.

“Our program is primarily for high school students, giving them the opportunity to get a taste of [video] production in a professional studio environment, which they can use when they go to college or if they should decide to make this a career,” said Bryant’s Dooley.

Some of the Bryant video campers, such as 16-year-old Alex Boivin, of South Kingstown, said they’re considering a career in TV. Boivin also attended the Bryant camp last year.

“You get a lot of hands-on experience. It’s a great facility,” he said.

Others, such as 15-year-old Alex Stein, of Providence, said they just wanted to try something new.

“I just thought I’d try it out. It’s been fun so far,” he said. “I thought it would be a good experience. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

The Bryant studio camp included a visit from Channel 12’s Susan Hogan, who spoke about on-camera performance skills, and a field trip to Channel 10, where the video campers watched the noon news from the control booth.

Monday was the first day for the Bryant camp, and after a morning spent giving out information Dooley wanted to give everyone some hands-on experience.

“They’re firing it all up for the first time,” he said, as students took turns on various pieces of equipment in the control room and in the studio below.

He told his novice directors they needed to take control.

“It’s hard to direct when the camera operators are freelancing down there… you have to rein them in. As the director, you have to take charge,” he said.

Later in the afternoon, he gathered all the video campers in the studio, which is kept very cold to counter all the heat-generating equipment and lights. The chill was a sharp contrast to the 90-degree temperature outside.

“Today, I wanted to keep it loose. Tomorrow, when we do some taping, it needs to be a lot more professional . . . we need more focus from the camera people. As a matter of fact, whatever position you’re in, you need to stay focused. If you’re not, it makes someone else’s job more difficult,” Dooley said.

asmith@projo.com