Durham Chronicle 17-18 Issue 12

chronicle.durhamcollege.ca April 24 - 30, 2018 The Chronicle 21
Entertainment
World Music Festival shakes The Pit
DC music
students show
us the world
and its many
cultures
Jessy Nkunku
The Chronicle
Many different cultures from
across the campus and community
came together at the World
Music Festival.
It was one of the many events
which were part of Oshawa Music
Week.
“I think the whole idea around
rebranding was to make it more
inclusive and bring the community
together musically,” said
Kyle Marriott, a Music Business
Management student.
The first event, the World
Music Festival, was held in The
Pit.
It was planned by the students
of Durham College’s MBM program
and supervised by professor
Tony Sutherland.
“We were showing the music
talent that is in Oshawa,” said
MBM student, Eleanor Lau.
“This is kind of a way to be like,
yeah, there’s a lot of talent in Oshawa
as well.”
Every performance represented
a different culture and had
many students come together.
People from Indigenous,
Asian, Palestinian, south Asian,
Caribbean, Italian and many
cultures from across the area performed.
Many Durham College
students arrived to see the different
cultures on display.
The performances ranged
from tap dancing and opera, to
acoustic guitar duets and steel
pan. Even some students in the
MBM program performed as well.
The audience was able to participate
in some of the performances,
with the first being a dance
competition. Anyone watching
was able to join in if wished to
do so. The crowd was interested
and started clapping along to the
music during the dances.
Each performance showed the
different types of talent from different
cultures and taught everyone
present a little about each
community.
Other than the performances,
different types of cultural food
were served for students to enjoy,
provided by Aramark. There were
also cultural accessories for students
to buy as well.
Durham College graduate produces video game TV show
Dennis B. Price
The Chronicle
A video game themed TV show
is being produced in Durham Region,
more specifically right here
in Oshawa.
That show is called Digital Circus.
It is the brainchild of former
Durham College student and recent
graduate from the Journalism
– Web and Print program,
Tyler Hodgkinson.
Hodgkinson is the host of Digital
Circus, which airs on Rogers
TV with episodes also uploaded
to its YouTube Channel.
“I would describe Digital Circus
as a mixed-bag of content centred
around the video game industry,”
Hodgkinson said.
“The goal is that every episode
has a different format, so you will
never see the same type of show
twice.”
Each episode follows its unique
formula but overall covers stories
in a variety of ways, including
in-depth interviews, reviews and
coverage of the video game aspect
at conventions in the Toronto
area.
The planning of the show is a
collaboration between Hodgkinson
and Aaron Miller, a Rogers
TV technical producer and now
producer of Digital Circus. Each
episode is brainstormed by the
two and usually surrounds a current
event or topic, such as ethics
in video game journalism.
From there Hodgkinson writes
the scripts, figures out the segments,
the guests to bring on and
the topics to cover. Miller helps
Durham College students dancing in The Pit.
with the shots and sections for the
show.
The origin of this show begins
with Hodgkinson. He has always
been a fan of video games, but
the idea of writing about video
games didn’t come to him until after
high school. Hodgkinson took
four years off in between high
school and college. In that time,
he toured as the bass player for his
band, The Joint.
“I mean I can’t say I didn’t
learn anything, I learned a million
things. I learned that… waking
up in Vancouver, then playing
in Ashland, Oregon and falling
asleep in California is difficult,”
Hodgkinson said.
Before a one-month tour with
the band, Hodgkinson knew he
wanted to write, but he wanted to
do something fun to preoccupy his
time during the tour as well. He
decided to start writing for the site
Popshifter where he did music and
concert reviews.
During the tour, Hodgkinson
decided to write about video
games. After the tour, he applied
for multiple game websites until
he got a job writing for one. That’s
where he started learning but he
realized quickly that he didn’t
have the fundamentals.
“I knew I didn’t have the fundamentals
to be a good storyteller
or be a good news writer,” Hodgkinson
said. “That’s kind of when
I decided ‘you know what, it’s time
to go to school.’”
After that realization and advice
from his video game industry
idol, Victor Lucas of Electric Playground,
to pursue journalism, he
applied to Durham College.
Digital Circus didn’t come
until after he graduated, and it
didn’t start off as a TV show.
Hodgkinson says he had the idea
in mind for a long time, but he
needed more skills to make it happen.
During Hodgkinson’s time
in Durham College’s journalism
program, he adapted the Digital
Circus idea into its first incarnation
as a Riot Radio show at Durham
College alongside other journalism
students.
“We would go on and we
would talk about the news of the
week,” Hodgkinson said. “Then
we would have a central topic, and
then we would have a guest come
on.”
After that first step of doing
Digital Circus at Durham College,
Hodgkinson started volunteering
at the Rogers TV station
in Oshawa. Hodgkinson says he
always wanted to do a video game
show at Rogers but never pitched
it.
“I didn’t originally pitch Digital
Circus because I didn’t feel like
it would be good enough,” Hodgkinson
said.
Over time, an opportunity
presented itself. Miller asked if he
would be interested in producing
a show at Rogers TV and possibly
hosting it.
“Anyone can pitch a show
at Rogers TV and I thought he
would be a very good host for a
video game show. He put in all the
work,” said Miller.
Even though Digital Circus is
a creative outlet for Hodgkinson,
Photograph by Jessy Nkunku
Photograph by Dennis B. Price
Tyler Hodgkinson, creator and host of Digital Circus.
he is not paid to produce and host
Digital Circus. The only monetary
value of the show is Rogers’
production budget for the show
that Hodgkinson and his team
must adhere to.
Aside from his show, Hodgkinson
works as a leasing assistant for
the student housing centre, Foundry
Simcoe, just off the Durham
College Oshawa campus.
Hodgkinson’s passion for Digital
Circus comes from a person
who loves the video game industry
and wants to be in it. Both Hodgkinson
and Miller would like to
do more Digital Circus and even
expand it into a more prominent
brand with the ideas they have
now.
Even with that motivation,
Hodgkinson feels he is at a crossroad
with the dream of joining a
popular existing video game website
like IGN or continuing the
show he helped in creating.
“I really haven’t pinpointed
exactly what Digital Circus is in
the future,” Hodgkinson said with
uncertainty.