Full Sail Stories
Published Aug 20, 2024
Faculty Spotlight: Mike Dunn (Portfolio I-VII, Media Communications)
This award-winning instructor draws from experience in music, photography, design, and filmmaking to guide students through Portfolio courses.

For students studying media communications at Full Sail, Portfolio courses take on a unique approach, allowing them to connect, collaborate, and create with fellow students at various stages of their studies.
Instead of meeting individually within their own cohort, Portfolio Blend takes students from all seven Portfolio classes across the progression of media communications courses and invites them into a shared space where they must pitch, execute, and receive feedback on projects that reflect their career interests and where they are currently in their studies.
“There are seven stops of Portfolio and all of us meet together three times a week, every single week. So, the cool thing is it ends up becoming our version of a homeroom where we are working with students who are at the very beginning of the journey and at the end of their journey where they can essentially coach each other on their personal projects,” shares Mike Dunn, an instructor in the Portfolio Blend courses.
Mike – who works as a musician, director, and portrait photographer alongside his role as an instructor – has found creative success in several endeavors including his boutique media agency, Rust + Rebel.
“We do everything from photography to branding to videography and documentary filmmaking. On the music side, I have a couple of clients that I work with on an ongoing basis creating content strategy and brand strategy. On the film side, I've worked on a number of documentary films, as well as live performances.”
The instructor has won multiple awards for his work in documentary filmmaking, including a Suncoast Regional Emmy for his work on Nadiya Ukraine: The National Ballet Live From Steinmetz Hall and a Telly for Tactical Empathy, which profiles former FBI hostage negotiator and founder of The Black Swan Group, Chris Voss.
For Mike, keeping a steady pulse on the media industry allows him to provide timely, practical advice to students while ushering them through the seven stages of the portfolio process. “I can bring back real-world experiences and open up and demystify what the process looks like, what it takes, and what you can and should expect when working in the media industry,” he says.
With such a wide array of skills and interests, Mike’s rubric for taking on new work helps him narrow in on what project to take on. Mike considers his four “R’s,” or the revenue, relationship, reel potential, and resonance of a project before getting involved. “Sometimes the simplest one is revenue, and I need to pay my bills… but I also look for a relationship. Who am I doing this project with? Do I like working with these people? Do I believe in what they're doing and do I believe I can offer something valuable to them?
“After I'm done with this if everything goes perfectly, will it wind up in my director's reel? Is it a portfolio piece for me? And the last one is resonance. Does it actually connect with people? Does it do something valuable in the world?” asks Mike.
Asking these questions and ensuring a project incorporates two of the four “R’s” helps the instructor pursue projects that provide both professional and personal fulfillment, something he hopes his students will unlock during the pursuit of their careers.
“If I'm reviewing a potential applicant's portfolio, I don't want to see anything that they did during school. I don't want to see a test they got an A on. It does not matter to me. I want to see something that you cared about, that shows your skillset, that wasn't just a check-the-box style of activity, that showed that you have a real initiative when it comes to crafting and developing media in the industry. And that's what we try to encourage and emulate with our students.”