I had the good fortune to be invited to teach a one day workshop to junior high students at the Helen Day Arts Center in Stowe, Vermont this past Saturday. The small turnout actually proved to be beneficial, allowing each of the three students to be fully engaged in the process. We only had 6 hours to make a short film from script to screening, so the student/teacher ratio was key.
The students, Rowan, Tavish, and MacKenzie, had different interests in the type of film they wanted to make, but with a little coaching they reached consensus. While I introduced a few ideas, they really devised the concept, knowing that it had to have some action. My role was to operate camera only in the shots where all three of them were acting. I wanted them to direct it and think carefully about each shot, so I had them review the shot prior to rolling camera. For the remainder, I gave them each opportunities to operate camera, direct, and make decisions about lighting. Choreographing the fight scene was of particular interest to the boys!
We utilized iMovie for editing, which 2 of the students were familiar with. The time crunch only allowed for an hour of editing, yet our pre-production storyboarding and planning yielded a string of shots and cutaways that made editing flow. The camera was a consumer miniDV SD Panasonic model, which worked well for our purposes. Sound was accomplished (barely) with the on-board camera mic. Had we more time and more hands, I’d have opted for a directional boom mic. The idea was to teach the kids with equipment they could likely get their hands on (the lights excluded of course).
Many thanks to the staff at Helen Day Arts Center, especially the gallery attendant Ashley Roark who was a great help and provided these behind the scenes photos. I hope the students continue with filmmaking as they’re off to a good start.
The finished short, titled Grosetta Stone, is a spoof on the language learning software, Rosetta Stone and you can WATCH IT on YouTube.
