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| [Photo by Donna Crain] |
BIFF DigiComm Commando
The student workshop was presented Sunday afternoon by Boulder Digital Arts in
conjunction with the Boulder Film Festival.
BDA is an amazing resource providing classes, events, technology and
space to creators in the digital arts.
The workshop was free to students 13 to 18 and was well-attended by
students in a wide age range and various filmmaking goals.
The instructor, Antony Cooper, is an award-winning documentary
filmmaker who cut his teeth working for MTV shooting rock stars in London and
is now based in Colorado. He shared a
number of Colorado-specific notes such as, don’t leave your eyepiece flipped up
to the sun if you don’t want to burn a hole in your camera. And “wind is your enemy.”
Cooper’s focus was on the technology and logistics of filmmaking
and he started by outlining his five steps:
concept, plan, shoot, edit and show.
The workshop was interactive with students coming up to demonstrate
casting sessions, recording dramatic dialogue, what colors and patterns to
watch out for on an actor or documentary subject, lighting, and the pitfalls of
automatic aperture.
Cooper did a nice job weaving together general information with
individual anecdotes and details and also noting what one would absolutely need
versus what you might hope for and what would be ideal in filmmaking in terms
of equipment. It was well-directed to
the audience.
In the sound section he
gave examples from his work and stressed that although it may make things more
complicated that getting the characters out doing what they do, where they do
it will make a documentary or corporate video much more compelling. He also noted and came back to the need to
capture close ups and b-roll and other tricks-of-the-trade to make cutting a
documentary possible.
Cooper's low-key nature made for an inspiring workshop that will
encourage students to believe that they really can make a short film and get
their work out there.
The students are very lucky because they've got the chance to attend to that workshop that is all about making a short film. I'm pretty sure that in the future the students will be able to produce a film that is worth to be watched.
ReplyDeleteVery useful information on making an amateur film. These days people have lots of camera, professional or otherwise. Budding film makers attending such a seminar has a head start.
ReplyDelete