WORKSHOPS IN PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR NEW FILMMAKERS

Is Rosemary’s Baby any relation to David Lynch’s Grandmother?

A script is a seedbed or a minefield or a map. Its outcome is a production committed to stages, either live or screened. This workshop takes you through the intuitive and methodical processes that connect words to vision.

Film design is both practical and conceptual. Using reading skills, analysis and discussion this workshop will apply useful methods and basic principles that can be used for any scale of project. The difference between a no-budget digital short and a feature film is a question of proportion.

Over the course of three sessions, with additional time for one-to-one consultation, participants will learn to:

• break down a script into dynamic sets in practical locations and working studios
• examine how an aesthetic design choice affects legal issues, including property and safety
• communicate visual concepts verbally and by using picture
• be creative within budget restraints

Participants may want to use this workshop as a pre-production planning session for a project already in development.

CINEMATIC STAGECRAFT
Friday, 09 April 2010, 7-9pm
Sunday, 11 + 18 April 2010, 10am-4pm
Cineworks [1131 Howe, back lane entrance]
Members: $175, Non-members: $225

REGISTRATION: Please call 604.685.3841 or send an electronic message to Leanne at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 06 April 2010

INSTRUCTOR: Lisa Celotto a filmmaker and teacher who has coached the design and staging of over 200 short dramatic films as a teacher at VFS, Canadian College, and Langara. In 2003 she won the NSI drama prize for her short Any Niagara. Lisa has producing, writing, sound mixing, art direction and production design screen credits all with first-time filmmakers. Working with new filmmakers always offers a unique perspective to the art of filmmaking because each step of the process is invented and discovered within the context of creative possibility.

FOR INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS

This course will provide step-by-step guidance on documentary filmmaking in terms of theory, subject selection, legal issues, interview techniques, budgeting and funding. The weekend class is geared toward those interested in working on documentary projects and necessitates an understanding of the concepts involved in, and means of, starting the process.

The scope of approaches to making documentary films is constantly expanding and with these developments many questions to the core of documentary filmmaking come into question. This course challenges the traditional definitions of documentary and examines the ethics involved.

The course will also give a detailed practical look into documentary filming for advocacy purposes, as evidence, and associated research methods, as well as the task of defining whose truth the film represents and correlated questions of impartiality. From here, the course will explore documentary structures, set up, analysis and legal issues.  The course will provide role-playing in interview techniques and means of approaching those being interviewed in the film and how to form a connection with the interviewees.

What are the most economic means of editing the material? From that topic of economizing, the issue of funding a documentary project and different means of seeking funding, locally and internationally, will be explored. The course will also look into drafting budgets for documentaries and participants will be encouraged to draft their own budgets for discussion.

Participants are asked to submit a short background brief of their experience prior to the workshop outlining, specifically, what they want to learn from the course, as well detailing any experience they may have with documentary filmmaking or in the field of human rights.

DOCUMENTARY THEORY
10 + 11 April 2010, 10am-6pm
Cineworks [1131 Howe, back lane entrance]
$75 for members, $125 for non-members

REGISTRATION: Please call 604.685.3841 or send an electronic message to Leanne at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 06 April 2010

Instructor: REEM MORSI has worked over ten years with the United Nations in Egypt, Syria, the Sudan and Kosovo on child protection and human rights, as well as with many international NGOs and International AID/Development Organizations in Egypt and Thailand. Morsi is also fervently interested in filmmaking, participating in many film training programs (Montreal, Egypt and Italy) and currently is finishing an MA of Filmmaking at the London Film School, UK.

"Know your lines, hit your mark and don't bump into the furniture.” -Spencer Tracey

Well, that’s one way of looking at it. But not every actor works the same.

This two evening course is designed for emerging directors to help them develop their directorial communication skills with actors. The first evening is to discuss actor issues, methods and how to be more sensitive to the actors needs while still trying to “make their day.” Later, the directors will experience what actors go through in the audition process by auditioning themselves in front of the camera.

The second class, you will apply your directing skills utilizing professional actors, under the guidance of the facilitator, and directing them in scenes from established films. Afterwards, you will receive feedback from both the actors and facilitator.

Take the time, in this relaxed atmosphere, to learn about the different acting techniques you'll come across with actors - if any at all! Discuss the various issues that may arise including actors making the transition from stage to film, to the actor who has never set foot on a set before, to the professional who's been around the block a few times. The purpose of this course is to help improve the directors understanding of the actors process and the best way to communicate with them in order to get the best results for your film. Yes, time is money, but good acting can make all the difference in making a good film great!

DIRECTORS WORKING WITH ACTORS
Thursday 15 April, 7-10pm
Saturday 17 April, 11am-4pm
Cineworks [1131 Howe, back lane entrance]
Cost is $100 for members / $150 for non-members

REGISTRATION: Please contact Leanne at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 604.685.3841.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 12 April 2010

Instructor: STEPHEN ADAMS has been an actor/writer/producer and director in Canada for over 25 years. He recently produced the feature film The Baby Formula and has written, produced and directed plays and several short films. Adams is president of Dreamstate Productions, past President of ACTRA B.C. and a former Board member of the British Columbia Motion Picture Association and at MAIN FILM, an indie co-op in Montreal. He recently sat on the board of directors at LIFT, an independent filmmaker's co-op in Toronto. Check Steve out online here: http://www.dreamstateproductions.ca

The task of making a film on celluloid can seem overwhelming and intimidating, given the amount of equipment to master, along with high lab costs. Cineworks’s 16mm Bolex Orientation + Dogma Workshop is an opportunity to make a short film on the very cheap. While allowing first-time filmmakers to try their hand at filmmaking at an affordable cost, this orientation workshop will also challenge experienced filmmakers by taking away some of their favourite tools [post-production editing and effects, for instance], while introducing them to new tools [the medium of celluloid and film cameras]. This is a chance to participate in a creative activity with a community of filmmakers where the expansion of your practice is key. This workshop fulfills both Cineworks’s mandates regarding our education program: to teach our membership how to use the gear and resources we offer, while also stoking your creativity as a filmmaker.

Participants will be oriented to use the 16mm Bolex camera and will then be provided with a roll of 16mm film, a Bolex camera and a light meter and will have 24 hours to shoot a film. The film will be developed and presented as part of a group screening of works produced through the workshop.

RULES

• You must complete and submit to the Cineworks office the 16mm Bolex Orientation and Dogma Workshop application form when you register for the workshop with our Office Manager + Member Services Coordinator Leanne. The Cineworks office is open Monday-Friday, Noon-6pm.
• If you are unable to register in person, please contact Programs Manager + Curator cheyanne turions at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for an electronic copy of the application form. The completed application form and registration can be submitted to Leanne electronically at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by phone at 604.685.3841.
• The workshop will take place on Saturday, 24 April, 10am-6pm.
• The available shooting dates are 01-30 May 2010.
• The exact date of your shoot will be your choice, subject to availability of equipment. You must book the equipment with Jurgen, Cineworks’s Equipment Coordinator, at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 604.685.2209. Please note that the booking is not confirmed until you have heard back from Jurgen. Please also clearly indicate that you are participating in the Dogma Workshop.
• You will get the following equipment and materials:
  1. One Bolex 16mm camera
  2. One Sekonic incident light metre
  3. One 100 foot roll of 16mm colour 500 daylight film stock
• You have this equipment for 24 hours, after which you must return the equipment and hand in the roll of film for processing.
• According the original Dogma 95 rules:
  1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets are not permitted. If a certain prop is needed, then the location of the shoot has to be where the prop would naturally be.
  2. The camera must be hand-held at all times.
  3. You may only use available light.
  4. You may only do in-camera editing.
  5. You may not do any post-production work whatsoever [no editing, no sound, no cuts, no dissolves et cetera].
  6. The film must not contain superficial action, ie: murder and use of weapons is not allowed.
  7. The film must take place in the present.
• Unlike, the original Dogma 95 rules:
  1. Please note that these films will be silent.
  2. Genre films are acceptable.
  3. The film format will be 16mm.
  4. The director can be credited.
• You must show the following credits at some point in your film: a] the words: Produced with the generous support of Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society and the National Film Board of Canada, b] your name, c] the film title.
• You must agree to have the film shown as part of a special screening [date to be determined]. You cannot see the film between it’s completion and its screening. The workprint and negative will be returned to you after the screening.
• Prior to the screening, the film will not be shown to anybody other than cheyanne turions, Programs Manager + Curator. She will view it only for the purposes of preparing a program for the screening. If there are serious problems [ie: the majority of the film is significantly wrongly exposed and/or out of focus and/or the roll was loaded wrongly, causing significant registration problems], you will be notified of this problem, and are allowed the option to not have it screened.
• If you have any questions, please contact cheyanne at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 604.685.3841.

16MM ORIENTATION + DOGMA WORKSHOP
24 April 2010, 10am-5pm
Cineworks Studio [1131 Howe, back lane entrance]
Cost is $125 for members, $200 for non-members

Registration Deadline: 19 April 2010

Registration: Please contact Leanne at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 604.685.3841

Instructor: KATHLEEN HEPBURN, founding member of the non-profit collective The Suspension of Disbelief Film Society and chair of the Cineworks board of directors, is an independent filmmaker and photographer from Vancouver, BC. She is currently hard at work on numerous projects, including a dramatic narrative based on her travels through Asia, a feature length documentary on the world of show ponies, and a feature length dramatic script about the great Canadian North.

This workshop is a co-production with the National Film Board. Check out all their amazing activities + films + history at http://www.nfb.ca.