MORPHING
Linking students together through creative camera work without dialogue, MORPHING captures the personality and magic of the tweener years at Pearce Middle School. This project was the collective effort of ten students in the Pearce Middle School program, instructed by AFS FIlmmaking Mentor Stephen Beyleu.  The students filmmakers include:  Anna Selana, Selliu Bambereta, Demetria Harris, Tionne Massey, Mariella Medrano, Juana Morales, Marcos Rodriguez, Joshua Scott, and Dvaughncee Simms.

NINJA STORIES
A five-part flipbook animated tale of a ninja who is constantly at odds with other foes. The film’s heavy dependence on swordplay, acrobatics and bloodshed confirm the Kuroswan influence on the young filmmaker, Erik Hendrik. His instructor at Travis High was AFS Filmmaking Mentor Radames Pera. In addition, this past May the film received the top award at the school-wide Travis High Arts Festival.

Check out the film in the AFS Youth Media Screening Room:

Too often young people at certain area schools are talked about in the terms of what they “can’t do” or are viewed by some as academic statistical liabilities. Here are two good examples of what they can do.

The AFS Film Club Workshop program is now gearing up for the new year, with plans to serve nine schools with over 400 free community workshops taught by AFS Filmmakers.

You can help recognize this ongoing program by picking it for the “Community Choice Award” at  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C6SQZN7

Larry Kolvoord/2009 AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Come make films with the pros at Austin Studios! AFS digital filmmaking camps teach immersive narrative and experimental techniques. In a fun project-based environment, students work in teams to craft short digital films and animations, from developing the kernel of a project idea to final edit and screening of their work. AFS camps at Austin Studios include select film screenings, a guest filmmaker visit, and a behind-the-scenes studios tour. Finished films are screened for family and friends at a culminating Friday night showcase at the end of each camp in the AFS Screening Room which includes a Q & A with the filmmakers. AFS Digital Filmmaking Camps are co-sponsored by the Texas Film Commission.

“I figured out I want to be a moviemaker, so I’m trying to gain as much experience as I can in filmmaking,” says Nicolai Valdivieso-Simyakov ,a student at McCallum High School. “The teachers are really good, and it’s pretty fun.”

The camp is taught by professionals, including the entertaining, animated and long-haired Jonny Stranger , an actor, playwright and filmmaker who’s a magician at getting the campers to emote, evoke and channel their favorite actors. — Read The Austin American-Statesman article on our camps by Pam LeBlanc >>

Each camp runs Monday through Friday, from 9 – 5pm.  Student drop off time is between 8:45 – 9:15, and pick up is between 4:45 – 5:15.

Camp # 1 — June 7-11 Register
Camp # 2 — June 21-25 Register
Camp # 3 — July 5-9 Register
Camp # 4 — July 19-23 Register
Camp # 5 — August 2-5 *** Register

*** This advanced camp requires approval for registration. If you’ve participated in one of our film camp or classes previously, please contact AFS for approval.

Camp Costs:
$250.00 (non-members – Membership starts at just $30! Join now!)
$225.00 (AFS member – Log in)

High school seniors in Central Texas are eligible for the scholarship.  In addition to the scholarship, recipients are also awarded a four year Austin Film Society Filmmaker Level Membership.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

1. The student is a high school senior or graduated in June 2009.

2. The student plans to attend a post-secondary school within two semesters of graduating from high school.

3. The student will study film or a film-related area, such as radio/television/film, digital media, or animation.

4. The student completes the application and submits appropriate resume, answers to essay questions and the 2-5 minute creative media work sample as quicktime movies on DVD.

SELECTION PROCESS:

After the deadline on August 14th, each application will be reviewed and scored by members of the Austin Film Society’s Film Programs Committee or contributing members of the Community Outreach and Education Subcommittee.  The committee will evaluate the applications based on the following:

Creative Vision, Accomplishments & Potential

Evidence of Personal Growth through the Arts

Demonstrated Leadership Abilities

Commitment to pursuit of career as filmmaker or in creative media field.

Financial Need

UPDATE: The Angel Pedraza Scholarship has been extended to August 14th, 2009.

To apply for the scholarship, click here.

Riddles of Light

Tale of Two Towers

To read the full line up of film at the Josiah Youth Media Festival, click here.

Details:

Three-day Workshop for High School Teachers

Key Audiences: Media Tech, Broadcast/ Journalism, Tech Apps

Designed for teachers who use visual and audio equipment in the classroom, this workshop focuses on using sound and visual editing tools in media creation with techniques to create sound and visual special effects.

WEEK TWO:

Two students have begun showing up several hours early in the morning for class. We come early just to let them get their hands on the cameras. One of those students is so obsessed with the camera, he wants to use it all class long. I show him a number of angles and techniques and give various assignments for him to go film. He practices and practices, tapping me on the shoulder and showing me his footage for approval. He is very serious about wanting to “do it right” he keeps saying.

We begin to capture footage in Final Cut Pro. A student with a technical knack learns the basics and begins editing clips quickly. Students are settling into areas of interest on productions, while sampling all positions from director to actor.

At the end of class, I learn our “student cinematographer” is having trouble at home and has to leave early; he’s pretty bummed out. I make a note to see if I can find his social worker and talk to her.

On Tuesday, I’m approached by a mother (who speaks English) after class who expresses how her son generally has trouble fitting in, but constantly talks about the Film Workshop. That day, he was acting as a mad scientist (seen in blue) in a short film called “The Experiment.” Over the next few days, several other parents approach us with kind words.

On Thursday, we decide to begin another experiment of a different type. Each night, two students would be allowed to bring cameras home, filming various aspects of their lives. Our student cinematographer nearly explodes at this opportunity and immediately volunteers.

Projects are continuing, as we break up into small group on assignments. While a student drew an extreme close-up of an eyeball on the board, I notice my name written there as part of a sentence in Romanian. The only other word I recognize is “big”.

When I ask the student what it says, she responds in broken English:

“Christian has a big heart”

COMMUNITY FILM PROJECT

During the evenings of the first two weeks, we spend time in preproduction on the “framing device film,” which we’ll shoot primarily with adults in the community on weekends. We have a million things to do it seems, including polishing the script, location scouting, storyboards, finalizing cast and crew, etc.

We schedule the community production for the second weekend. This is probably a whole separate blog post, but during the long two-day shoot, we receive tremendous support from the community. Working with a cast and crew which combine professional talent (okay, one actor), and an all-first-time crew, we film in several neighboring villages.

A quick summary has to mention our gothic tower shoot, in which we had to ascend a fairly treacherous staircase to the top to get just the right high angle. Below, we discuss one of the first scenes of the film.

Saturday we have a night shoot (always challenging) outside of town. Keeping a campfire roaring is a bit of a problem, but it makes us maximize our time. I couldn’t fit a boom pole in with our equipment on the plane, so an industrious community crew member (to say the least) comes up with a rather brilliant solution with a little ducktape (pictured below). I call it “Lord of the Flies” filmmaking.

Managing all the media from the different projects has been challenging, and every night we’re up very late backing up projects and getting ready for the next day. Sergiu has been a champion, sometimes staying up until four or five in the morning.

WEEK THREE

With their confidence building, we split our students up into smaller groups for projects which they pitch for approval before beginning.

I notice I don’t have to stand at the door for the end-of-class “Filmmaker High-Five,” so much anymore, as students track me down in the room for the now ceremonious act on their own before leaving.

COMMUNITY SCREENING

On Tuesday night, I curate a community film screening. It was a pretty good turn out in “The Catacombs,” in the cellar-esque basement of a central building. Using the framework of “CREATIVE PRINCIPLES in Short Narrative Filmmaking” (PRINCIPII CREATIVE in Filmele de Scurt Metraj), which I lay out, we watch a series of short films and have a solid discussion. The Red Balloon leads to the most interesting comments, specifically about what the Balloon represents.

Back in the workshop, the girls work on a project which they say they don’t want any help on. We clearly see them using many of the techniques we’ve shown them as they produce their film independently. Later in the week, we break out the legos for a short stop motion animation workshop. We gear it towards making a historical comment, using the lego castle as a jumping off point. Students get the hang of it quickly.

On the final day, students do final video interviews about their workshop experience. One student says, he’ll “always remember making his first movie,” another asks us to stay for the summer so they can keep making movies, another asks if we’ll just stay and go to a different camp with him.

FILM PREMIERE AND GOODBYES

All but one student and their families (who had to leave town) come to the final, Friday night screening held at the foundation center. The local T.V. station, which broadcasts twice a week for half an hour, covers the event.

Transcript from video footage of my introduction (translated by Sergiu to the audience):

“When we first got here, some said we couldn’t get students interested to come and stick with our workshop, and that we would be regarded as strangers and wouldn’t be able to relate.

By early last week, we had students showing up early – earlier each day it seemed and we eventually were sending kids home with cameras overnight, and our group grew.

Now, eight short films later, here we are.

To all of our filmmaking team, Sergiu and I want to congratulate you. Have fun watching your work! And as you watch, occasionally peek out of the corner of your eyes at the audience…, see how they are reacting…watch and listen to them a bit….

They’re reacting to YOUR creations – your films… I want you to remember that as creative young people, you have the ability to do just what the “Super Powers” film you made says – the ability to make people feel and think - through your creations you have the ability to spread joy…. And what can be better than that?”

After a short Q & A, and the passing out of the DVDs, we all do our final “filmmaker high fives.” The executive director of the foundation thanks us with a present and offers us an open invitation to return.

LATER THAT FINAL NIGHT

Sergiu and I met and say goodbye to some of our new friends in the community who were part of the film. Over a bottle (or several) of wine, we informally screen some footage. Our “Visual Effects Coordinator” comments that making a film was one of the most exciting experiences of her life.

THE RETURN

The next morning, on the scenic five hour train ride back to Bucharest, Sergiu and I decompress and discuss the group’s accomplishments.

Later, sitting in the Paris airport awaiting my flight, I consider reentry into all things Americana, overflowing at the imagined moment of embracing my beautiful wife and two children. I overhear a group of traveling Houstonians sitting nearby complaining… about not having a StairMaster in their hotel, snarky tour guides, bad coffee, and uncomfortable seating.

I begin to write this blog…

The project included a daily filmmaking workshop for disadvantaged teens focusing on empowering them to create works about their community and views, the creation of a community-based film which would be an experimental narrative framing device for the previously mentioned student films, and a curated screening series of global cinema for anyone who would come. I would carry on the plane most of the gear we’d need, basically a super-streamlined mobile media lab including cameras, microphones and other hardware, and we’d try to rent other tools as needed.

We received an Artslink Project Award (ie. funding) from CEC ArtsLink in New York, and just like that it began…

WEEK ONE (JUNE 1st)
We arrive and meet some of the staff at the Foundation hosting us. They’d signed up ten kids from their community center for the project as we hoped. There are several people (in the community) who express suspicion about us, and wonder how we’ll be able to relate to the students and their situations. We would be “strangers” they said, and community workers spend a lot of time cultivating relationship. Of course, I know there are basic trust bonds that will be necessary for students to fully engage and benefit from this sort of experience. We are grateful to have assigned to us one of their staff to help out on certain days. He apparently knows some of the kids a bit.

Sergiu explains to me that until just a few years ago, the “Roma” (gypsy) kids in our class likely attended segregated schools.

To see and hear the discrimination gypsies face was startling. A number of Romanians I meet aren’t bashful when it comes to sharing their feelings about gypsies. When pressed, several half-heartedly acknowledge the basic belief, “no, I guess not every gypsy is bad,” but fail to see the connection between these blatant generalizations and racism.

MEETING THE KIDS
We visit the community center to meet our students. I had taken a thirty-day crash course (a poor substitute) in Romanian before the trip that apparently the C.I.A. uses. Understandably, I was a bit discouraged to learn that maybe one student in the group spoke a bit of English.

Even with Sergiu translating, his teaching skills, and other assistance, as lead instructor, I realize we needed to dramatically alter how we delivered the curriculum. I quickly devise a plan to rely heavily, in almost all areas, on the visual medium of film itself as a communication tool between instructor and student, such as the use of large storyboards and hands-on demonstrations.

During that initial informal “get to know you” meeting, we attempt to play some board games with the students. Without being able to discuss much, I entertain the kids with some visual hand tricks I learned from a magician when I was eleven. They seem to have fun trying to figure out and duplicate them. Sergiu seems to be connecting well with some kids as they play cards.

The next day, during the first workshop, we screen some short student films with little dialogue, and said they were going to make their own films.

Students reacted in disbelief. Many responded that they’ve never even held a video camera.

We pass out the cameras and dive into the first project. Students are given a list of questions in Romanian and asked to interview each other, learning some basic camera angles and camera functions which I drew on the board and demonstrated. Sergiu translates as needed and helped the students. As well as a first exposure to the cameras, we hoped to learn a bit about each student through the interviews.

An initial response to having the cameras:

Reactions to showing “Dailies” of their interviews:

Despite what we thought was a successful beginning, several students don’t come back on Tuesday. That day, we quickly glean aspects of an old folkloric tale to adapt to modern times as a group project. Students learn on the fly as the project develops. By the end of the day, students had structured, storyboarded, drawn images for the film, and even filmed some initial footage.

By the end of the first week, students had filmed several short class projects/exercises. Several students ask if they could bring their friends… we initially hoped for a small group of ten students, but the group is growing a bit and we can’t refuse. A student from the first day comes back.

From the very beginning, at the end of each class I would stand at the door as students exited and call for the “filmmaker high-five” as students left. As they slapped my hand, I’d praise their efforts for the day, which became a sort of game for them as I moved the “target” (my hand). I saw this as an additional minor, non-verbal way to further build bonds.

COMING SOON: AFS OUTREACH IN ROMANIA Part 2

Each camp runs Monday through Friday, from 9 – 5 PM. Drop off time is between 8:45 – 9:15, and pick up is between 4:45 – 5:15. Ages 12 – 15. Price: $250 ($225 for AFS Members)

Camp # 1: June 22-26 Register

Camp # 2: July 6-10 Register

Camp # 3: July 20-24 Register

Camp # 4: August 3-7 Register ** This advanced camp requires approval for registration. If you’ve participated in one of our film camp or classes previously, please contact AFS for approval.

Payment can be made online or mailed in/faxed/dropped off with a credit card, check or money order attached to the registration form.

ALL REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE A FILLED OUT REGISTRATION FORM TO BE COMPLETE. Summer Camp Registration Form (PDF)

Registration forms may be emailed to Christian@austinfilm.org , or mailed to:

Christian Raymond
Director of Outreach & Education
Austin Film Society
1901 East 51st
Austin, TX 78723
(512) 322-5192 fax