Motion Pictures Camp - Day 2

Luis Perez
- ITA Tech Instructor -

We started the day off by having one of our instructors, Tony, give a lecture based on the History of Film and how it impacted the United States. He talked about famous stars such as Charlie Chaplin, John Barrymore, and Florence Lawrence. He also talked about what goes into production and the seemingly endless roles and positions to fill, from makeup artists to screenwriters. It all served to paint a more in depth picture of film for the students.

With gained knowledge and practice, students were given more time to finish their "ambiguous dialogues", which required a little bit more filming and quite a bit more editing. During this time each group of students could leave the class room with their assigned instructor to film in a different location or in the same location they chose yesterday. Instructors made sure that the students realized that there was always more they could do, to get that perfect shot. Film is in a constant flux of re-shooting and re-editing.

The students then went back into the labs and added pictures to their videos, along with extra sound effects and titles to get even more hands on with Premiere.

After a given break, students all gathered into one of the labs to be introduced to this year's Blitz. The Blitz is a project that groups of students do along with an instructor based off a theme, and this year's theme is "All Dressed Up, and No Place to Go."

Note: The theme for the Blitz is really only to get some ideas about it, but in the end, the films may stray from the Blitz due to time restrictions :)

In no more than 24 hours time, the instructors will write and direct a film with the help of their student collaborators, all while sticking to their theme. The students have 15 minutes to talk with their instructor to plan out what they wanted to do and how they are going to get it done, whether that meant planning a script or collecting props for the shoot. Either way, the Blitz is sure to cause a very hectic and fun day tomorrow at Motion Pictures Camp!