TANNER SMITH

SCRIPT TO SCREEN WORKSHOP BLOG~

 

This was my fourth year at T Tauri and I really wanted it to be special because it was my last year as a camper. I love going to camp every year—it’s like my Hogwarts, my Camp Half-Blood, or whatever; like the one place I look forward to every summer to do the thing I love most and that’s make a movie. It’s like the coolest school and it’s only for a week. This was my last year because I was seventeen and that’s the maximum age for a camper. After that, young filmmakers are taught and are ready to give moviemaking their all.

So, I was determined to make this week memorable. I was planning to make a documentary based on the Script-to-Screen workshop because that’s the one that really captures the point of T Tauri—kids planning and making a short movie within four days. I wanted to call it “We are the Future of the Movies” because seriously, that’s what we are.

So, on Wednesday, July 29, I was reacquainted with my old friends—like Nathan Burroughs, Nathan Mabry, Dylan Scarbrough, Teva Kvern, among others—and went into the room full of movie campers, ready to begin. Will O’Loughlin was instructing all of us on how to operate a camera and a boom mike. Personally, I think the guy knows so much that he’s afraid we won’t understand what he is talking about. And he really does know a lot (or else he wouldn’t have been there for five years). What surprised me was him saying that despite using a big Canon camera for years, he’s never owned one, saying it cost a lot of money.

After going over the basics of digital video, we were split into four groups. I was with Nathan B. again (we were in the same group last year), along with Kate Moses (of last year’s Crime and Judgment) and newcomers Jamey, Chandler, and Nick. Also, there was Gage Davidson, who was famous for saying repeatedly, “I’m Gage Davidson.” Our mentor was Michad Holliday, a very talented independent filmmaker. So, we went into Room 102 and tried to come up with an idea for a short film. Nathan had an idea for a movie based on a cool book he had called “The Time Traveler’s Journal.” And Kate had an idea for a government espionage thriller. So, we linked them together to form “The Perfect Illusion,” an espionage-time travel adventure. It had two plots—one involving a wicked senator from the future chasing after a time traveler and the other involving two boys as they find a magic watch and journal by the time traveler. Both plots come together in the end. It was a pretty good idea, I thought. So I was ready to do it. Gage came up with the name “Room 102 Rockers” for the group.

The other groups had developed ideas that day too. One group—Other Side of the Door Productions—had an idea of a high school nerd whose girlfriend is trapped in “Pandora’s Bathroom.” Another group—Parody Productions—had an idea of badly done scenes from big movies, such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones. And the last but not least group—7Merits—had an idea of a fight school and a kidnapping. We expressed our ideas to everyone at the camp and had to be ready to film the next day…

The next day—Thursday—the groups met with each other to get ready to film their ideas. But something was strange—Gage Davidson never showed up. And Casey Chambliss—a kid who was in 7Merits—never showed up either. And to this day, I still don’t know why. So, my group had to do the movie without Gage.

One thing about filming the movie—Nathan and I were in our own scenes and Chandler, Jamey, Kate, and Nick were in their own scenes. Chandler, Jamey, Kate, and Nick’s lines were scripted (written by Kate) and Nathan and I weren’t given many lines so we had to improvise almost throughout the shoot. I play the calm heroic type and Nathan played the Steve Urkel type—with a squeaky, high-pitched voice and a wimpy way about him that would not be fit for a feature-length film. Watching Chandler, Jamey, and Nick rehearse their lines in one particular scene was always fun to watch. Chandler played a senator and the other two played his robotic flunkies. And Chandler had to slap around them and yell the line that we kept saying every half-hour while we were not filming—“Smarter? SMARTER?! We’re the American government!”

That day, everything was great. We all knew who we were and we knew exactly what we were doing. It was grand. Also, I kept my own camera running a few times when we were filming for my documentary. I also filmed the other groups filming scenes.

Then on Friday, we still had a few more shots to get before getting to the hardest part of all—editing. We had these iMacs supplied for us in a room for all the groups to edit their own films. Luckily, Michad knew what to do. Then, we had to do our part by finding sound effects and music for the film. Then, at lunch, I interviewed a lot of people at the camp for my documentary. I got some good answers to the questions of the best things about T Tauri, if they liked T Tauri, and what they came for. So, I got a lot for the documentary.

Then on Saturday, all the groups had to finish editing their films in a hurry so they could be shown at 7:00pm. In the meantime, the T Tauri Film Festival was underway. This year was special for me because this was the first year in which I had a project in the festival. It was a minute-and-a-half long teaser trailer for my feature-length film “Specter.” It was a first for Nathan Burroughs too. He had a short documentary in the festival about a man in Arkansas who built the first apartments in which children were allowed as tenants.

So, the films were shown and I enjoyed watching them. The movie I really liked the most was a short comedy called “Checkmate,” in which three nerds learned to dance. That was funny. However, to my surprise, one movie I did NOT like was from Spy Hop Productions, which usually makes great short films—some are the best I’ve seen. It was a drama called “Suspect” which had setups and nothing else. I was disappointed.

Then was the big night—the night in which all the movie camp films were to be shown. All the campers’ families were there, waiting to see how the projects turned out. I’m sure they were just as excited as the campers. And when they were all shown and everyone clapped after each of them, I could tell that they all enjoyed them.

Well, this year was one of my favorite years at T Tauri—I made my favorite film there since the one I made my first year, made new friends, made a documentary about the whole experience, and made my last year at camp be great. I hope I get to be a mentor next year.

 

 

TANNER SMITH

SQUISH AND SQUASH HAND-DRAWN ANIMATION WORKSHOP BLOG~

 

“Welcome back to T Tauri,” I kept telling myself from the moment I stepped back into the UACCB Independence Hall building. This was my fourth year at T Tauri but my second year taking the animation class. Last year, it was called the Digital Flipbook and it was taught by Mr. Osborn, a talented animator. This year, it was renamed Squish and Squash and was taught by Wes, also a talented animator.

There were a lot more kids in this workshop this year than there were last year. Once all the kids arrived, Wes went down to business and taught us the basics of animation. Last year, Mr. Osborn gave us the easy way out in animating. But this year, with Wes, we weren’t getting let off so easily. We had to work harder and with bigger paper, unlike the small index cards used last year. We were given more insight on animation by watching the short animated films of the past. One, for example, was “Steamboat Willie,” Walt Disney’s 1928 Mickey Mouse cartoon.

There were a lot of kids so rather than just make one animated PSA (Public Service Announcement), Wes decided to split us into two groups to have two animated PSAs.

One group had to do a PSA on seatbelt safety and the other group (my group) had to do one about a big-brother/sister program. And we all had to animate at least one sequence. It was hard work but once we got the hang of it, it was actually kind of fun. It was fun as I went along with an animation that I did in which a bowling ball is rolling along a floor to smash into the bowling pins. I had to use a lot of paper to keep the ball rolling in one spot (showing the holes rolling as it animates) while the pins get closer and closer. I kept getting into the process and it was fun for me. Every student in the workshop had to work like that—work on a lot of paper and have one thing happen after another as it animates.

Animation is hard work but good fun and Squish and Squash was a great experience at the movie camp.

 

 

DYLAN SCARBROUGH

CAMCORDER FUNDAMENTALS WORKSHOP BLOG~

 

This year I worked at the Camcorder Fundamentals workshop offered by the T Tauri Movie Camp. It took place at the Arkansas Sheriffs' Youth Ranch in Bethesda, Arkansas and was taught by Juli Jackson from Paragould and her boyfriend Jim came along from California to help. The ideas of the Camcorder Fundamentals are more or less limitless, and have ranged from cheering up flowers to jumping joyfully on a trampoline. This year the ideas were awesome: with apples, paper airplanes, Rebel bikers, and joyful music. I myself worked as an assistant alongside Juli and Jim. The first thing I did was help Jim with a mock film to show the kids what they would be doing during their camp. This turned out OK for a film that was worked on for two hours.
Camcorder Fundamentals was split into two time periods. The younger kids in the morning hours were full of youthful ideas of super powers and dancing. But before they could start filming Juli went over the basics of turning on the camera, putting in tape, checking battery, and some simple camera angles like POV shots, wide angles, and close ups. Little kids are so fun to work with. After calming down and getting in the basics, the younger kids filmed their movies. The older group after lunch did the same but they were harder to get ideas out of, but they started talking and got very excited trying to get really awesome angles and shots (well as good as they could). The kids were amazing. I had fun helping Juli work with them and out of it I learned a few new things from Jim and Juli, and my little buddy Zoey!