MERRITT INSTRUCTOR SUMMARY~

 

 

Script to Screen

 

This year, at the 6th annual T Tauri Film Festival and Movie Camp, I worked with eight junior high and high school students in the Script to Screen workshop. Three of the eight students, Nathan, Kate, and Tim, were returning students from last year. It's always a great feeling to see returning students, especially considering the curriculum of the Script to Screen workshops. In the Script to Screen sessions, students write, shoot, and edit a short film in 3 and a half days. For first-time students, this could appear to be a daunting task. However, with the help of past students as mentors, the group gels more quickly, allowing the participants more time to flush out their ideas.

As an instructor of the Script to Screen workshop, I not only want the students to express their feelings and ideas through the medium of film, but also learn life skills they will be able to apply in their future studies. Time management, cooperation, and the ability to be resourceful are only three of the traits that any successful filmmaker must begin to master if they want to produce a decent movie. Nevertheless, these traits are also applicable to the students when they return to their classes in the fall. I feel that time management is the most important considering that we have a deadline of completion for our film. So on the first day, we review all of the technical materials. I use a hands-on approach allowing the students to explore the camera functions and the sound equipment. We frame shots and discuss the meaning of why we would choose a (CU) close up or a (WS) wide shot for a particular scene. I explain and give examples of good sound recordings and bad sounds, such as an airplane or lawn mowers in the background. Everything we go over is also provided to the students in hand-outs that they can take home with them and refer to later during the workshop or when they are at home shooting their short films by themselves.

The most difficult aspect of the Script to Screen workshop was eight different students deciding on one basic story-idea to shoot. After lunch, we took the latter part of day one to flush out all of our ideas. Some students come with scripts and story ideas based on current hit movies, while others want to shoot something more personal and relevant to society or their living situations. I balance the two by incorporating as much of each idea as possible into one cohesive story line. This year, each student expressed to me what he or she wanted to be when he or she grew up. One wanted to be a marine biologist, one wanted to be a teacher, another wanted to be a nurse—each student wanted to be someone that would benefit our world as a whole in the future. So I suggested that we tailor our film around an environmental theme, considering the state of our world with the oil spill in the Gulf taking place at the time. The students agreed upon the idea, and I worked one-on-one with each of them to flush out their character's voice.

On day two each student arrived with their wardrobe, props, and lines pretty much memorized and ready to shoot. We took the entire day to shoot each of the scenes we had on our storyboard at least three to five times so we would have plenty of footage to work with during our editing session. This is when the students really became resourceful. They used anything and everything in their surrounding environment that helped them express themselves and tell their story. We gathered pond scum and crawfish from the creek to use as props. We made a bio stasis brain out of brown paper towels wrapped in plastic and floating in water with dry ice creating a bubbling effect. We even used the microchip from an old pair of headphones to create the green-screen illusion of the students being robots designed to be the custodians of a new earth.

After editing the scenes together on day three and adding a little music and sound effects, I saw the sparkle in their eyes as they witnessed their project come full circle with the help of a little movie magic. Some scenes were cut and others were added, but that's where the eight unique students showed their maturity and cooperated to complete an environmentally-conscious short film in 3 and a half days. I enjoyed sharing my time and knowledge with the students, watching them grow artistically, gain new friends, learn new cinematic tricks and just having fun during a 100 degree summer movie camp.

 

 

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