MICHAD HOLLIDAY INSTRUCTOR SUMMARY~

 

 

Community Documentary

 

This year’s Community Documentary workshop at the T Tauri Movie Camp was especially fun and exciting. We took a step back in time to cherish our past, and embrace the future with an in-depth look at Main Street Batesville. Over the years Main Street Batesville has ebbed and flowed with the times, and recently, like many other small towns, has slowed with the economy. Now it seems to have a new buzz in the air. With open shops, new construction, and an optimistic outlook from the community, it seems that Main Street Batesville is coming back to life.

This year’s Community Documentary class was held in the historic Landers Theater building, originally known as “The Gem.” It now serves as home to Fellowship Bible Church, which generously opens the building as a community-gathering venue. It was the perfect place to hold this year’s film camp. It put us right in the heart of downtown Batesville.

With six eager young filmmakers and five days of production time, it was sure to be a formidable challenge. But with help like Tim Krogen, who acted as peer mentor, and Michelle Davis, who was attending for the third straight year, I knew our group could meet the challenge. After a brief introduction to the class, we hit the ground running.

The first day we took the kids on a walking tour of downtown. The kids visited the elements they would be working in and also they got to hear some of the great history of downtown Batesville. Ozark Foothills FilmFest co-founder Bob Pest and I, urged the kids to take mental notes, because this was essentially their working canvas. We went in and out of antique shops, cafes, bookstores and many more places. After lunch, the students learned some basic camera and sound techniques. They got to operate the camera and audio equipment. They did mock interviews with each other. This gave the students a chance to familiarize themselves with production and also learn some basic camera moves. We talked about lighting and interviewing techniques that we would employ the next day.

Day two was essentially game time. The class was eager to get out and start filming. We began at the historic Pocket Park. The kids took shots of the beautiful murals on the walls. Students Skylar Green and Sam Collins seemed especially interested in camera work. They framed shots well and were eager to do more. We walked up and down Main Street shooting the outside of shops and people on the sidewalks. We also set up interviews with local business owners to film the next day. The kids even got invited into a new video game store to test their new product. It was a great chance for the students to have some fun while on the job. We finished the day off, watching previous T Tauri workshop films and planning for the next day.

Day three was much of the same. We did a lot of filming along Main Street, but this day we got to interact with business owners and customers. The community was extremely friendly and welcoming. We spent time at the Batesville Area Arts Council Art Gallery taking pictures of fine art and we also interviewed the director. Cody Millsap acted as the cameraman on this shoot and Krisha Stewart was the producer. Both did a very good job capturing the essence of the business and bringing out the best in the interviewee. On this day, we performed three interviews. It turned out to be a very long but productive day. The heat along with the extensive walking challenged the group, but we were able to pretty much wrap up all of our shooting for the week.

Much of day four was spent indoors, gathering music, digitizing video, and doing voice-over for our audio tracks. We picked a few extra shots here and there, but not as much as on previous days. Michelle Davis and Cody Millsap did a great job narrating the documentary. Sam Collins provided a music bed with his guitar. The kids got to show their personality on camera while recording the closing credits for the film. We wrapped up the day with confidence, but we knew we had a long day of editing ahead.

The final day of camp was spent editing the documentary. We added the voice-over, music tracks, and appropriate video to our sequence. Each student was able to observe and participate in the editing process. The students picked the best shot that matched the relevant track in the video. By day’s end we had an impressive ten-minute documentary and the kids left with a sense of accomplishment.

This year Community Documentary was a win-win situation for the students involved. They were able to soak up some important history, learn teamwork, and master filming techniques that they will carry throughout their lives.

 

 

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