Something special starts to happen by the fourth day of camp. Students who did not know each other when they started on Monday are now beginning to come together and think and act as a team. I saw friendships and bonds beginning to develop. It’s an amazing thing to see.
We started the day off with a workshop that I lead. Media literacy is a subject that is dear to my heart. I believe it should be taught in every school in America. None of us could imagine trying to function in our society without the ability to read and write. But in this day and age, it’s just as equally important to understand how media functions and influences us on a daily basis. Media has a language of its own with it’s unique subtext, structure and design.
At mid-morning, we started a two-hour editing class lead by Jonathan Marasco, who works professionally as an editor in a major production house. We edited with Final Cut Pro, which is an industry standard. In fact, many Hollywood films are edited on this system. It’s a complex piece of software and takes many years to master. However, Jonathan did a good job going over the theory of editing and the basic tools that will be needed for the teams to complete their projects.
After lunch, it was time to get down to business as each team started the process of editing. There was a lot to accomplish in a short span of time. The editors had a ton of material to go through and many choices to make. The goal was to complete a rough cut by the end of the day. A rough cut is a version of your project with all of the edits you want in the right places. It doesn’t include music, titles or color correction nor does it correct audio issues.
However, not everyone could edit at the same time. So some team members were responsible for designing a DVD cover and a movie poster using Photoshop, while other members used social media and other forms of communication to promote tomorrow’s world premier at 3:00 p.m. in the Vineyard’s healing center. This is open to the public, and you are welcome to attend.
Each team also designated a writer who was responsible to come up with a pitch and synopsis for tomorrow’s screening. As you can see, this kept everybody busy throughout the remainder of the day.
I was pleased to see all the teams having fun and really tapping into their creativity. At this point, they were absolutely into it and could see the possibilities of what their project could become. I guess that’s what this week is all about—discovering your passion and unlocking your potential. Are there future filmmakers and media makers in this group?
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