|
Deep Focus is the new interactive and hands-on track at Flickerings, designed to draw
participants into direct engagement with the films and filmmakers, and also
into making films themselves. This series of seminars, workshops and
informal gatherings will be facilitated during the 2002 Cornerstone Festival
(July 3-6) by Bevan Klassen and Kevin Nikkel of the
Winnipeg's Catacomb microCinema.
THE SEMINARS
The multi-front approach to building film culture means training filmmakers
and creating opportunities for them to screen their work. Deep Focus offers
this pair of seminars, a two-session series on Independent Film and a
seminar on Starting a MicroCinema. The first seminar focuses on both
content and technique. Questions considered include: discussion of how and
why films either protect or provoke the status quo, the place of moral
stories in film today, criteria for evaluating film, and stylistic trends
such as the innovative editing of Steven Soderbergh. The introduction to
improvisational filmmaking dovetails with an afternoon workshop, which is
aimed at turning ideas into action. Do-it-your-selfing continues in the
session on MicroCinema, which will explore ways to participate in your town's
film culture and promote local screenings.
IMPROV WORKSHOP
The idea in this workshop is simply to, over the course of the festival, make
a film. This process will facilitate participants in talking and learning
about their craft while practicing it together. We'll begin by creating a
story, shooting and editing in-camera, and finally premiering the film with
the "Best of Flickerings" screenings. The sessions are two-hours each, the
second being optional: you can stay with the group, or you can go off and
work on your own film — which you can then enter in Flickering's "Shoot a Film @ Cornerstone!"
contest.
FILMMAKERS ONLY
One of the most exciting aspects of Flickerings is the opportunities for
filmmakers to gather informally, encouraging one another, telling war
stories, sharing ideas and generally schmoozing. This year, we're going to
"formalize" these informal gatherings by making available late night time and
space in the festival's video-editing trailer. The content of these
gatherings will remain open, but the possibilities range from screening some
of the Flickerings entries and discussing them with the filmmakers, to
continuing the discussions from the seminars and workshops, to simply hanging
out and making connections.
|
