What can students expect from this four-week online program?
Be prepared to make something every week, be prepared to share your work, get feedback, and start the process all over again. The Tisch model is to learn by doing and that's exactly what we'll be doing for 4 weeks: making movies, deconstructing them, and repeating the process. Thanks to the amazing technology developed by the company Smashcut, students will be collaborating with each other on a regular basis, regardless of their geographic location, writing projects, filming, and editing projects by working together.
What additional skills and experiences will a young filmmaker gain from taking the Online Summer Filmmakers Workshop?
Students will learn how to challenge themselves as artists and as storytellers. Students will be challenged not only by me but by their fellow peers as well. We'll be asking: Why are these stories important? How are the issues in your film personal and important to you? How will creativity solve things that you're lacking in budget and locations? None of us is as smart as all of us, and students, regardless of their location, will help out their fellow filmmakers in making films and telling stories they never thought possible.
What’s one piece of advice you have for filmmakers considering this program?
In a movie, a character goes on what Joseph Campbell would call the "hero's journey". The hero faces obstacles, makes attempts to beat these obstacles, and at the end of the film they transform into a different person than when they started. So I ask every student as they go on their hero's journey in this program, what obstacles do you want to defeat and how will you be a different person at the end of the program than when you first started your adventure?
Piece of advice for young filmmakers in general?
You need to make movies about something, so as much as I can recommend taking film classes and filming whenever possible, I would also recommend leading a life filled with adventure and diversity. When you can you should travel, volunteer your time, join a sports team, take up a cause, anything that will get you exposed to the life around you. Once you do that, you shouldn't have any reasons for having writer's block.
