Sunday, January 23, 2005
Why Filmmaking?
By STEVEN ORSINELLI, Special to the Press Dispatch
People often ask how a digital filmmaking curriculum in a school benefits students. Where to begin!
Filmmaking, as I teach it at the Academy for Academic Excellence (AAE), is an across the curriculum class. Students are so involved in the hands-on experience of filmmaking that they don’t even realize they are writing while creating the screenplay for their film, drawing the storyboard, working with electricity, lights, computers for editing, just to mention a few of the tasks needed to create a film.
Filmmaking is a medium that encompasses all art forms. Students must paint scenery, design and plan wardrobes, and build props. Everything you see on film is an art medium, while the finished result is magic.
Filmmaking allows students to be creative and use critical thinking when planning a short film, commercial, comedy, documentary, or musical. Creating a finished product that they are proud of is hard work. One minute of the finished film represents three or more hours of work. Patience and perseverance are the hallmarks of creating film. My students willingly do this work for something they are creating and have fun doing it, which builds up their work muscle.
I teach three different levels of filmmaking classes. Beginning Broadcasting, Introduction to Digital Filmmaking, and Applied Digital Filmmaking. When my students realize that they are learning how to use a camera and all the equipment from the day one, having a hands-on class where they learn-as-they-go, holds their interest. They quickly realize that the class is not a newscast or talk show, but creating films.
Our society is largely media based. Technology comes naturally to students today. Digital films are the cutting edge in filmmaking today. My advanced students are able to do work at a professional level, as evidenced in the filming of the History of Apple Valley where a student is the director and film editor. Many of the advanced students will be asked to work on community projects for agencies such as the Fire Department.
Our filmmaking students learn how to work with other people who have opinions different from their own. Many projects require working together as a group. While there are some solo projects, sitting down at a table, working out the kinks in scripts, and coming to a consensus, teaches some real-world skills of communication and diplomacy.
The end of the school year brings a chance to enter film in competitions. When I see the look in a student’s eyes while others are viewing their film and responding positively, and see how their self-confidence and self-worth grows, I know the benefit of filmmaking to students – priceless.
Steve Orsinelli started his first film company at the age of 10. Steve has been in the film industry for 20 years and a teacher for the Academy for Academic Excellence for 7 years.
Used with permission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication 2005