{"id":1887,"date":"2014-11-03T11:10:07","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T11:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wordproject.org\/news\/?page_id=1887"},"modified":"2014-11-04T00:44:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:44:35","slug":"film-shortcourse","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordfree.net\/news2\/?page_id=1887","title":{"rendered":"Film Short Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Benjamim<\/em><\/p>\n

From September 19th to October 10th, USIU-Africa (United States International University- African branch) held a “Practical Film Production Course” led by French film expert and director Dr. Marc Rigaudis. Being interested in this area, I took this opportunity to learn about practical film production, and produced my first short film! It was a great experience working and learning with the people at USIU. Most of the staff and students were helpful and easy to get along with, and I met some very talented and interesting people. In my the class, only two students actually studied at USIU. The others were working at various jobs that had to do with media, including a drama director from Nigeria looking to expand his career into film. Amazing is the amount of talent in Africa waiting to be discovered.
\nEach of the students were given the chance to make their short film independently. I worked mostly with Roy, fellow classmate, who was also my actor in the 6-minute short film, but I also acted in someone else’s. A couple of the journalism students helped us students during the shooting and editing because of their experience with production. We worked with the limited equipment and time that we had. Given one week for script-writing, one week for filming, and another for editing and post production, we were pressed for time. I managed to shoot most of my footage in one day, with just one ‘Canon 7D’ and a tripod.
\nThree weeks is not close to enough to learn and practice the complex and multifaceted art of film-making. But practice and experience is very valuable. Getting exposed to how things work is one of the first steps. I found that preparation and collaboration is paramount in any film or television project, but even more so for larger projects.
\nI’ve heard, and believe to be true, that every great director starts small. Whether I would ever become a great director, scriptwriter, cinematographer… only God knows! Anyhow, I am glad I got the chance to start, even as small as this start was.<\/p>\n

(click to enlarge picture)<\/p>\n\n\t\t