Filmmaking

   I taught my first Filmmaking class in 2003. It was an upper school unit class. One of the class members, Adam Aresty, went on to film school and this year his script was used for a film that screened at the Tribeca film festival. The film is Stung, and it received critical kudos for among other things it's intelligent script.
    Now I take no credit for Adam's success. None! But I did learn a valuable lesson from Adam. I learned that among student filmmakers, you never know who will chase a dream and catch it. Adam did. So did Sean Baker, another GSB alum. Sean graduated in the late '80s and also went to film school. He is now very successful in his chosen field of writing/directing independent films. In fact his latest film, Tangerine, screened at Sundance last winter and received significant focus as a possible Oscar nominee.
    I mention these two alums as a reminder that each semester, we welcome some novice film students into the class and give them tools to create. The tools include not only assorted hardware and software, but also time and encouragement to do their work. As the first semester closes, I'd like to share a few student projects that reflect the type of work done in the class.
   The first selection is a music video. Students are given an opportunity to put images to music.

   The next short video responds to this assignment: create a short promotional video for any school club or activity.

   This next video examines an important contemporary issue by drawing together words and images from two songs. (Though you see my name below on the title shot, it's not my film. I just loaded it on to my Vimeo account.)



   One last video is a brief documentary on Home Winds, our most recent campus acquisition. It's worth a look.