Midwest Film Workshop & Free Webinars

Few opportunities exist for Christians to network and learn the practical skills of filmmaking in a context grounded in the word of God. The MWCFA was created to provide this opportunity. Taught by experienced filmmaker John-Clay Burnett and Art Director Carol Kiemle, 12-15 attendees will gain hands-on experience making a high quality promotional film.

They will participate in art design, cinematography, editing, and much more. They will network with other Christian filmmakers and, most importantly, gain a vision for excellence in film as a means of bringing honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. The MWCFA desires to be a bright light shining in a dark place, used by the Lord toward the transformation of film to the glory of God.

Teachers

 John-Clay Burnett has been involved in video productions since 2001 and started ReelCast Productions in 2005. ReelCast is an independent multimedia company committed to communicating messages of truth with high quality visual media! Over the years he has been significantly involved with a number of Christian films including Pendragon, The Penny, Captivated, Beyond the Mask, Polycarp, Awakened, and Wait Till It’s Free. John-Clay has also been a key teacher at several Christian film workshops including the 2012 Lamplighter Guild and 2014 Christian Worldview Film Festival.

Carol Green Kiemle has a BFA in Theater and a Minor in Dance from Eastern Mexico University. While she was in college, she worked in the tech theater department building and designing sets and costumes. She has experience on many productions doing stage managing, light design and sound, as well as make-up and props. After working in regional theater from 1983-1986, she graduated and went on to her greatest profession – being a wife, mother and educator. More recently she re-surfaced in Christian filmmaking because of her son who felt God’s calling to become a Christian filmmaker. She has since worked as the Art Director on Blessings Missed and In His Steps.

When: November 6th-8th, 2014

Where: Wingate by Wyndam Hotel in Fargo, ND

Cost: Early-Bird Fees – $350 per student (includes instruction, hands-on training, all meals, and ground transportation). *Cost goes up by $50 per student after October 15th and then again after November 1st* (Register Now)

Who: Serious aspiring Christian filmmakers ages 14+

Other info: We will be glad to work with each student to arrange the best rooming option available.

WEBSITE: Registration is NOW OPEN, visit our website at mwcfa.org for more info. 

Online Academy

The MWCFA webinars will provide essential foundational and practical knowledge for Christian filmmakers.  While the webinars are designed to accompany the MWCFA Academy in Fargo, ND, anyone is welcome to participate. The first two webinars are free and open to the public, and the rest are offered to the Online Academy subscribers.

Webinar speakers include George Escobar (Advent Film Group), Nathaniel Darnell (San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival), Trey Boles (Commotion Agency), and others.  Confirmed webinar topics include:

• Getting Started As a Filmmaker – (Free)
• Why You Should Know the Ancient Roots of Modern Film - (Free)
• Lessons Learned from the Jimmy Valiant Project
• Weaknesses in the Worldview of Christian Films and What Needs to Be Done About It
• Learning to Sketch Storyboard Characters
• A Realistic Picture of the Business Side of Christian Filmmaking
• More webinars topics coming soon!

Beginning Friday, September 26, 2014, at 7 PM CST, the webinars will generally be held twice each week through the end of October. Each webinar will include a Q & A session. All webinars will be recorded and made available for registered participants.

Click here to signup for the free webinars.

Lead Like a Boss, Dad

(Article Source)

A Canadian ad agency has just broken every politically correct rule of TV fatherhood. General Mills Canada hired the Toronto firm to pitch a product that’s “awesome and responsible”: Peanut Butter Cheerios. The commercial's Creative Director Josh Stein did something truly creative. He associated the two words with fatherhood. The result: a two minute tour of family life narrated by a young middle class dad who isn't dopey, clueless, cowardly, or detached from reality. And get this: he comes with a wife and children who respond to him in the home with affection and respect.

The cereal box makes a brief appearance as Dad passes it to a teen son and adjusts the boy’s wardrobe. He looks the son in the eye and says, “That’s a boy (hat turned sideways) and that’s a man (hat facing front).” Later, in a corny, more adolescent moment, Dad proclaims Peanut Butter Cheerios “the official cereal of dadhood.”

But the star of the commercial isn’t the cereal. It’s confident and competent fatherhood. General Mills has presented a boss-awesome dad archetype, and viewers are eating it up. "Man. I bought it,” said one online commenter. “The messaging that is. Now I want to buy the cereal.”

“We (dads) lead by example,” Dad says direct to camera. “When a rule is broken, we’re the enforcement. When a heart is broken, we’re the reinforcement.”

From his first waking moment, Dad has believable relationships with children who, rather than snickering and rolling their eyes at lame ol' dad, act happy and secure with a father figure who is clearly awesome and responsible himself. This confident father walks fast, talks fast, and his children happily follow him out of the house (note: Dad is leading) into the big, wide world where the closing product super is supposed to come up on screen. But it’s not the product logo that appears. It’s a hashtag: #howtodad. This brilliant and creative campaign is creating viral “brand lift” and drawing brand loyalty to General Mills. Response to the ad shows the company looking “awesome and responsible” to the very demographic they have just connected with: parents. Parents who are serious about parenting and who are fed up with media that mocks parental authority.

"I don't even like cereal, and I'm headed to Sam's Club to buy a pallet of these Cheerios,” reads one of hundreds of similar grateful comments, “...because I want to see more commercials similar to this!”

The Cheerios campaign makes no sniveling apologies for fathers dispensing wisdom (a dozen lessons in two minutes), fathers giving direction (Dad gives verbal and non-verbal instruction to all four children), or big families (four kids is really big in Canada). From the moment dad gets up, he has a mission and a message: our kids think we’re awesome, and “being awesome isn’t about breaking rules, it’s about making them.”

With this line, General Mills just stood up as the adult in the creative advertising world.

General Mills' dad is a new kind of TV dad. He doesn’t surrender. He doesn’t shrink. He’s not checked out. He engages. He clearly enjoys the responsibilities and benefits of family life. The best review of the spot was a seven-word comment on the internet, written by a young man whose life was changed by a creative, two-minute TV message. “I can’t wait,” he wrote, “to be a dad.”

Helpful Ways to Get a Grip on Lighting

By Bobby Marko | July 31, 2014
(Article Source)

I spent the 1st half of this year releasing two films, a feature length documentary and a short film narrative (Becoming Fools and Fruitcake respectively). Through this process I've attended screenings and festivals of our own films and for others. I've also sat through several Q&A's with independent filmmakers and although I love hearing how other creatives move through the process of producing their work I sometimes get increasingly frustrated with the fact that camera gear takes such a center stage while lighting, composition, sound design and production design take a distant back seat.

As important as camera and lens choice is for your production lighting, audio and composition are equally as important. I've seen quite a few films shot on RED, Alexa and high end Canon and Sony cameras that looked awful. They should have saved the money they spent on those high end cameras and lenses and invested in lighting and shot on a dslr, it would have at least looked better.

Many times in the moment of my irritation I thought about firing off a social media post to make a quick statement. But I thought it best served to compile my thoughts and turn these points into teachable moments. I'll try not to make these posts long, there will be a few of them. But I want to make these tips easily digestible and things you can put into practice immediately.

Lighting Tips for Cinematographers

Part I: Foreground and Background Exposure

A common mistake I see with independent and young Filmmakers is not knowing how to light their scenes for foreground and background. Often they rely on setting a low aperture from their lens to create depth. However, properly setting your exposure for your foreground (or subject) and background will create the same affect and give you more options with your camera.

The general rule of thumb is to set your key light one step higher than your background. Of course there are some variations to this rule depending on style and genre. But I want to burn that rule into your brain, my subject must be lit one stop higher than my background. Say that to yourself until it's the first thing that comes to mind when your gaffer asks you "how do you want to light this?"

Now, how do you do this? Very simple, get yourself a light meter (I don't care if your gaffer has one already, every cinematographer should have one in his or her dity bag). Even if you have an app such as Cine Meter, it's still a tool to aid you. Which ever you have, learn to use it (I'm not going to go into depth on how to use a light meter, there are plenty of YouTube and blog posts covering that subject) and then once you have a simple lighting rig set up meter your subject. Let's say for example you get a reading at 4.0. Remember that and then move to your background. Find a flat area that faces your camera lens and meter that area. You should get a reading of 2.8. If not then adjust your lighting respective to your reading. If the background reads 3.2 then your a half stop too high. Consider a half scrim or pull your lighting back (or dim a half step if you have that ability). If you're reading is 1.4 for the background then you must increase the power. Sometimes you have to adjust your key light in order to get the proper setting but no matter which method you have to employ, once you have this set, you will have a proper foundation to start with lighting your scene. Now, let's look at some examples.  

Shawshank Redemption (1994) Roger Deakins - DP

Here is a clear example. We have the subject that is not too far from the bookcase behind him in the background but notice how Roger Deakins (DP) lights the subject at least one stop above the background. Had he lit the background as much as the subject, even keeping the same depth of field, the image would have been flat and the focus for the audience would not have remained on the subject. 

We Are What We Are (2013) Ryan Samul - DP

Here's another example where Ryan Samul uses the same principle. His subject is lit at least 1 stop above the background, even though the texture is great, it's not the focus of the scene so he chooses to keep the background dimly lit. Now, as I mentioned before employing this method is a start. Sometimes you want your background to play a role in the scene as it conveys an importance in relationship to the foreground and.or subject. So let's look at some examples as to when this rule can be broken.

The Big Lebowski (1998) Roger Deakins - DP

Here you see the background of the grocery store obviously lit much higher than the subject. And if you also notice the angle in which Deakins uses the store shelves, starting in the foreground and moving towards the background. This is to show the deep philosophical nature of  "the Dude" in the opening scene. It's also to establish the environment in where he is. No one is around, he is isolated. You can assume that it's the middle of the night when most people are not at grocery stores. So there's a ton of information you can gather from this one shot and a reason why sometimes you want to break the one stop rule when lighting foreground and backgrounds. But at least you can see the lighting is not even so there is still depth to the scene.

Book of Eli (2010) Don Burgess - DP

Now here is a shot in which Don Burgess decides to blend the characters in with the background. Both the subjects and background are nearly in focus and lit almost the same. Why? Many times you want to submerse the viewer into the world in which your characters are living and here is a good example of that. This method of even lighting allows the audience to get a sense of the environment in which the characters are currently in. But notice there is still a lot of light and dark, between the object, even on the characters who are lit from only one direction. Burgess still employed depth but just from a side to side and not in Z space.

Like with most anything creative, there are rules to break and the "one stop" rule with lighting is certainly no different. But learn it first and then use the creative process to know when and how to break it.
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(Article Source)