collegecontender

I am an incoming sophomore and one of my biggest passions is film. I am currently in the process of getting a film club started at my school. (I emailed a teacher about sponsoring last week, and have been anxiously waiting for a response.) I live in a VERY small town in the Midwest, so the movie-making industry is sort of foreign to us. So does anyone have any ideas, tips, suggestions, etc. for the film club? Where we should start; what we should do?

One of my goals is to get a student film festival started at our school, as well. I figure it would be suiting to take place concurrently with our school's Fine Arts Week.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

maddenmd

You could have two kinds of clubs or combine them into one: film appreciation and film making. For the first you could get together to watch and critique films. Maybe watch one from each of the decades since films began? Or one from each of your favorite directors? Or ALL of the films of one particular director? For the second, get together people who want to make films. Write your scripts. Learn about all the roles in making a film: scriptwriter, director, cinematographer, gaffer, sound, producer, editor, etc.... Find and audition actors, assign each person a role in the production: and make the film! Then show it, to anyone who will watch. Learn from the mistakes made, and go on to make another film: a little better than the first. You can start with any kind of a camera. To edit you will need access to some sort of program like imovie, Final Cut or Avid. If you don't have these, perhaps your school or library might. Even if you don't have the "film industry" in your area, you likely have people who shoot videos for weddings, or for other things. They might serve as your mentor and might have access to equipment you can borrow or use. Good luck and let us know how things progress!

collegecontender

If I can also get the film festival started, it would be a pioneer event at my school. At the current moment, nothing of the caliber of a film festival has even been held at the school.

So since the film festival is a new experience for all of us here at my school, does anyone who has involvement in, or perhaps even started, a film festival have any advice? Like the best ways to organize, set up, and execute it? It would be very much appreciated, and I'm sure me having that knowledge would be a selling point to get the club and festival started.

paying3tuitions

I haven't read it, but there's a book called "Creating Film Festivals" by Lauri Rose Tanner, where she interviews many people who've done just that. I'm sure you'd have to adapt it to a high school setting, and be realistic with modest goals. At one point, she was offering to make the book available at much reduced cost for students. Anyway, Google is your friend here.