Making Movies Like the Pros

We have been had a variety of activities over the last few weeks to support our production work and to give the girls both a conceptual and technical grasp of how to make a movie like the professionals do. First, we spent a few days getting back up to speed on our iMovie and camera skills and also introduced the basics of our video and lighting equipment. We are excited to add this year not only professional lights for our indoor scenes, but also a full complement of cameras capable of shooting in High Definition (HD). We have already shot several scenes, and for those of you who have HDTV at home, you know - it looks beautiful!

We also were privileged last week to host SaraJennifer (SJ) Chiro, a renowned local director who has created several award winning film shorts and is also world premiering her latest film at the Seattle International Film Festival. She continued the work we started last week on techniques for framing shots and also worked with the girls on how to direct a scene and get down to the essence to the emotional needs of the whole film. She also showed us her short film "Little Red Riding Hood" which was a wonderful reinterpretation of the classic tale.

Lastly, SIFF gave us the wonderful opportunity to attend the press screening for a film by Nina Paley called Sita Sings the Blues. Not only was this an wonderful and funny film that used a variety of animation techniques, it wove in a number of the themes we have been working with this year including ancient and modern Hinduism, the continued relevance of historical blues music, and even the dangers of digital love letters. If this sounds eclectic, this movie was all that and more. Make sure to ask your daughter about her impressions.