Day 10: One Problem One Location: Distribution

Watch your films!

So today, the main event is to watch the films that you made this week. This is all about the learning so whatever you worked on, we'll check it out and give you a lot of props for making a film. It's hard work as we've seen. From development to post-production, you have to learn how to come up with an idea, create a structure for that idea, plan how you're going to shoot it, shoot it with always changing conditions and then edit it all together. That's a lot.

Also, here's a reminder of the feedback rules:

Feedback rules

1. The filmmaker sets up their goals for the project.

It's important for the audience to know what the filmmaker is trying to achieve so that they can give good feedback that will help the filmmaker in that goal. Sometimes, audiences project their own goals and then the feedback process can go wrong.

2. Start with the positive.

You need to help encourage the filmmaker. You want to see the good in their work. It could be the potential for good or a good idea. It’s always about supporting the filmmaking.

3. Be specific.

Try to not just say, that’s good. But what about it is good. They need to know if they are going to replicate that.

4. Limit the improvements to the most important elements.

What step or steps can they take to make their work better? It’s not as helpful to give then a long list of areas they can improve, but try to cut to the most important area they can grow in.

5. Filmmakers choose the feedback that helps them.

It's up to you what you want to go with. It's your film!

Also, I would like to know if it's okay sharing any of your films with Justin, our YouTube channel and our 2021 Athenian Film Festival.

Activity: Be a judge on a film festival

So to help you understand how film festivals work. We're going to do an activity where you are the judge of a film festival. We are going to show you three films that received 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in our first Athenian Film Festival (Middle School category) and we'll see if you agreed with our judges.

So let's watch all three of the films and afterwards, you'll let us know which one you would have picked for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The films are:

Leafy Boi

The Zombie Experiment

Cheesy Chads Revenge

Example of a Larger Film Festival: All American High School Film Festival

I mentioned this last week, but All American High School Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in the world for young people. And they have a middle school competition.

Today, we're going to look at some of their winning films and we'll talk about why these films might have won. It's impossible to say exactly why but I think it's good to watch these films to get a sense of what other middle school students are doing. It'll give you a sense of how hard you have to work if you want your film to do well in this festival. Also, this festival is relatively unique by having the films featured on their YouTube channel.

How to set up an account on Film Freeway to submit your films

So after we watch these films, I want you to be knowledgeable on how to set up a Film Freeway account. It's free and some of the festivals are free too so there's no reason why not to submit with your parents permission.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to Film Freeway (the link is below) and click "sign up."

2. Click sign up by email.

3. Fill in your name and email and password.

4. Make sure you have your password written down somewhere you remember.

5. Now you have a film freeway festival membership.

Which festivals can I enter as a middle school student?

So here are some of the festivals I've found that middle school students can enter:

+All American High School Film Festival

+Boston International Kids Film Festival

+National Film Festival for Talented Youth

+Boulder International Film Festival

+Seattle International Film Festival Future Wave

+Nashville Film Festival

+Newport Beach Film Festival

You can see links to these film festivals in the website below. Also, you should do a search on Film Freeway. Film festivals are always changing and new ones come often. So it's worth it to just explore.

Closing "Circle"

So the finish off the class I would like to have everyone in the class reflect on what we have done in these last two weeks. It's been a lot:

We learned about montages and their power to tell story and evoke emotion. We then learned the major five areas of film production:

+Development and how to create emotion from images

+Pre-production and learned the fundamental visual vocabulary of filmmaking

+Production and learned how to shoot your film with your smart phone.

+Post-Production and learned all of the basics of editing.

+Distribution and learned about the world of film festivals.

Then we learned about three act stories and how to make a compelling story for your film:

+In Development, we learned how each act plays an important role in engaging our audience.

+In Pre-Production, we learned about how to use new kinds of shots to capture our audience.

+In Production, we learned some of the key concepts of acting.

+In Post-Production, we learned about the Kuleshov effect and how to use cuts and transtions to achieve this effect.

+In Distribution, we learned how to set up a Film freeway account and submit your film to a film festival.

And you all created two cool films!

It was a great two weeks and I hope you enjoyed it. So to wrap it up, I would like you all to share three things:

1. Any appreciations you have for yourselves, the class or your classmates.

2. Any lessons you learned about filmmaking or anything related.

3. Any requests for future classes or changes in the class.

Individual meetings

So sorry about yesterday, I wasn't able to do the individual meetings because of my internet. So I can meet with anyone in the class at the end so I'll just hang out in the chat room and you can ask me any questions around filmmaking and would be happy to chat with you.

Have a great summer and hope to teach you again!