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2026 Summer Workshops at Torchlight!
2026 Summer Workshops at Torchlight!
DESCRIPTION
DESCRIPTION
Torchlight is excited to transform your 2026 summer into a storytelling blitz with two weeks of workshops in July. The Torchlight approach is hands-on, experiential, and project-based. TWO WEEKS in a row of multimedia storytelling for ages 12 and up. You can choose a lá carte and register for a single week, or scaffold skills by registering for both workshops to create a two week summer video production and storytelling intensive!
Week 1 — (VIDEO) "Music Video Madness"
July 20 - July 24
The assignment: “Music Video Madness” for the music-oriented or short story writer/filmmaker. Music videos are a great way to exercise creative constraints to tell a compelling short story—all while hooking you with an original composition. Students may come with their own music to make a video, or let us provide the music and you write and direct the final piece.
You’ll learn how to use a digital cinema camera and audio kit, learn all elements from pre-production through post-production, and edit everything together into a music video. This camp will get students familiar with all aspects of audio-video production and apply those skills towards the final music video.
Week 2 — "BELFAST NOIR" A Moonbat City Detective/Thriller Film*
July 27 - July 31
Belfast, Maine gets hardboiled in this week’s dark and devious assignment: “Belfast Noir: A Moonbat City Detective/Thriller Film.” We’re bringing the low-key, moody crime drama genre to Moonbat City, creating a cast and crew, writing and developing a short film in one week–from pre-production through post-production–and hosting a public screening at the end of the session.
Students will work together and learn all aspects of audio-video production, including but not limited to: screenwriting, storyboarding, shooting, field audio recording, editing, and music supervision/composition to complete this short film. All participants are encouraged to get a headstart on the production by drafting screenplay or film ideas ahead of camp and bringing with them on the first day.
* Note: Week 2 Belfast Noir is for youth ages 12-18! (If you fall outside this range on either side but really want to participate, get in touch!)
DATES & TIMES:
DATES & TIMES:
Monday through Friday, from 10am - 4pm
Arrival/drop-off as early as 9:30am, lunch break from 12:30 - 1pm
Lunches *NOT* provided, please bring your own! Torchlight has a standard size fridge, microwave, kettle for tea, coffee maker, and light snacks might be provided.
COST:
COST:
Workshops are priced to accommodate a diversity of household income levels, ranging from $250 to $450, with the true cost of programming valued at $350.
Consider paying the higher price and provide opportunities/access to scholarship and students in need of more financial assistance!
The registration cost for any of the 1-week workshops is on a sliding scale, from $250 - $450. [The true cost of programming is $350]. To hold your spot, a deposit of $100 per week session is needed. The remainder is due on or by the first day of camp.
Please note: Deposits are nonrefundable as long as class is held as scheduled.
Payment Plans and Scholarship are available. To learn more about payments plans and scholarship options, or for any other payment related questions, please contact us at torchlightmaine@gmail.com. We would be happy to speak with you and provide more information.
Payment for workshops can be received by check, cash, Venmo, and Paypal. Checks or cash is strongly preferred.
STAFF:
STAFF:
Torchlight staff (Chris Battaglia, Eli Kao) + weekly co-teachers TBA.
FAQ:
FAQ:
I want to sign up but I don’t have any media production experience. Is that okay?
Yes! We will accommodate all experience levels.
Do I need any of my own equipment or gear in order to participate?
No–we have kits available to lend that you'll learn how to use. But if you have your own equipment and want to understand it better, or get more use out of it, bring it along.
Do I have to know what kind of media I want to make before I sign up?
No–idea incubation and planning are a core part of this program.
2026 SummerSalt | The Sonic Landscape | Aug 7-9
2026 SummerSalt | The Sonic Landscape | Aug 7-9
DESCRIPTION
DESCRIPTION
The 3rd edition of our collaboration with Maine College of Art's Salt Institute for Documentary Studies is here! Spend a weekend in Belfast with award-winning audio producers and documentarians Josie Holtzman and Isaac Kestenbaum (Director, Salt Institute), immersing yourself in the sonic landscape and retraining your ears to listen deeply to what’s around you. In this three-day workshop we will make audio field recordings in and around Belfast, using both standard equipment as well as some more experimental microphones that can record vibrations through objects, make underwater recordings, and capture “3D sound.”
We’ll then demonstrate how those recordings can be manipulated for greater clarity, layered for experimental compositions, or used to create a more narrative audio scene. The final recordings will be uploaded to an online archive or map. We will finish the class with a public and participatory sharing of what we capture!
Beginners welcome! Equipment and instruction provided. Welcome dinner and closing meal included (Friday evening and Sunday evening).
SCHEDULE
SCHEDULE
*Detailed schedule sent after registration
Day 1 (Friday, Aug. 7th evening)
Welcome dinner and introductions
Listening exercises and ear training
Day 2 (Saturday, Aug. 8th)
Field recording techniques and instruction (morning)
Field production, going out and recording in Greater Belfast
Begin post-production process in editing software
Day 3 (Sunday, Aug. 9th)
Continue to fine tune audio editing (levels, filters) experimental compositions
Sharing of projects, reflection
Closing meal
LOCATION:
LOCATION:
Torchlight, 158 High St, Belfast, ME
COST:
COST:
Sliding scale $250-450. Consider paying the higher price and provide opportunities/access to scholarship and students in need of more financial assistance! Payment plans and scholarships available. To learn more about options, or for any other payment related questions, please contact us at torchlightmaine@gmail.com.
To hold your spot, a deposit of $100 is needed. The remainder is due on or before the first day.
Please note: Deposits are nonrefundable as long as class is held as scheduled.
Payment Plans and Scholarship are available. To learn more about payments plans and scholarship options, or for any other payment related questions, please contact us at torchlightmaine@gmail.com. We would be happy to speak with you and provide more information.
Payment for workshops can be received by check, cash, Venmo, and Paypal. Checks or cash strongly preferred.
INSTRUCTORS:
INSTRUCTORS:
Isaac Kestenbaum is the Director of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, An immersive, semester-long field-based graduate program. He is also the co-founder with his wife, Josephine Holtzman, of the audio production company Future Projects.
Isaac is also an audio producer and journalist. His most recent podcast, Alaska Is the Center of the Universe for Audible was written up in The New Yorker. His previous Audible Original, Midnight Son, was a best-seller and was adapted into the documentary Blood & Myth for Hulu, on which Isaac served as Executive Producer.
His work has been funded by the Arctic Circle Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Isaac has also worked with Vox, NPR, The Guardian US, ESPN, Religion of Sports, PRX, The GroundTruth Project, AIR, and SIERRA Magazine.
He is the former Production Manager at the national oral history and radio project StoryCorps. Honors include a Peabody Award, a duPont Award, two Online News Association awards, a Signal Award and an Alaska Broadcasters “Goldie” Award.
Josie Holtzman is an audio documentarian, podcast producer and multimedia artist. She has conceived, produced and sound designed audio projects for NPR, PRX, the Guardian, Audible Originals, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, ESPN and Sony. She was an executive producer of the Hulu documentary Blood and Myth based on the best-selling Audible Original Midnight Son which she co-produced.
Her work includes an award-winning multimedia project about the effects of climate change on Alaska's rural indigenous communities, a multi-platform project exploring the modern-day impacts of treaties on Native American communities in the US with NPR's Storylab and the Pulitzer Center, and a Gracie Award-winning series on abuse in professional women’s soccer. She has produced soundwalks and audio tours for the Eisenhower Memorial Museum and the Anchorage Museum, among others. She has taught at NYU’s Journalism School, the Association for Independent in Radio, UnionDocs and Monson Arts.
Supported by Torchlight staff, Chris Battaglia & Eli Kao
FAQ:
FAQ:
I want to sign up but I don’t have any audio experience. Is that okay?
Yes! We will accommodate all experience levels.
Do I need any of my own equipment or gear in order to participate?
No–we have kits available to lend that you'll learn how to use. But if you have your own equipment and want to understand it better, or get more use out of it, bring it along.
Do I have to know what kind of audio recording I want to make before I sign up?
No–idea incubation and planning will be participatory group activities.
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