MIDDLEBURY — The Vermont Folklife Center is hosting a daylong workshop, titled “Minimal Resource Filmmaking,” on Friday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. led by New York documentary filmmaker Myles Jewell.
The near-ubiquitous smartphone has so simplified the acts of taking photographs and shooting video that many of us carry the power of a documentary filmmaker literally in our pockets. But how can we edit these photos and footage on a budget? How can we best use the technology we already have at our fingertips to film and produce our own documentaries? Minimal resource filmmaking will show you how to tell compelling stories without the use of professional grade equipment.
Intended for anyone interested in creating documentary video using common digital tools, or educators looking to integrate media making into their classroom, we will guide attendees in professional storytelling techniques on a budget.
Attendees will receive an introduction to basic photographic composition and how to apply that to digital video, along with best practices on how to shoot interviews and evaluate and edit video footage. We will also cover systems for managing media efficiently and troubleshooting for technical problems with digital devices and editing software.
Our two main premises with this workshop are helping people re-imagine the concept of the video documentary based on our everyday electronic devices, and to assert that although modern media is often caught up in “spectacle,” smaller, more “everyday” stories also have great cultural significance.
Attendees may use their own devices or the VFC provided iPod Touches for hands-on experience with editing tools such as iMovie.
Myles Jewell is the Vermont Folklife Center’s Education Outreach/Media instructor and a freelance filmmaker. He earned a master of arts from New York University with an advanced certificate in the Program of Culture and Media, which includes technical training in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking.
After graduate school, Jewell began making documentaries (www.strangleholdthemovie.com, www.tylerjewell.com) and experimental films full time (www.mylesdavidjewell.com). To supplement his filmmaking career, he also developed media literacy workshops to promote minimal resource filmmaking in disenfranchised areas.
The tuition for this workshop is $95, and the registration deadline is June 22. Registration forms are available online at www.vermontfolklifecenter.org, or people can register by calling (802) 388-4964. This workshop will be held at the Vermont Folklife Center headquarters building at 88 Main St. in downtown Middlebury, which is ADA accessible.