By Artist Mentor Chad Amour
On October 29th in the glamorous Inverted Arts International Headquarters, eight student/mentor pairs from Simpson Housing showed up for a one-day workshop on the delightful art of niche filmmaking. Inspired by the continuous shot technique used famously by the film Birdman and music video by OKGO, these duos created 3-minute short films. Each film was compromised of 3, one-minute takes. Each take represented a piece of the classic 3 act structure: 1) Meet the Characters, 2) Characters get in trouble & 3) Characters get out of trouble. The films dabbled in such universal themes as forgiveness, justice and the plight of an alien whose coffee fueled spacecraft stranded her here on earth.
It was a great day of expression and of relationship building between the mentors and the students. The students had the opportunity to not only dabble in filmmaking but to share and discuss their projects with the other participants. A day filled with laughter and creativity. That’s a doozy of a Saturday if you ask me.