Cinema Syntax Workshop

In this workshop, I will cover the basic building blocks of cinema syntax: the wide shot, close-up, and moving shot. Learning how to use these three shots to tell a story is key to being cinematically articulate. Workshop participants will interview someone they don’t know using specific questions to put themselves in the subject's shoes, feel what they feel, and think the way they think. They will then make a three-shot two-minute portrait of the person they interviewed. I will cover how to make seamless cuts as they edit their films – cutting on movement, light, and energy. They will also learn how to record and create a soundscape using only background/atmosphere/sound effects to go with their portrait. In the end, these film portraits are not only about learning how to use cinema syntax but also about the power of cinema to connect us to each other.