Time Traveler’s Silent Movie Club: Hello, Filmmaker!
Contributed by Carol Dorman
On April 14, 1894, the movie business was born when Thomas Edison opened the very first Peep Show Parlor beside a train station in New York City. The movie pioneers of the 1900s used the most advanced technology of their day to create films that were loved throughout the world. They learned to tell wonderful stories using only live music and the moving image.
The movie industry began on small individual screens. Does that sound familiar? After over a century, we have come full circle, right back to the beginning! There’s a lot we can learn from history, and although we cannot go back in time like Marty McFly, there are ways to bring history into focus by following old recipes for success.
Filmmaking is that creative enterprise that requires technical skill, a storytelling sensibility and the ability to show what you mean via behaviors and camera angles. A well-crafted movie communicates best without relying on dialogue because filmmaking is a primarily visual medium.
Carol Dorman, Time Traveler’s B&B, and James Shields, Twin Ravens Tattoo, will be hosting a 6-week filmmaking course for teenagers, aged 13 and up, this coming summer and fall. Students will be conducted into Hollywood’s past, where they will follow the paths of the pioneers and make short comedy films like the moguls of yesteryear. With an emphasis on film grammar, social influence and plenty of ingenuity, students will be immersed in the culture of America’s pre-war Gilded Age.
Carol has a BA in Film Production, certification as a script supervisor from the American Film Institute, and worked as a videographer, editor and actress for 25 years before moving to Alaska. Both James and Carol have hearts for teenagers and an incurable fascination with filmmaking!
Is your teenager itching to do more with their phone camera than just take selfies?
Visit YouthArchive.org to read the class prospectus.