Filmmaking Labs

Shut Up and Make Movies
A BIFF Filmmaking Lab

Click here for application form

THE difference between real life and the movies, someone once said, is that movies follow certain set rules while life doesn't. Exactly the same applies to making movies. A successful motion picture is never a happy accident -- it's the culmination of artistic vision, discipline, technical and financial know-how, showmanship and a knack for inspired improvisation.

PJ Pesce, director of the 2008 DVD sensation Lost Boys 2: The Tribe and creator of the cult animated TV series The Adventures of Chico and Guapo, is going to introduce aspiring local filmmakers to some of these ground rules at a seminar being conducted over the course of three evenings, June 28– 30, at the Bermuda College.

PJ has made a living in Hollywood for 20 years as a writer, producer and director working for Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony/Columbia, MTV, and FOX. Aside from his sequel to the teen vampire classic Lost Boys and Chico and Guapo, he recently co-wrote and directed the prequel to Joe Carnahan’s cult classic Smokin’ Aces. He has taught at Columbia and the University of Southern California.

This Filmmaking Lab, presented by the Bermuda International Film Festival in partnership with the Bermuda College, will take you through the steps of pre-production, production and post-production.

Whether you have a script ready to go or you’re just curious about the filmmaking process, this is Filmmaking Lab has answers for you. Focussing on low-budget filmmaking, the first evening will take you through all those aspects of production you need to have in place before you start filming. What resources do you have available? What can you beg, borrow or, well, get for free? How do you write a script that you can actually go and shoot with the tools and budget you have at hand? Planning is everything.

On the second evening PJ will walk students through the actual production process. How do you take advantage of the accidents that inevitably occur on any set and still make the movie you want? How do you deal with difficult actors? What is blocking and how can it tell the story? Ultimately, you want to make your film look big and expensive not small and cheap.

The third and final evening will cover post-production: What you can and cannot do in the editing room. How you can use post-production to help better tell your story. Sound work. Music. And, of course, answers to that all-important question: Now what? How do you get your finished film distributed? How do you get it onto the film festival circuit? And how do you get your second movie made?

This workshop series will take an interactive approach with film clips illustrating key points. You will look at movies in a new way!

Click here for application form