For teens in Athens, summer is a time for playing sports, hanging out with friends and going to the pool. But for Jason Abel, summer is also a time for making movies.
Abel, 14, is one of six local teenagers who participated in a week-long movie-making course hosted by the Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center and the Ohio University School of Film. The aspiring filmmaker and incoming freshman at Athens High School spent Wednesday afternoon creating the opening credits for the narrative film the class is making.
I'm here because I like to make movies
Abel said.
The workshop teaches students about the various aspects of digital movie-making and gives them hands-on exposure to film editing and equipment, which was purchased with a $12,000 partnership grant from the Ohio Arts Council. The grant helped make the program affordable by lowering the price for students to attend from more than $1,000 to $150, said Lisa Quinn, education director at the Dairy Barn.
Students in the course will create a short documentary and a short narrative film, said Marie James, a graduate film student who is facilitating the screenwriting for the productions. The documentary focuses on the making of the narrative film, James said.
The narrative film is about two kids playing cards on a rainy day, Abel said.
The teenagers spent the first day in an acting workshop, said telecommunications student Jamie Stahlin. The students also received a brief lesson in different types of films before they began their own productions, which Director of Photography Jessica Lorton described as, the history of film in 45 minutes.
Students learned editing and graphics on software programs, said Melissa Forte, a film graduate student. They also have software to add sound effects and music to their work.
The program grew out of parents' requests for art programs for older children when they outgrew the Dairy Barn's summer art camp, Quinn said. Surveys at the local schools showed that students would like to learn to make movies, so Quinn started researching costs. A film professor, Jennifer Granville, was interested in incorporating acting and teamed up with Quinn to receive the Ohio Arts Council grant.
The workshop was originally offered to children ages 8 and older, but the instructors found that older children benefited more from the experience, and raised the age to 12, Quinn said.
The Dairy Barn will hold three more movie-making workshops on weekends in the fall.
It really gives young people the opportunity to do something creative with their time. I wish when I was their age I had something to do like that with my summer time Quinn said.
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Jessica Lorton, left, and Marie James, assist High School Freshman Jason Abel with video editing at the Dairy Barn. A grant from the Ohio Arts Council enabled the purchase of professional video editing program.
