scriptwriting

It can be a tricky business putting one’s own life on the screen, but for over 40 years, the filmmaking duo of Camille Billops and James V. Hatch have used personal documentaries to explore what it means to be an artist, a woman, and an African-American in this complex land called the United States. The lens of these films have focused primarily on Billops’ life and family. Although these films explore difficult and painful social and political issues, they are marked by humor, enormous inventiveness and a deep and genuine love.

Drawing from Billops’ training as a sculptor, printmaker and book illustrator and Hatch’s experience as a theater historian/director, together they have made multilayered “documentary” films that deploy dramatizations and a touch of surrealism. In this Master Class, Billops and Hatch will talk about their filmmaking process - “building” a film using diverse media and narrative devices -- family pictures, home movies, drawings, staged theatrical sequences and singing performances. They will also talk about how to keep a critical perspective when the artist is author, subject and object.

Presented in partnership with Film @ International House, The Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University, Swarthmore College, and Cinema Studies at The University of Pennsylvania

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This semester-long “how-to” workshop covers all major aspects of film and video production and supports participants in the completion of short individual projects.

Bring your project ideas and get instruction in scriptwriting, production planning, digital video, sound recording, lighting and editing. The workshop will meet on Wednesday evenings and Saturdays, with additional time for shooting and editing projects. Participants will work together as crew on each others’ projects. Two instructors, each with their own area of expertise, will co-teach this workshop.

For more information, please call 215-222-4201 or register online now