Westport, CT — Filmmakers Ink, in partnership with Westport Continuing Education, presents its Summer Film Programs in a Virtual Film Camp. Three weeks of online classes for students in grades 3 - 12 are available in Filmmaking & Acting, Screenwriting, Editing, Special FX Filmmaking / Stop Motion, and Artists Create. These programs train young filmmakers at three different skill levels and are designed to grow with their expanding knowledge of filmmaking, under the leadership of award-winning filmmaker Patrick McCullough. Alumni have gone on to win awards and have been accepted to the best film schools in the country, including USC, Emerson, and NYU. One week and two week programs begin the week of July 13 and run through the week of July 27 with online and interactive 2-hour sessions each day. For more information and to register, go to the Westport Continuing Education website here >>
Filmmakers Ink has set itself apart from other film camps, online or offline, by focusing on the most challenging part of the process: how to come up with and develop good ideas for great films.
Special FX Filmmaking / Stop Motion is for the upcoming filmmaker in the family, students entering grades 3 - 5 in the fall. The course is offered the week of July 13 from 9:00 am - 11:00 am. Students learn key tools to tell their stories, along with awesome in-camera Special FX including “walking through walls” and “teleportation.” Each livestream session includes lessons, exercises and feedback. One parent remarked, "Cody loved every minute of this camp!! We'll definitely be back!"
Middle and High School students can hone their skills with online camps that include Filmmaking & Acting Intensive, Screenwriting and Editing. Filmmaking & Acting Intensive is a two-week program offered from July 13 - 24 for students entering grades 6 - 8 (from 9:00 - 11:00 am) or grades 9 - 12 (from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm). Build the filmmaking instincts needed to write, act, direct, and capture their story. All students will develop scripts and make a short film, or a scene from a longer project. Find your tribe and turn your ideas into movies. Students can also focus on Screenwriting from July 13 - 17 for students entering grades 6 - 8 (from 9:00 - 11:00 am) or grades 9 - 12 (from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm). This course gives students a foundation of solid, lifelong writing tools for accessing, expressing, refining, and executing your best ideas. The Editing course gives students the guidance to elevate a story to its final, finished form. Learn to create a rough cut film by editing picture and sound. Discover the secrets of playing with time so you can keep the attention of your audience right where you want it.
Filmmakers Ink also offers the multidisciplinary program Artists Create the week of July 27 for students entering grades 3 - 8. Train with working artists, writers, filmmakers from Filmmakers Ink, photographers, composers, and Improv actors. Make movies with award-winning filmmakers; sketch with professional artists; write a short story or poem with a Pulitzer Prize nominee; and more, for a unique summer experience.
Filmmakers Ink is guided by a staff of award-winning film professionals from Connecticut, New York and New Mexico led by Staples High School alum Patrick McCullough. McCullough began his filmmaking career producing and directing several educational films including the Cine Golden Eagle award winning, Sara's Diary, a teen suicide prevention film. He produced the award-winning independent film, Beautiful Kid, featuring Pulitzer Prize-Winning author, Frank McCourt, which Variety called, a film with "astonishing integrity." McCullough is also an Actor Coach on Hollywood films, including two projects with Academy Award-Winning Actors; the Charlize Theron film, Atomic Blonde, and Houdini with Adrien Brody,
McCullough is joined by Michael Capodiferro, a storyteller in film, television and theater. Capodiffero worked as the Executive Assistant to Joan Scheckel and her renowned Filmmaking Labs, where he supported the development of the second and third seasons of Transparent, with workshops for the Writers, Directors and Main Cast. His work has been featured Off-Broadway at The New Short Play Festival and at The Network Film Festival where he was Nominated for Best Director.
Additional educators include Sabrina Durling-Jones and Tim McCullough. Ms. Durling-Jones is a photographer and filmmaker who completed her Master’s Degree in Cinematography at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, Australia. She later shifted her focus toward Anthropology and is currently finishing her M.A. studies in Visual Anthropology at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago de Chile. She is presently working on her graduate thesis, a project teaching indigenous communities how to make documentaries about their cultures, from their own unique perspective. Tim McCullough has worked on Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and countless other productions filming in New Mexico. He's been on the production design crew for movies such as JFK with Kevin Costner, Interview With a Vampire with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst, and the multiple Academy Award nominated film, Ray, with Jamie Foxx. His concentration is in using Special Effects to build set pieces, Set Dressing and Props.
For more information, visit the Westport Continuing Education Filmmakers Ink website. For questions, please contact Continuing Education at 203-341-1209 or conted@westportps.org
About Westport Continuing Education - Westport Continuing Education, a division of Westport Public Schools, provides high quality educational and enrichment programs to the residents of Westport and the region, annually serving nearly 6,000 adults, teens, and children with 700 programs. Classes, workshops, and camps are offered throughout the year after school and in the evenings at locations in the public schools and online. See WCE's website and Facebook page for more information.
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