“The Directors Canvas”                        

The palette, the colors and textures of film     This course teaches the student the language and tools a Director/Filmmaker would need to paint his or her image or story.  There would be a wide variety of discussions, screenings and lectures from guest professionals, such as directors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers and actors. The first half of the semester will be dedicated to taking chosen scenes from an award-winning and non-award winning films and have each student reinterpret the scenes and dialog, in the way he or she would have directed it.  The new student director will put together a new shooting script that might change camera angles and lighting, edit it this way, change or add music, even change the location and of course change the dialog, after all he or she is the Director. During the semester the student is asked to start writing  a screen play for a short film, no more than five minutes long.  We will have a internal competition, an award for the best screenplay.   Each student is asked to bring his or her Video Camera to the class. Do not worry if you do not own one.   The conservatory does have a video camera that could be shared by those who don't have a video camera.