FREE STORYTELLING LESSON!

(Left) 1940s photo

of the building

now housing the

Shop Talk & Art

Gallery (Right)

which is hosting

the October 14th

BYFC event.

STORYTELLING LESSON

For Developing Screenwriters, Directors, and Production Designers

& For Counselors, Teachers, Therapists, and Parents Looking for

a New Way to Start In-Depth Discussions About Life

presented by

BROOKLYN YOUNG FILMMAKERS

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Shop Talk & Art Gallery

35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn

6:00pm-9:00pm, FREE

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers POINTING FINGERS DVD (2009, 15min) with Discussion Guide (10pgs) is the first in a series of packaged "Teaching Stories" that teach about what goes on behind the scenes at a film shoot and how to analysis story structure and characters.

6:15-7:15pm Screening of POINTING FINGERS and Storytelling Lesson

for Counselors, Teachers, Therapists, and Parents

7:15-7:30pm Musician Derek Staebell, Composer of the alternative blues soundtrack

for POINTING FINGERS and Video Director for http://www.songcirclemusic.com/ will talk about

how to find the right music for a low budget film project

7:30-7:45pm Refreshments and networking break

7:45-8:45pm Screening of POINTING FINGERS and Storytelling Lesson

for Developing Screenwriters, Directors, and Production Designers

8:45-9:00pm Refreshments and networking

Trayce Gardner, Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Director, will lead the lessons. Joe Cesar, host for the event, and owner of Shop Talk & Art Gallery where POINTING FINGERS was filmed, is a licensed clinical and school Psychologist. Shop Talk & Art Gallery currently features a show of contemporary Haitian art.

POINTING FINGERS story themes include: rivalry and anger between siblings; bitterness and misunderstanding between parent and child; impact of drug addiction on a family; and the problems of aging. Although the two lesson sessions will be tailored towards different audiences, anyone can attend either session. The material covered is appropriate for adults of all ages and older teens.

Film, which can involve all the arts and technical crafts, is the most complete vehicle for storytelling. The best screenwriters and directors are storytellers who learn to be part detective, part researcher, part production designer, part therapists, and part hypnotist, while at the same time being entertaining. They know how to use language and memorable phrases, physical movement and gesture, and visual imagery and sounds, to weave small details from minor moments into a purposeful and emotionally charged story (usually with three act structure) that impacts upon and is embraced by audiences.

We all love stories. They allow us to go on adventures that we will never have and free us to experience perspectives we could never imagine on our own. People can transcend their day-to-day anger and frustrations when they are engaged in either hearing or telling a story. A good story pulls you in and makes you care about, and believe in, the people being described; it stimulates you to link the acts and life situations of the characters to their past and presents, and causes you to anticipate the future consequences of their actions.

Join Brooklyn Young Filmmakers for an exploration of the art and techniques of Storytelling!

For more info: communityfilm@wearebyfc.org 718-935-0490

Check out our October 1st posting of a photo album from the OPEN/CLOSE film shoot!

www.wearebyfc.blogspot.com/2010/10/openclose-film-shoot-photo-album.html

OPEN/CLOSE FILM SHOOT - PHOTO ALBUM

"FINISHED!.....But Not Quite....."

....Is the title of this first photo (and Alex definitely earned his cat nap!). It was taken on Sunday, September 19th, at 11:30pm, after our martini shot (the last shot before the shoot wraps). It's "finished....but not quite" because we still had to finish breakdown, reset the room with its original furniture, and load out our things from the location (a school that would be back in session the next day). Although we had already broken down and loaded out most of the set by then, it would still take another three hours for the small crew of six that could remain to finish. (We had a total of 13 crew members and 3 actors.)

"DREAMING ON LOCATION"

This was our first planning visit to the room we wanted to turn into the cafe set for OPEN/CLOSE. We had done a scavenger hunt for a location we could rent on a small budget, sending out announcements and talking to everyone we knew.

FGKids@yahoogroups (a networking tool for parents and people working with kids and families -- This one is for Fort Greene. Many neighborhoods have their own group email) turned out to be a great resource -- we got three location referrals. We choose a wonderful location with smiling staff -- the Brooklyn Free School www.brooklynfreeschool.org, which is in a lovely, rambling house that reminded me of being in California where people move with a greater sense of ease and space. (We started meeting in the room a couple of weeks before school started and before BFS had set the room up as a student lounge. BFS rents space to programs and individuals for after school and weekend activites - Alan is the director and contact: 718-499-2707)

OPEN/CLOSE is the story of a once successful, but now blocked New York writer, Carita Locke, who is frightened for her future. On a wintery night she has a life changing encounter with a Serbian immigrant who is the waiter in the cafe where she likes to go to write. Present were some of the student crew, the cast of three, plus me the instructor-director (at left in black beret). We decided that though the cafe was popular with a diverse group of New Yorkers, it was owned by a Serbian and there should be little touches that spoke to his Eastern European background. We started to envision how we would create a cafe and made a list of set and prop needs. The blue tape was how we marked off areas where we wanted to put furniture.

"FILMBIZRECYCLING"

In addition to conducting a scavenger hunt for what we needed on email lists and blogs and among friends and neighbors, we also went to www.FilmBizRecycling.org in Long Island City. It's a green non-profit that recycles set and prop material from film, TV, and commercial shoots. They rent things out really cheaply to low budget shoots. As an individual you can go and buy some really great one-of-a-kind things for yourself or as gifts (holidays are coming!)

Audrey (a BYFC student who is now a board member!) is holding up the poster she found at Filmbizrecycling that became the inspirational for the naming of our fictiuous cafe (see below for the name we gave our cafe!) We also found some wonderful dishes that we could use for our food display and knick knacks for the built-in wall bookcase (photos below). For the cafe furniture we got a great deal from PropsNYC http://www.gotprops.com/ , which is based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.


"MOVING THE SET IN"


Friday, September 17th, after class let out at Brooklyn Free School, we started moving furniture and set, prop, and catering bins into the space. We rented a driver and van and picked up equipment and materials from four primary locations, all in Fort Greene. It took us two hours to get everything to the location -- imagine how long it could have taken if our pick-ups had been spread all over Brooklyn! (For an inexpensive local driver w/van we recommend Angus, 347-405-1258, a student working his way through college. We also found him thorough FGKids@yahoogroups )

"WHERE DOES IT ALL GO?!"

"THE TRICK OF MAKING A TABLE APPEAR"

As director, I wanted the main character to initially sit at a square table to visually emphasis how edgy and at odds she initially feels from others. Because we could not find a square table the size we needed, we had a piece of wood cut and covered it with contact paper to make it look like a table top and then secured it to a base.


"KIDS FROM BFS VISIT THE SET"

As we turned the student lounge into a cafe set, BFS students and staff came by to witness the transformation. One student, Ari (on the right in brown shirt) worked as a production assistanton the set.

"DRESSING THE SET"

Students help to dress the set. Platters are from FilmBizRecycling, as are those yummy-looking chocolate cream pie slices that were bitten into many times --- They're plastic (!) and everyone wanted to pretend they were eating it. The rest of the food is real! We got it from Djerdan www.nymag.com/listings/restaurants/djerdan , a restuarant in mid-town serving Eastern European food. (We all agreed that their burek is the most yummy spinach pie we've ever tasted! ) The small flags on the wall were made by Carmen, a BYFC student who downloaded pictures of flags from former Yugoslavian countries. She printed them on cardstock and then affixed them to sticks. She also downloaded pictures of famous Serbian buildings and put them in $1 frames.

"A HUMAN TRANSFORMATION"

Laura, a BYFC student, Clinton Hill resident, mother of three, and a truancy officer with the NY public schools, was cast as "Alex", a sexy Sex-And-The-City Samatha-type CEO. I knew Laura has the presence to play a business-like CEO, but the "sexy" she needed some help working on. Carmen got to demonstrate her make-up abilities and fashion knowledge.

...ALEX ENTERS THE CAFE

Laura has already promised the wig to her girls to play with!


"PREPPING TO SHOOT"

"ALL QUIET!"

Tai- Kanyarat Rodhatbhai (second from left), an emerging Cinematography/Gaffer/Editor with an amazing sense of light and good speed on set-ups, headed our technical crew, www.taikanyarat.com

The gorgeous garden painting in the background was one six painting loaned to Brooklyn Young Filmmakers for the set by artist Natasha Harsh www.natashaharsh.artspan.com . The paintings helped to raise our production values, adding to the "mood" of the cafe, and at several points provided visual punctuation to the story.

"NATASHA'S SCALLIONS"

The sketch on the pad is of Carita, the protagonist of OPEN/CLOSE. Audra, a mother of two who we recruited through FGKids@yahoogroups , went to Central Park and paid a sketch artist to do a drawing of her. It is suppose to be a drawing done by Dragan, the waiter and Serbian immigrant, who when he gets angry with Carita tears the sketch up. To allow for different takes, we made copies of the drawing and pasted them to pages in the sketch book.


"JAIL JANKO CAFE"

The Jail Jack poster we found at FilmBizRecycling into door sign for our Jail Janko Cafe. (It originally was a protest sign create as a prop for a film about Jack Kevorkian, the Dr. who medically assisted suicides of sick people)

"THE BOOK THAT MADE HER FAMOUS -- FOR A MOMENT"

Carita Locke, 40 year old protagonist of OPEN/CLOSE, had written a successful novel when she was 25 -- and nothing since. To drive home the pain of her frustration, we had another character confront Carita with the book she had written 15 years ago. Solomon, a BYFC student, created this original book jacket. The title, Everything Essential, came from a quote in the script from the mock book. The back jacket photo of the young Carita was supplied by Audra, the actress who plays the 40 year old Carita.

"WHEN I WAS YOUNGER....."

FROM THE OPEN/CLOSE SCRIPT:

"In the end everything essential comes in a limited context. Even the sun, which I now go out to catch and absorb before the dark comes again."

- Trayce, BKLYN TAG

OUR SEVEN DAY SCAVENGER HUNT*! hElp uS!!!!!

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers

OPEN/CLOSE FILM SHOOT

SCAVENGER HUNT: DAY 1



Wanted: CINEMATOGRAPHER W/CAMERA ($300 for 2 Day Shoot,Sept 18 & 19, + 2 planning sessions)


Must have narrative film samples; a good digital camcorder; and enjoy teaching. Special consideration given to DPs who live or work in Fort Greene or surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods. To apply send info to: communityfilm@wearebyfc.org






(from BACK STREETS, 30min, 2009
trailer: http://vimeo.com/14065517
An Adonis Williams film
Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Executive Producer
Matt Workman, DP http://mattworkman.com/
photo: Holly Hosman)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is shooting our next short film OPEN/CLOSE the weekend of September 17 (load-in and set-up day), 18 & 19 (shoot days), at the Brooklyn Free School http://brooklynfreeschool.org/ (free spirit and thought-wise, love the collage of photos on their home page -- more on them in upcoming posts).

This was the first time we started Pre-Production on a Community Filmmaking project without a location already confirmed. We had a small location budget for our three day weekend shoot. Over the last couple of weeks we have been calling out to the Universe (mostly through the internet) -- "HELP!!!!" Low and behold, the Universe answered -- several times!

Of special help was S.O.S. Brooklyn Young Filmmakers put out to FGKids@yahoo.com . Many neighborhoods have a group email for parents to share information. The Fort Greene one is notorious for being one of the most resourceful. I sent a request to join the group, not as a parent, but as someone who works with parents and teenagers. Now if I need info on a good plumber, the best bakery, or how to deal with city regulations, I'll get five recommendations. I asked the group if anyone knew a location that BYFC might shoot at. Within a few days we had three possible locations to choose from! Our faith in the Universe has been renewed! So of course we're gonna keep asking.

STAY TUNED: Over the next six days Brooklyn Young Filmmakers will be posting other items needed for our OPEN/CLOSE Scavenger Hunt. Help us find our Scavenger Hunt items!

What is a SCAVENGER HUNT? It's a game in which the organizers prepare a list defining specific items, which the participants -- individuals or teams -- seek to gather -- usually without purchasing them -- or perform tasks or take photographs of the items, as specified. The goal is usally to be the first to complete the list, although in a variation of the game, players can also be challenged to complete the tasks in the most creative manner.

Gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell is credited with inventing scavenger hunts for 1930s parties: "Serve the dinner backwards, do anything, but for goodness sake, do something weird!" The University of Chicago, every May since 1987 up to 2010, has hosted the largest and best scavenger hunt in the world! http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu

FILM QUIZ: What classic 1930s screwball comedy opens with a drunken bunch of socialites on a Scavenger Hunt for a goat and a lost man in a tent city on a dump? It featured the THIN MAN star and Clark Gable's wife (who died tragically at 33). This film played this season at Bryant Parks Outdoor Film Series.

OPEN/CLOSE is a New York story. A dialogue excerpt:

CARITA:

Someone said, "The present in New York is so powerful that the past gets lost." Maybe that's why so many hurt, lonely people come here....People like us, when we remember the past, it's always what was broken....

Copyright 2010 Trayce Gardner & Debbie Boswell

FILM QUIZ ANSWER: MY MAN GODFREY (See trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3810665927813772372#

OPEN/CLOSE PRE-PRODUCTION

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:

CREATING A FAKE COVER FOR A BOOK THAT WILL BE USED AS A KEY PROP

FOR THE CHARACTER CARITA LOCKE

IN THE FILM OPEN/CLOSE

(This is the first draft of the cover by BYFC student Solomon Oke. What do you think about it? What

do you like? What would you change? Tune in for our next blog posting and hear the critique Solomon got and what alterations he was asked to do. Then check out the final version of the book cover!

(Solomon Oke

with his daughters

Sarah Yetunde (3.9 yrs)

and Deborah Opeyemi (9 mths)

I am a Brooklyn Young Filmmakers student and the shoot photographer for the OPEN/CLOSE film project. I, Solomon Olanrewaju Oke, born in the mid-fifties, grew up with one of my uncles, a farmer and a hunter, in a small hamlet called Ago-Amodu in the rural part of Western Nigeria.

I left my country to go to St. Aldates College in Oxford City, England, where I studied Economics and Business. After graduating I came to the United States and enrolled in the College of Staten Island. Two and a half years later I dropped out having lost my interest in Economics and Business. I looked for a trade to engage in. Since I love working with my hands, I thought about becoming an electrician. But I could not afford four years of study and $16,000. I later picked up an interest in becoming a photographer, but I did not have two years and $4,000 that the course required. Luckily I saw a small ad in the newspaper for a home study course in photography. I paid $500 for the course material, studied at home, and became a photographer.

Now I work part of my time photographing weddings, portraits, and products. In my second job I work as a security supervisor at one of the NYC Welfare Centers. I also have developed an interest in writing and in 2008 Enaz Publications published my first book, "With Sex On My Mind".

I want to put photography together with writing and so I became a student with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers. Someone asked me why now, why at my age, I decided to learn about filmmaking. It reminds me of what my mother asked me when I was 19 and she found out I tried to commit suicide "Why now?! Now that we spent all our money and energy to raise you, why now do you want to kill yourself?!" I looked at my mother, acute sadness in my eyes, and answered her -- "It's better late than never Ma; it is better late than never." This is the same answer I gave to the person who asked me why, at my age, I want to learn filmmaking -- except there was no sadness in my eyes this time when I answered.

MY WISH is to teach my daughters, Sarah and Deborah, as they grow up, to enjoy film as a means of entertainment, but to also appreciate it as a medium of expression and a world of many jobs.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY COUNTRY FOR YOU

NIGERIA gained independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, after 60 years of being its colony. Popularly known as the giant of Africa, Nigeria has about 140 million people and it is divided into 36 states plus the capital territory Abuja.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria )

Situated in West Africa, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa; it is the eighth most populous in the world. The country is split in half between Chrisitians and Muslims. The country's official language is English, but there are well over 200 different regional languages. Nigeria has three most influential ethnic groups -- Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. It is very rich in cultures and good in sports, especially in soccer, running, boxing and weight lifting. Nigeria is the largest African oil producing country and it is one of the major oil suppliers to the U.S. (There are many large oil spills in Nigeria that have been going on for decades and the world has paid no attention: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html )

- Solomon Oke

WE'RE MAKING OUR NEXT FILM AND WANT YOU TO JOIN US!

BYFC students and community members on the set of THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR

the film project for our Fall/Winter 2009-10 "Make A Film" Class Series

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is happy to announce its next Community Filmmaking project, OPEN/CLOSE, and our Scavenger Hunt for what we need to make the short film. Here's some of the things you can participate in: Casting Call for Actors; a search for a Shoot Location; outreach for a director of photography, a gaffer, a make-up artist, a fashion designer, and original visual art to feature on the set.

OPEN/CLOSE is the story of a one-time successful, but now blocked, New York artist, who is frightened about her future. Carita Locke is adrift in a world where people are busy connecting through techno gadgets. A winter storm blows her off course into a dramatic, life changing encounter with a Serbian immigrant who has been on the edge of her world, but who she never really noticed. (Check out the article "Hooked on Gadgets, And Paying A Mental Price, newyorktimes.com 6/6/10, for more on a growing social problem)

CASTING CALL

(NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

But what a great experience you'll have)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is accepting submissions for the following roles:

CARITA LOCKE: FEMALE/ 40s / AFRICAN AMERICAN

A frustrated writer who is at a lost when it comes to understanding her own feelings. Her quiet grace hides desperation. She blossomed in the early era of SEX AND THE CITY and dresses in chic Bohemian like Carrie.

ALEXANDRA "ALEX" BARNES: FEMALE / 40s /

JAMAICAN AMERICAN

High powered business woman, professional and sexy, a Samantha devotee. Carefully groomed, she successfully hides her Jamaican background -- except when she is angry. A loyal and loving friend to Carita, Alex believes it's her job to shake her friend free from a destructive romantic obsession.

DRAGAN: MALE / 35 / SERBIAN IMMIGRANT

Skilled and debonair, he is frustrated by his American experience and trapped in a job where he serves those who he would wish to be his colleagues. His passion is threatening to boil over. (Has Serbian accent, similar to a Russian accent)

TO APPLY: You must fit one of the character descriptions. If you have acting experience, you can email your resume and head shot. If you don't have any experience, simply email us your picture with your phone number. (Optional: include a letter about why you are interested in the part). We will contact you and ask some questions to determine whether or not we will set up an audition time. If you live or work in Fort Greene or an immediate surrounding area, that is considered a plus. Rehearsals will start in mid-August, to be arranged according to the actors schedules. The shoot will either be the last week end in August or the second weekend in September. There is no pay involved. Meals will be provided on the shoot. Actors will get a DVD copy of the finished film. SEND YOUR INFORMATION TO: communityfilm@wearebyfc.org Questions: 718-935-0490

LOCATION SEARCH FOR WEEKEND SHOOT

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is seeking a location in Fort Greene, or a surrounding area, for the OPEN/CLOSE short film shoot. We need a blank space to put up a cafe set. If you've been curious about what goes on behind the scenes of a film shoot and if you (or your family member) would like to be a production assistant on a shoot, here's your chance (and don't forget you get your name/business in the credits when we make the Teaching Story DVD with Discussion Guide).

We will load in on a Friday afternoon and shoot on Saturday and Sunday. The preferred weekends are the last weekend in August or the second weekend in September. Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has a small location budget for the shoot. (And we have references from the other places that we have shot that we treat all spaces with love and care!) If you know of, or have a space, you can contact us at: communityfilm@wearebyfc.org or 718-935-0490.

STAY TUNE FOR:

- MORE SCAVENGER HUNT POSTINGS NEXT WEEK

- MET OUR STUDENTS WORKING ON THE SHOOT

- LEARN WHERE TO GO FOR LOW-COST/FREE PROPS & SET ITEMS

- TIPS ON HOW TO DO RESEARCH TO DEVELOP CHARACTERS