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Our first year for the YSMP. We had six students. We spread the camp out over six weeks, doing two days a week. This made for a somewhat confusing schedule, but the kids managed to get two shorts shot, but only one completed.
Here's the article from the Middletown Journal about the YSMP.
Summer project
exposes youth to film, fun
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Parents often complain that kids waste too much time during the summer
sitting in front of the TV and watching movies.
But the kids who participated in the local Youth Summer Film Project turned
that accusation on its head. About six youths spent their summers behind
a camera making movies in Middletown.
The project is the brainchild of Middletown filmmaker R Zoe Polley, who
has proven that you can get somewhere by watching zombie movies all the
time on TV.
“I’ve always loved films since the time I was little,”
she said, having digested hours of the cable USA Network’s “Up
All Night,” which specializes in schlocky horror films.
“I really wanted to do something that would be fun for kids, and
it’s not something that’s really available in this area,”
she said.
The idea of the course, which is nearing completion, is to teach kids
not only how movies are made, but to make movies themselves
Once Polley taught them basic filmmaking skills, she put the kids through
their paces, having them work on two short films: a drama called “Grape
Bubble Gum” and a yet-to-be named zombie horror spoof, which shot
this weekend.
Polley does the key jobs by writing and directing the films, but the kids
help by acting and by doing other behind-the-scenes work. The kids learned
terms like aspect ratio (the ratio of width to height of a film frame
or image) and master shot (a take that shows the main action or set of
an entire scene).
Recently, the kids spent time brainstorming ideas for the zombie horror
spoof called “Excess Gorywood Tonight” at Polley’s house
on Garfield Street. The concept was to create an “Entertainment
Tonight”-like show, featuring undead stars such as Crispina Stabulera.
“You have to definitely be more creative,” said 19-year-old
Jessica Amburgey of Middletown, who acted as Polley’s assistant
director. “I’d always wanted to be in stuff like this, and
it’s exciting to get it done. It’s almost like a job, but
we all wanted to be here. I didn’t realize all the detail that went
into it.”
Polley added: “Middletown is not the film capital of the world,
and people who know film are few and far between, but that’s the
point in staying here.”
Once both films are completed, Polley and the kids will submit them to
film festivals to get their work shown. The Youth Summer Film Project
will return next year, possibly for kids to make a feature, Polley said.