Introduction to the Panasonic AF-100 Camera

Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Reese Eveneshen (Writer/director) offers up some basic beginners knowledge to working with the Panasonic AF-100 camera. This high definition camera provides full 1080p movie quality images almost akin to that of the RED camera. Eveneshen will cover some of the features this camera provides that will in turn help your production look like an actual movie!

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Film Storyboarding

Saturday, January 14, 2012 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Storyboarding is the bridge that gets you safely across the gap between your script to your edit ready footage. An illustrated to do list for your movie, it helps you plan everything, from the title sequence to "The End" making sure you get all the shots you need in between. Storyboarding saves you time, money and aggravation by making you think early in the process about visual story telling. But above all storyboarding will help you make a better movie.

This workshop will be an illustrated "how to" with examples of the instructor's work and that of other directors, and will include some practical exercises.

About the Instructor: Isabella Stefanescu is a painter, writer, and new media artist based in Kitchener who received the Ontario arts Council K. M. Hunter Prize for multidisciplinary artists. She was an artist in residence at the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab in 2008, and at the Banff New Media Institute in 2009.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Audio Techniques for Video 101

Saturday, December 3, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

If you are interested in learning about audio for video, this workshop is for you.

Chris Meidell, owner of Modevation Media, will explore the techniques and tricks as well as options available for fixing audio problems, adding special effects and options for music in Final Cut Pro as well as a brief look at other audio related applications.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

The Practical Art of Cinematography

Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

In this workshop we will take you through how art of cinematography can help you out in a very practical hands on way in your everyday film-making.

Its principals are vast and can take a lifetime to fully comprehend but even the basics can be extremely useful, we will try to give a basic understanding of cinematography and these principals in a short workshop and demystify a bit of the art for those who want to learn.

Topics covered will be lighting and blocking a scene, a very short theory on follow focusing and how to choose a different technique of shooting coverage based on the resources we have available to us. Knowing when to reign back the "hollywood" vision in terms of what is realistically and beautifully achievable.

Sometimes people try as hard as they can to achieve a shot which is impossible to achieve without the right equipment for the job, and end up wasting a lot of time to come out frustrated with something sub par, with sound cinematography they can step back and use technical knowledge and their eye to understand what is achievable with the equipment that they had at the time.

What type of equipment and camera and lenses can to be used to achieve a certain look or image? How does light behave when captured by high end and low end cameras. Knowing your limitations.

We will hook the camera up to monitor and show practically how to cover a scene with many different inter-cutting angles and choosing these angles so they cut together soundly and easily. The direction of the workshop will delve more deeply into certain principles depending on what the participants are most interested in learning as a group.

These principals will apply to everyone and all levels of equipment price, from $200 handy-cams to $60,000 dollar digital cinema cameras.

Our goal will be to show that no matter how inexpensive the equipment you are using is, you can still affect the quality of the image significantly by using the principals of cinematography.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Introduction to Final Cut Pro 7

Saturday, November 19, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Come join Chris Meidell, owner of Modevation Media for an introductory lesson on Final Cut Pro 7 and a basic intro to editing.

You will learn the basic interface for Final Cut Pro and the principles of creating a rough cut. You will also learn some of the concepts and theory behind color correction and video filters. Chris has been editing for nearly 10 years producing corporate videos and independent films.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Plan for a Successful film Shoot!

Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Local award winning writing/directing team Peter Szabo and Reese Eveneshen (Too Low, Dead Genesis) offer some helpful tips and insights on Do It Yourself Filmmaking! Specifically they'll be taking a look at pre-production and how your production can plan ahead for a successful film shoot.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Shooting a Nature Documentary

Saturday, October 22, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

"Ribbons of Green" a nature documentary by photographer, film-maker Dragan Doric, won the jury prize for the Local Focus Film Festival 2011. This workshop will cover the making of this trilogy The River, The Pond, The Woods.

Topics include:

• Lighting and exposure techniques: composition, creating mood, selective focus, colour saturation
• Special effects: time lapse, slow motion, composite overlays
• Camera techniques: Crane (jib) shots, dolly
• Research: scouting locations, experimenting, researching your subject, know your equipment
• Previsualize your shots to achieve a consistent personal look for the project.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Negotiating Shifts in Feminism: The ‘Bad’ Girls of James Bond

Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Through the characterization and narrative treatment of female villains, the Bond franchise reflects popular attitudes towards changing feminist sentiments. In the 1960s, the Bond films present a ‘backlash’ towards second wave feminist momentum and punish ‘bad’ women with liberal sexualities. In the 1970s and 1980s, female villainy gradually disappears from the series. As the only exception to this trend, May Day (A View to a Kill) is informed by the third wave feminist impulse and her character presents the protofeminist possibility of transgressive female identity in the franchise. Female villains of the 1990s and 2000s are inspired by the emerging Girl Power movement and subsequently disempowered by the shortcomings of postfeminism.

This workshop will be led by Lisa Funnell, an instructor in Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. Her research interests include the study of gender, race, nationality, ethnicity and/or sexuality in Hong Kong and Pan-Chinese action films, contemporary Hollywood film, the James Bond franchise, Alfred Hitchcock films, and South Korean blockbusters. Her work has been accepted for publication in the Quarterly Review of Film and Video (2011) Journal of Popular Culture (2011), and Transnational Cinemas (accepted), as well as in the edited collections Heroes and Heroines (2008), Women on Screen (2010), and Asian Popular Culture (2011). She is the co-editor of the collection Transnational Asian Identities in Pan-Pacific Cinemas: The Reel Asian Exchange which is under contract with Routledge (forthcoming, 2011). Her current book project—Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star—is based on her dissertation.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Darn Clever Faking: Voice-Doubling During Hollywood's Transition to Sound

Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

In 1929, at the height of the industry's transition from silent to sound filmmaking, movie fan magazine Photoplay published an exposé that revealed what the magazine's editors believed was one of Hollywood's dirty secrets: the studios were using voice doublers (or "dubbers") to record songs that were lip-synched by stars in the industry's new sound films. This presentation will examine an example of voice doubling in an early sound film and account for the public's surprisingly tolerant response to the revelation of a practice that in more recent years has acquired the status of scandal.

This workshop will be led by Dr. Katherine Spring, an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University and a film programmer for Cinematheque Waterloo. She has published on film sound and music, American film history, Hong Kong cinema, and teaches courses in those areas as well as in film theory and narrative. Her book, Saying it with Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2012.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

As Time Goes By: The Representation of Memory in Film

Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

From the flashback to the incorporation of archival footage to the digital insertion of fictional characters into historical events, memory – whether personal and individual or collective and social – has been a central feature of narrative films since the invention of cinema in the 1890s. In this talk I offer an introduction to the enormous topic of the representation of memory in film, touching on the dominant tendencies across a wide variety of cinematic styles and genres.

This workshop will be led by Dr. Russell Kilbourn, an Associate Professor in Wilfrid Laurier’s Department of English and Film Studies. Dr. Kilbourn specializes in film theory with a particular focus on memory. Dr. Kilbourn has published in the areas of film, cultural studies, and comparative literature, as well as on the German author W.G. Sebald, and has just brought out Cinema, Memory, Modernity: The Representation of Memory from the Art Film to Transnational Cinema (Routledge 2010). He is also a series editor for the Film and Media Studies series at WLU Press.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Waterloo Region's Independent Art House Cinema

Saturday, March 5, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Come and meet John Tutt, (Founder, owner, manager Princess Cinemas, Waterloo) and listen to his experiences over the last 25 years running the Princess Cinemas.

Discussions will include a brief history from 1985 onward, what the role is of such a cinema in the community, How are the films chosen? How programming a cinema like the Princess has changed, Canadian independently made cinema and Canadian cinemas, and the future of this type of cinema.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

How to Film a Fight Scene

Saturday, March 19, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

This is a practical workshop about what every actor and director needs to know when filming a fight scene. Learn about angles that emphasize action, how film differs from stage for fight sequences, safety concerns and what resources are available to film makers that they might not know about to make their films fight sequences that much more interesting. We will touch on unarmed sequences, knife sequences, gun sequences and sword sequences and the elements of each that make them special.

This workshop will be hosted by Nicholas Oddson, a Fight Director's Canada certified instructor. He has done fight performance and/or direction in about 45 different shows and films over the last decade. Nicholas studied with world experts in fighting for film, fighting style design, bloodwork, motion capture and violence for stage and screen.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Regional, Provincial, Federal Funding for Indie Films

Saturday, February 5, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Most independent films are made on more love than money - but some funding is still necessary. This workshop will talk about regional, provincial, federal and private funding available for emerging independent filmmakers. The workshop will consider each kind of application in detail, from eligibility to budget to support material, and talk about the selection process. In the hands-on part of the workshop participants will start drafting an application for their own project, and will receive practical pointers on how to make their applications better.

About the teacher: Isabella Stefanescu is a painter, writer, and new media artist based in Kitchener who received the Ontario arts Council K. M. Hunter Prize for multidisciplinary artists. She was an artist in residence at the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab in 2008, and at the Banff New Media Institute in 2009. Since 1992 when Isabella Stefanescu received her first Canada Council grant, she has worked on projects funded by the City of Kitchener, Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, Musagetes Fund, Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Socièté de dévelopment des entreprises culturelles de Québec, and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Introduction to Color 1.5

Saturday, February 19, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South)

Color 1.5 is a key component of the Final Cut suite, and it's typically one of the last rooms to master, due to its user interface and some quirks of workflow. Color quickly becomes an indispensable part of your workflow once you see and begin to master its capabilities, and this course will help you get beyond some of the typical roadblocks.

This seminar is intended for those who already have a basic understanding of colour correction in Final Cut Pro, and who wish to take their footage to the next level with enhanced control over their final images. You will leave with a greatly enhanced knowledge of Color's capabilities, answers to your workflow questions, and you'll be empowered to download some of the exciting presets available to get beyond colour correction and into designing custom looks.

Color 1.5 Overview

• the colour rooms and high-level workflow\ evaluating contrast and colour\ preparing a sequence for Color\ The Color Rooms\ introduction to primaries\ introduction to secondaries\ useful strategies\ HSL keys\ vignettes\ user shapes and tracking\ keyframing\ ColorFX room\ introduction to node trees\ standard and custom presets\ recipes\ Grade management\ adding grades\ A/B comparison between grades\ copying, grouping, saving grades

Project Workflows

• FCP round-tripping\ Project archiving\ Reconforming

About the teacher: Von Darnell is the President of Huckleberry Film Studios, a Kitchener-Waterloo based production company specializing in corporate video. Learn more at: www.huckleberryfilmstudios.com, or follow them on Twitter @HuckFilms

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Intro to Apple Motion

Saturday, January 8, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Join Chris Meidell from Modevation Media for an introductory look at Apple Motion.

The first part of the workshop will cover the theory and functionality behind topics including:

• Keyframing
• Behaviours
• Text Animation
• 3D Cameras (lights, shadows, reflection and depth of field)
• Replicators
• Particle Emitters
• Motion Templates

In the second part of the workshop will be create a number of example animations from scratch using these elements.

Attendees are welcome to bring laptops along if you have Apple Motion on it.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

A Dark Look at America: Noir Aesthetics and its Social Critique from Classic to Neo Noir

Saturday, January 22, 2011 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

This workshop will be led by Philippa Gates, an Associate Professor in Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University specializing in the study of gender and genre in Classical and contemporary Hollywood film. Her publications include Detecting Men: Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film (2006) and Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film, which is due out in early 2011.

The workshop will explore how the visual style of film noir was employed to express psychological interiority and a critique of American society from classic noir in the 1940s to neo noir in the 1970s. The workshop will conclude with how, in recent decades, noir aesthetics have become detached from their original cultural signifiers and tend to be used for affect in contemporary film rather than to engage in social critique.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Inside the Indie Lens 101

Saturday, December 4, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

This seminar will help you to develop a grasp on using interchangeable lenses for Indie filmmaking.

During the seminar we will come to understand why lenses are so important in the filmmaking process, because of the varying levels of selective focus and perspective that they provide. Camera’s such as the RED, 35mm and 16mm film camera’s and the current line of Canon Video DSLR’s all require a good knowledge of film and photography lenses to unlock their potential fully.

As a part of the seminar we will have a live demo set up with a projector of the specific differences between each type of lens shown visually on the screen. Lenses covered will be Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Carl Zeiss, and Vintage manual lenses. We will also cover what manual settings should be implemented in Camera to complement your lens knowledge.

A basic lighting setup will also be shown to light the subject we will be “lensing”. We will also take the time to look at a few different types of lights and see their effect on the subject, and how to light for dramatic film production with soft and hard light.

Terms covered: F-stop, Aperture, Shutter speed, Bokeh, Frame rate , 180 degree shutter, DOF, Shot composition, Soft light, Diffusion, Focal length, Iris, Flags, focus ring, Neutral density, Mattebox, Follow focus, Whip, Crank, Reflectors.

Instructor: Francis Coral – Mellon has had a love of films ever since his teenage years. He is constantly researching and updating his knowledge base to the newest and latest techniques. He has taken lessons from such renowned DOP’s as Philip Bloom, Rodney Charters, Rick Wincenty, and Michael Jari Davidson. He also owns and operates Red Dust Films, a local production company and enjoys very much teaching and sharing his information with others.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Audio Tools for Video Editors

Saturday, December 18, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Video editing tools like Final Cut Pro provide basic multi-track audio mixing and editing capabilities, but if you need to restore and enhance individual audio clips, then it's time to turn to dedicated audio editing tools and plugins. Software such as Sony’s Sound Forge and Apple’s Soundtrack Pro, and the industry standard Wave plugins can help you improve the quality of your audio and correct many common problems.

This tutorial will review the basics of audio editing tools and how they can be applied in audio post-production for video.

Instructor: Earl McCluskie is a recording producer and engineer based in the Waterloo region. In addition to CD recording and concert production, he has worked in audio post-production with the CBC for the Nature of Things, Fifth Estate and drama, as well as numerous independent video productions. He is currently producing a video documentary for the Wellington Winds, and as recording producer and engineer on an independent film project with Helmut Lipsky and Stefan Pleszczynski (CBC’s Da Vinci’s Inquest, Intelligence) in Montreal.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Show me the Money!: How Indigenous people shaped East German Cinema in the Cold War

Saturday, November 6, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

A discussion of the genre “Indianerfilm” by the East German Studio DEFA. How the “Indians” saved the day for a studio that was trying to finance the more classic films. A discussion of these films with an examination of several clips from this genre.

Discussion leader: Ute Lischke, Associate Professor of film and literature at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Vilmos Zsigmond: Unorthodox Methods in Cinematography

Saturday, October 23, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Vilmos Zsigmond is one of the most ground-breaking cinematographers in the history or motion pictures. Fleeing Hungary during the revolution, he came to United States just as the film industry there was going through a serious upheaval. With his unorthodox theories and European sensibilities, he quickly became a pillar of the New Hollywood, photographing some of the most revolutionary films of 1960s and 1970s such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, The Long Goodbye, Obsession, The Deer Hunter, Sugarland Express, and Close Encounter of the Third Kind, for which he won his Academy Award™. This workshop is dedicated to a study of Vilmos’ theories and experiences on the films he made in the 1970’s, and the methodology that he invented, such as pre-flashing negatives and extreme lens diffusion. The content will be based on several interviews conducted with Mr. Zsigmond about his craft and will be supplemented by clips from his films.

Ray Noori grew up in Iran, on a steady diet of classic Hollywood and European films. Upon completing his Computer Science and Film Studies degrees from University of Waterloo, he started studying cinematography intensely. He has made several short films, some of which have received festival screenings in Vancouver, Florence (Italy) and Tehran (Iran).

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

The Impurity of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Pure Cinema'

Saturday, October 9, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

An open discussion of movies by Hitchcock, with a close examination of scenes from several of his works.

Discussion leader: Paul Tiessen, a professor of film and literature at Wilfrid Laurier University

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Film Storyboarding

Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Storyboarding is the bridge that gets you safely across the gap between your script to your edit ready footage. An illustrated to do list for your movie, it helps you plan everything, from the title sequence to "The End" making sure you get all the shots you need in between. Storyboarding saves you time, money and aggravation by making you think early in the process about visual story telling. But above all storyboarding will help you make a better movie.

This workshop will be an illustrated "how to" with examples of the instructor's work and that of other directors, and will include some practical exercises.

About the instructor: Isabella Stefanescu is a painter, writer, and new media artist based in Kitchener who received the Ontario arts Council K. M. Hunter Prize for multidisciplinary artists. She was an artist in residence at the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab in 2008, and at the Banff New Media Institute in 2009.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Filmmaking Camp for Youth

July 19 to July 30 from 9:30am to 1:30pm at 66 Queen Street South, Kitchener

This 10 days camp is a hands on program introducing young people to the theory, techniques and technology of movie making. We will go through all of the steps of the movie making process: developing an idea, creating a script, casting the movie and shooting it using professional HD Video cameras. We'll then move into the editing suite to put the pieces of the movie together, adding effects and a soundtrack to produce a finished movie on DVD.

Participants will experience every aspect of the process of movie making and have the opportunity to work within every department. Each day will begin with a brief talk addressing the day's tasks and covering an aspect of the movie making process but the emphasis will be on actually experiencing that process first hand. The camp will follow the natural creative path of a movie from pre-production into production and then post-production.

Fees: $150 (subsidies available for low-income families)

To register for this workshop, please fill out this form. Submit the form and fees in person or mail it to: Multicultural Cinema Club, Azam Fouk Aladeh, 58 Queen St. S., Kitchener, ON, N2G 1V6

Return to Africa - The Elsie Cressman Story

Saturday, May 1 from 9:30am to 11:30am at CTV Studios (864 King Street West, Kitchener. Enter off Pine St. Park in the far right parking lot. Follow signs to brown door on side of the studio)

Waterloo County Mennonite Elsie Cressman spent 25 years working in East Africa as a nurse and midwife building clinics and hospitals that still stand to this day. Upon her return to Canada she pursued and was successful in incorporating midwifery into the Ontario Healthcare system.

This is the story of how 86 year-old Elsie returned to Kenya and Tanzania to revisit her accomplishments and re-connect with old friends and patients.

Part One: How the film was developed, researched, funded and what equipment was used.
Part Two: Return to Africa: (24 minutes)
Part Three: Life on the Kenya/Tanzanian road for three-weeks. What happened in Africa? The trials and tribulations. Where did the film-makers stay, what did they eat and what facilities were endured. What problems arose and how they were dealt with.
Part Four: Q&A

Presented by photographer Paul Francescutti.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Film Storyboarding

Saturday, May 29 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Storyboarding is the bridge that gets you safely across the gap between your script to your edit ready footage. An illustrated to do list for your movie, it helps you plan everything, from the title sequence to "The End" making sure you get all the shots you need in between. Storyboarding saves you time, money and aggravation by making you think early in the process about visual story telling. But above all storyboarding will help you make a better movie.

This workshop will be an illustrated "how to" with examples of the instructor's work and that of other directors, and will include some practical exercises.

About the instructor: Isabella Stefanescu is a painter, writer, and new media artist based in Kitchener who received the Ontario arts Council K. M. Hunter Prize for multidisciplinary artists. She was an artist in residence at the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab in 2008, and at the Banff New Media Institute in 2009.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Color Correction Workshop

Saturday, April 3 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Join producer and editor Chris Meidell for an introduction to the world of color correction. In this workshop, Chris will take you through the the different tools, techniques and tricks used in Primary and Secondary color correction within Final Cut Pro and Color. You will learn how to improve the quality of all the video you shoot and how to use color correction to create mood in your videos. You will gain a better understanding of the different types of video scopes and how to use them effectively measure and to improve your results.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

How to Read a Film: Exploring the Archetypal Themes in Avatar

Saturday, April 17 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Avatar is undoubtably on the cutting edge of film technology. True to form, James Cameron has pushed the envelope of what film can encompass from a technological perspective. But the story of Avatar itself draws on familiar themes which have echoes back to the oral traditions of our ancestors. Moving through Avatar with an archetypal eye, this workshop will explore and present where these themes are evident in the film and what they tell us about our cultural state of mind. If the artist is the visionary who foreshadows what we carry in our Collective Unconscious, what is James Cameron's Avatar telling us about our beliefs, desires and experiences?

A previous viewing of Avatar would be a benefit to attending this workshop.

This workshop will be led by Tiffany Lazic, a graduate of Ryerson University (Film Studies). She has worked in the industry in editing, distribution and exhibition. She received training as a Transpersonal Psychotherapist at the Transformational Arts College in Toronto. One of her many joys is applying her life-long interest in myth and symbolism to everyday life in order to guided others to self-empowerment and choiceful living.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

What is Audio Post-Production?

Saturday, February 13 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Learn about Production Dialogue Editing, ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), Sound Effects Editing and Design, Foley Recording (human sound effects recorded in sync with picture), Music Composition and Music Editing, and Mixing (also called re-recording).

Good sound starts with good microphone technique and control over the recording environment, but when either or both of these has been compromised, there are tricks that can be done to minimize the damage and we'll talk about some of these.

This workshop will be lead by Earl McCluskie, a recording producer and engineer based in the Waterloo Region. In addition to CD recording and concert production, he has worked in audio post-production with the CBC for the Nature of Things, Fifth Estate, as well as numerous independent video productions. He is currently producing a video documentary for the Wellington Winds, and as recording producer and engineer on an independent film project with Helmut Lipsky and Stefan Pleszczynski (CBC's Da Vinci's Inquest, Intelligence) in Montreal.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Intro to Stop-Motion Animation for Adults

Saturday, February 27 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

What is stop-motion and its history? You'll find out in this informative workshop through in depth explanations and hands-on demonstrations.

In this workshop, you will learn about the six basic animation priciples (squash and stretch, anticipation, follow through, arcs, easing in and out, and staging), various stop-motion animation techniques, special effects like green screening, the creation and examination of storyboards and x-sheets, and making puppets, all to help you create your own animation through the workshop.

This workshop will be lead by Grayden Laing, an Ontario-based artist who has been receiving artistic commissions since he was fourteen. He started out as a portrait artist and has branched into landscape painting, figurative sculpture, animation and live-action video.

In the past three years Grayden has produced and shot several animated short films including "Sound of Sorrow", which is represented by OUAT! Media and has aired on the Moviola network in Canada. Grayden's dark comedy "Smokey's Rage" won the animation showdown in August of 2008 on the Atom.com website and was aired on Comedy Central in the US. During 2009 Grayden focused on producing two new stop-motion series "The Dolls House", written by Andrea Burgie, and "Eggs Gone Wild", created and produced by Grayden. Grayden is also currently working with Decode Entertainment on developing his claymation show "Beer Goggles", which Decode optioned in 2007.

Grayden has also made an effort to share the excitement of animation with others by teaching animation techniques to children and adults. Grayden has led animation camps and workshops of all sizes at Ed Video Media Arts Centre, Camp NeeKauNis, The Multicultural Cinema Club, and the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum. During this time Grayden has also provided private animation instruction for individuals.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Archetypal Psychology in Film

Saturday, January 16 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

Film, with its ability to use character, plot, image and sound, is undoubtably a powerful medium through which to tell a story. In many ways, film serves as our contemporary means through which to understand ourselves, our culture and our world, fulfilling a similar function to the oral tradition of myth and storytelling in ancestral history. Sitting in a darkened theatre watching a film unfold before our eyes is not so removed from ancient forebears who sat around a fire or hearth as bards and elders spun teaching tales. In exploring the four main functions of traditional myth and the films which fall into each of the four categories, this workshop will help give the signposts to read a film as a guide to self-understanding. Whether you are a film- lover interested in seeing films from a different perspective or a film-maker interested in adding another layer of depth, Archetypal Psychology in Film presents a roadmap of mythic themes through which to explore this medium.

Tiffany Lazic is a graduate of Ryerson University (Film Studies) She has worked in the industry in editing, distribution and exhibition. She received training as a Transpersonal Psychotherapist at the Transformational Arts College in Toronto. One of her many joys is applying her life-long interest in myth and symbolism to everyday life in order to guide others to self-empowerment and choiceful living.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Introduction to Final Cut Pro

Saturday, January 30 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, second floor (a sign will indicate where to go)

This introductory workshop will give you the basic concepts and skills to start editing in Final Cut Pro, a powerful editing software program used by the professional film industry. Capturing, editing, adding special effects and options for exporting will be covered.

As a fan of independent filmmaking, Anne (who will be leading this workshop) loves teaching people to edit. She is a member of Ed Video Media Arts Centre and is currently an educator with the Waterloo Region District School Board. She completed a masters studying the impact of digital editing.

Fees: FREE for members, $10 at the door for non members.

Composing Your Images: Understanding the How and Why of Camera Operations

This workshop, lead by Dragan Doric, will help to improve your camera shots by explaining the various techniques of photography/cinematography i.e.: rule of thirds, depth of field, lead room, head room, aperture settings, shutter speeds, frames per second, aspect ratios, exposure, white balance, and more.

Dragan Doric is an accomplished still photographer specializing in travel and wildlife work. For over 30 years his career has included portraits, commercial work, promotional travel videos in a documentary style. He has worked with formats from 35mm to 8x10 inch cameras. Has shot and edited video in SD and HD. Will show samples in stills and video to clarify and remove the mystery of camera operation.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday, December 12 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM in the Loft room at The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S., Kitchener. Proceed to the second floor, there will be a sign indicating where to go.
Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Recording High-Quality Sound for Film and Video

Saturday, November 14 from 9:30AM to 11:30AM at the Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S., Loft Room

Good audio can make a world of difference to any film project, and getting that audio is one of the most affordable things that you can do to increase your production values and make your movie sound better.

This workshop will discuss

• How to choose a microphone according to needs of production, so that you can capture sound in the best possible way.
• the different microphone types and accessories commonly used in film sound recording and their applications: dynamic, condenser, wireless, shotgun, wind socks, which is best for what
• automatic gain control
• working with a sound man
• location and on-set recording (with dialog booms)
• things to control eg background noise, room acoustics, RF interference and other electronic noise

The workshop will be hosted by Earl McCluskie, a recording producer and engineer based in the Waterloo region. In addition to CD recording and concert production, he has worked in audio post-production with the CBC for the Nature of Things, Fifth Estate and drama, as well as numerous independent video productions. He is currently producing a video documentary for the Wellington Winds, and as recording producer and engineer on an independent film project with Helmut Lipsky and Stefan Pleszczynski (CBC's Da Vinci's Inquest, Intelligence) in Montreal.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday November 14 from 9:30AM to 11:30AM at the Loft room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. Proceed to the second floor, there will be a sign indicating where to go.
Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Green Screen Workshop

Saturday, November 28 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S., Loft Room

The purpose of this workshop is to give an overview and all basics related to Green Screen room and its options (colors, materials, portability issues), also discussing lighting the Green Screen and talent, Final Cut Workflow and keying effects.

Chris Meidell is the founder of Modevation Media and founder of WaterlooTech.tv. He is chair of the Media Producers Group of Ontario and has been involved with production and post production on 4 documentaries in collaboration with the MultiCultural Cinema Club. Chris is passionate about storytelling and the tools we use to tell the stories.

With one of the few green screen studios in the Waterloo area, Chris will share some of his insights into shooting with a greenscreen in studio and in the field including lighting tips, equipment setup and choices as well as available effects in Final Cut Pro.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday, November 28 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Loft room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. Proceed to the second floor, there will be a sign indicating where to go.
Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Steadicam Camera Stabilizing Systems Workshops

Saturday, October 10 from 9:30am to 11:30am at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, Kitchener

This interesting workshop covering Steadicam products will be presented to you by Carlito Ghioni, film writer and director who has directed one full-length feature film, sixteen documentaries, numerous shorts and one interactive documentary. Born in Italy, Ghioni studied film history at the University of Turin. He came to Canada in 1999 and studied at the Vancouver Film School and at INIS (Institute National de l'Image et du Son) in Montreal. Ghioni has over 10 years experience as a cinematographer, and his documentaries and shorts have been shown at various festivals such as Edmonton Global Vision, Bologna Visione Italiane, Teheran Film Festival, Bombay Film Festival and Monferrato Film Festival,

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday October 10 from 9:30am to 11:30am at the Loft Room at The Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South. Proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign indicating where to go.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Funding Opportunities through the Canada Council for the Arts

Saturday, September 26 from 3:30pm to 5:30pm at the Working Centre, 66 Queen Street South, Kitchener

The Canada Council for the Arts is pleased to invite artists and the staff of professional arts and cultural organizations of all culturally diverse communities to attend an information session organized by The Multicultural Cinema Club.

The session will provide an overview of various funding opportunities available through the Canada Council for the Arts, how to prepare a grant application and how an application is assessed.

The following Canada Council for the Arts staff will be conducting this session: Melisa Kamibayashi (Information Officer, Arts Services) and Sheila James (Coordinator, Equity Office)

Please call Azam Fouk Aladeh to register for the session: 519-743-1151 ext. 146 or by email.

We encourage you to read up on the listed grant programs in advance of the panel so that you may ask the information officer questions that are more specific. Application guidelines and forms are posted on our website at www.canadacouncil.ca.

Basic Lighting

The seminar will cover indoor and outdoor lighting techniques in a news and interview environment. Two Experts in the field, Phil Molto (22 years with CTV, Supervisor, ENG Photographer, Mobile Technician) and Paul Francescutti (37 years with CTV, Producer, director, photographer) will be running the workshop.

Topics include: Camera filters, Gels, Lights, Reflectors, Using the Sun, White Balance

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday September 26th from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Loft room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. Proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign indicating where to go.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

How to apply for a Media Arts Grant from the Ontario Arts Council - Free Information session- July 29 at 6:30 PM

For film & video, audio & sound, and new media artists of all cultural backgrounds. If you want to know:

• whether you are eligible for OAC grants
• how to submit the best possible application
• what happens to your application after it's received at OAC
• how juries are selected

...then please come meet Mark Haslam, OAC Media and Visual Arts Officer. He will answer your questions and lead you through the grant application process step-by-step. The next deadline for Emerging artists will be November 15 so it is a good time for you to start preparing your application.
To be held at 58 Queen Street South, Downtown Kitchener (second floor). Please mark your calender and spread the word!

Find the Heart of Your Writing, Part II - Sunday May 17, 2009

Discover techniques to help you find the core of your work so that you can stay on track for your whole script. This class will be more practical and will assist you in increasing the clarity of your writing. We will spend time analyzing examples of scripts and will work through participant's writing dilemmas as we apply the concept of "finding the heart" to plot, characters and scene development.

A "hands on" class geared for beginners and for those writers who are stuck. Some knowledge of script writing structures is useful but not necessary.

Leading the workshop will be Eliza Crosland, a writer, producer and award winning indie filmmaker who's short narrative works have played in festivals across North America. She has also written for TV. Eliza has a degree in theatre from York University and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA Extension. She continually takes screenwriting classes in pursuit of excellence. She currently sits as co-chair of Ed Video Media Arts Centre.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Sunday, May 17, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. Proceed to the second floor; There will be a sign showing where to follow.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Documentary making - Saturday, May 30, 2009

Paul Francescutti is a producer/director with more than 20 years experience at CTV Southwestern Ontario. Paul's interest lies with Non-Government Organizations and the work being done in developing countries.

In this workshop Paul will take us through his experiences, and learn explore how the idea for his documentary "Remote Access" was formed, developed and executed. We will aslo screen the documentary "Remote Access: Distant Libraries of the World" (25mins.)

Then Paul will be talking about tips and tricks for filming and surviving on the road, showing a video demonstration of: Sound Advice, Types of Shots, White Balancing, Complimentary Composition, Rule of Thirds, Outdoor Lighting, and Creating Depth.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday May 30, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. Proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign showing where to follow.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Video Reporting for Web and TV - April 25, 2009

Philip Bast, former Arts Editor of the Waterloo Region Record, "graduated" from print to video upon retiring in 2006, and since then has continued to celebrate the regional arts community through video reports on theRecord.com and Rogers Daytime. This workshop examines documentary storytelling through video, focusing on the mechanics of working as a "crew of one": handling interview and camera work simultaneously, as well as all editing tasks.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Apr 25, 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 58 Queen St. S. use the side door on Queen St. and proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign showing where to follow.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

The Sony HD EX1 Camera - April 11, 2009

Come and learn what Sony HD EX1 can do and how you can operate it. The EX1 is a HD broadcast quality camera from Sony. Chris Miedell a local producer and camera operator will show you all that this camera can do.

Overview includes: manual focus, auto focus, iris, zoom, zebra, peaking, expand focus, lens info, histogram, ND filter, gain, white balance, picture profile settings overview, and special features: using the media review, stop motion, slow motion, time lapse, wide angle lens (how to change it).

This workshop was held on January 31, from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 58 Queen St. S. (use the side door on Queen St. and proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign showing where to follow.)

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Find the Heart of Your Writing, Part I - Sunday March 29, 2009

Do you get part way through a scene, act or entire screenplay and then get lost? Discover techniques to help you find the core of your work so you can stay on track for your whole script. This class will assist you in bringing more clarity to your writing.

Geared for beginners and for those writers who are stuck. Some knowledge of script writing structures is useful but not necessary.

Leading the workshop will be Eliza Crosland, a writer, producer and award winning indie filmmaker who's short narrative works have played in festivals across North America. She has also written for TV. Eliza has a degree in theatre from York University and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA Extension. She currently sits as co-chair of Ed Video Media Arts Centre.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Sunday March 29, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 58 Queen St. S. (proceed to the second floor from Queen Street entrance, also there will be a sign showing where to follow).

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Using Film for Social Justice and Community Issues - Saturday, March 14, 2009

This workshop explores how people are using multimedia to get their messages out and what kinds of messages are helpful or hurtful as well as using other people's films to engage and educate especially through facilitated discussions.

Trudy Beaulne Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo will be presenting this workshop for you.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Saturday, March 14, from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at Queen Street Commons Café, 43 Queen St. South.

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Editing with Final Cut Pro - February 28, 2009

Grayden Laing will lead you through:

• How to set scratch disks, audio visual settings, user preferences, and sequence settings
• How to retrieve project files after a crash and how to reconnect lost media
• How/when to cut between shots, how to control viewer focus
• How to sync multiple cam shots with a clapper or by using visual and audio cues
• How to make and edit multitrack clips
• How to key out and composite green or blue screen shots
• How to colour correct footage
• How to create unique motion graphics with Motion
• How to create professional text using LiveType
• How to export video files using Compressor
• What video formats to use to export for web and DVD

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Feb. 28, 2009, 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 66 Queen St. S. proceed to the second floor, (a sign showing where to go).

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members

The Canon XH-A1 Camera - February 14, 2009

Come and learn how to produce your own films using the Canon XH-A1.

Andrew Kohl has been producing videos for over 20 years. His experience encompasses various cameras, editing technologies and working with clients and other producers, writers, shooters and animators. His camera of choice over the years was the original Canon XL1, and his experience in guerrilla film style and cinema verity filmmaking with minimalist crews, has led him across Canada and elsewhere.

Please mark your calendar for this workshop on Feb 14, 2009, 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 58 Queen St. S. proceed to the second floor (there will be a sign indicating where to go)

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

The Sony HD EX1 Camera - January 31, 2009

Come and learn what Sony HD EX1 can do and how you can operate it. The EX1 is a HD broadcast quality camera from Sony. Chris Miedell a local producer and camera operator will show you all that this camera can do.

Overview includes: manual focus, auto focus, iris, zoom, zebra, peaking, expand focus, lens info, histogram, ND filter, gain, white balance, picture profile settings overview, and special features: using the media review, stop motion, slow motion, time lapse, wide angle lens (how to change it).

This workshop was held on January 31, from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Wright room in The Working Centre, 58 Queen St. S. (use the side door on Queen St. and proceed to the second floor, also there will be a sign showing where to follow.)

Fees: FREE for members, $5 at the door for non members.

Aboriginal High School Enrichment Program at the University of Waterloo - November 25 and 26, 2008

Aboriginal Services at U of W created an Aboriginal High School Enrichment Program for aboriginal students in Grades 12, which invites students to spend four days living in St. Paul's residence at the University of Waterloo while attending an Applied Health themed conference focused on the medicine wheel teachings of spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health.

MCC was part of this program and offered a hands-on filmmaking workshop to encourage those students to consider filmmaking as career and to use film as a medium to reflect their voice and opinions. Students were and introduced to and worked with basic film equipment.

How to apply for a Media Arts Grant from the Ontario Arts Council, Free Info session - July 24, 2008

This workshop was intended for film and video, audio/sound, and new media artists of all cultural backgrounds who are interested in learning:

• whether you are eligible for OAC grants
• how to submit the best possible application
• what happens to your application after it's received at OAC
• how juries are selected

Please come meet Mark Haslam, OAC Media and Visual Arts Officer. He will answer your questions and lead you through the grant application process step-by-step.

Second Film-making Workshop for Youth - Lutherwood - August 13 to August 17, 2007

This free workshop series held at the Betty Thompson Youth Centre gave young people the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of media production with a local producer. Youth also took part in the production of a documentary.

First Film-making Workshop for Youth - The Working Centre - January 6 to March 17, 2007

This project provided an opportunity for youth to learn about the process of film making, interact with a mentor who has extensive experience directing and producing films, and actually produce a film of their own.
- Click here to read a description of this successful first workshop series.
- Click here to read a script developed by a youth participant.
- Click here to see pictures from this workshop.