Have you ever wanted your students to learn how to make a short movie? Our expert facilitators custom-design workshops in any area of filmmaking, for on-site video production programs that challenge students technically and creatively.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS DIGITAL FILMMAKING PROGRAM
Sights and Sounds is an award-winning digital filmmaking program for elementary and secondary school students, as well as for interested community groups. We custom design fun, engaging, and educational video production programs that stimulate students at any level of filmmaking experience. Whether your interest is issue-based PSAs and documentaries, short dramatic pieces, or video-poem and multimedia formats, our respectful and experienced instructors and youth mentors offer challenging and exciting programs. Our video production programs stimulate critical thinking, provide a means for youth to express their creative visions, and allow them tell their stories in meaningful ways
No equipment is ever required—we bring our mobile media lab with us wherever we go. This lab includes digital video camera kits and accessories, sound and lighting equipment, and editing stations on iMac computers. The cost of each program is dependent on the number of instructors required for the size of your group, the amount of equipment needed for your project, and the location of your school.
For a sample schedule of a typical Sights and Sounds program, click here. Or, to see sample videos, check out our YouTube channel.
FUNDING
Artstarts in Schools Grants
Artstarts in Schools Grants are available to schools wishing to take part in video production programming with Pacific Cinematheque. Schools and communities are encouraged to contact the “Education Department” (link to contact page) to discuss exciting program options and gain any support they need in applying for funding. Applications are due at beginnings of June and October every year. In each program, students are guided in the production of creative and unique work, learning to think critically and contribute meaningful and responsible media to the world around them. A Mobile Media Lab including cameras, sound recording equipment, and editing stations are all included; teachers need only to decide on a subject and scope for their video, and to work with Pacific Cinematheque to design a program schedule and timeline.
VSB Artist in Residence Grants
Pacific Cinémathèque’s Education Department workshops are also available to Vancouver schools through VSB Artist in Residence Grants whose application deadline occurs every November. Artist facilitators provide either mini video production intensives or media literacy programs, using hands-on artistic activities designed to support critical thinking and media arts skills.
Students produce creative and unique work, learning to think critically and contribute meaningful and responsible media to the world around them. A Mobile Media Lab including cameras, sound recording equipment, and editing stations are all included; teachers need only to decide on a subject for their video, schedule (full-day or half-days), and technical focus for the residency.
VSB Artist-in-Residence grants may also be used to partially fund longer residencies in which students can complete short videos or intensive media literacy units.
MEDIA PRODUCTION SPECIAL PROGRAMS
After School Film Programs
Pacific Cinémathèque can create an After School Film Program at your school or community centre! A small group of dedicated secondary school students will work semi-independently in a production team to create short digital videos, producing high-caliber student films for submission to local and national youth film festivals. Mentored meetings, workshops, and an extensive production process give youth the experience of producing an independent short, with continual support from a highly experienced video instructor. Students are provided with an opportunity to take their video production experience to an advanced level, and further their skills in all stages of the production process. Work will be critiqued and youth encouraged to achieve their greatest potential, producing high-quality digital productions that everyone can be proud of.
For more information about this program, or to participate, please contact us by phone at 604-688-8202 or by email.
Trek
Pacific Cinémathèque partners with the Prince of Wales Trek Outdoor Education Program to mentor youth through the creation of environmentally-themed videos. After four months of adventure, challenge, and sustainability education, these videos serve as the final project for the term. Youth from each program group begin with media literacy workshops, and then spend a full week producing high-quality videos and public service announcements.
For more information about this program, or to participate, please contact us by phone at 604-688-8202 or by email.
National Media Education Week
National Media Education Week, now going into its fourth year, is a week-long series of workshops, events, and film screenings dedicated to media literacy studies. Our upcoming session will run from November 2 – 6 2009, and will focus on global citizenship in the digital age.
Events will include a 5 night symposium for young video producers, a workshop for Social Justice 12 students and teachers, and a public, and an all-ages screening of Rip: A Remix Manifesto.
To get involved with the program, email us or call 604.688.8202
Face BC
Face BC is a collaborative project of Pacific Cinémathèque, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Portrait Gallery of Canada, and the Multiculturalism program of Citizenship and Immigration Canada that presents a mosaic of British Columbia’s diversity and depth. It has brought together youth from across the province in creating digital video portraits of themselves, their families, their friends, and their communities. Running over four terms in 2008 and 2009, the Pacific Cinémathèque Education Department team traveled to rural and urban areas across the province to facilitate digital filmmaking workshops in which participants told their own stories as video portraits.
The works made as part of Face BC will be showcased at the National Portrait Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, as well as on the big screen at the Pacific Cinémathèque theatre and in various film festivals. The project will culminate as a digital educational resource featuring a behind the scenes documentary, a photo gallery, and a study guide pdf.
For more information about this program, or to request a free FaceBC Study Guide DVD, please contact us by phone at 604-688-8202 or by email.
Open i
From the spring of 2005 to the spring of 2007, in a cooperative initiative of Pacific Cinémathèque and the Pacific/Yukon Studio of the National Film Board, five crews of youth and younger adults with disabilities participated in open i video production programs. Five videos were created along with a 22-minute documentary of the project.
A gala world premiere screening took place at the Pacific Cinémathèque (PCP) in April 2007, followed by a forum on media and disability at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Filmmaker Bonnie Sherr-Klein and NFB producer Tracey Friesen were among the panelists, and the event was moderated by disabilities advocate Al Etmanski.
Pacific Cinémathèque has now launched a Digital Study Guide for educators wishing to explore issues of media and disability as touched upon in this project. It includes a behind-the-scenes documentary, the youth videos and workshop information. Five-hundred copies of the package are available free of charge by contacting us by email or phone.
Massive Change
In the fall of 2004, Pacific Cinémathèque and the Vancouver Art Gallery presented a series of Sights and Sounds digital filmmaking programs with five Lower Mainland elementary and secondary schools, as well as a weekend program at the VAG for youth ages 14 – 19. An exploration of the exhibition Massive Change: The Future of Global Design was followed by a video production program during which participating kids and youth created short pieces based on the central question of the exhibit — “Now that we can do anything, what will we do?” The videos addressed themes ranging from ideas for sustainable consumption to civic engagement of youth to students’ ideas for improving our educational system. Although the filmmaking component of the program is complete, the videos are now being used in discussions of educational programming in BC.
This program was made possible through the generous support of VanCity, the Vancouver Foundation, and the Greater Vancouver Regional District.
