Category: Film & Video

Summer Screenwriting Brings Great Characters To Life

Are you a creative writer, playwright, and/or storyteller between the ages of 11 and 18? The Summer Screenwriting Workshop, June 24-28, 2019, can help you create and develop amazing characters, translate stories and dialogue into tv and movie ready scripts, and give you tools to transfer your ideas and plotlines to the written page.

George Mason University Professor Amanda Kraus leads this exciting program, in collaboration with Mason’s Film & Video Studies Program. Located on the Mason Fairfax campus in Fairfax, VA (in the Washington, DC Metro area), the workshop uses the university classrooms in the Art & Design Building.

With the underlying theme that good stories come from great characters, the topic of character development is one that is heavily emphasized, discussed and explored.

“Your child can look forward to a fun structured camp where they learn the fundamentals of good story telling,” stated Professor Kraus.

Students reading at summer Screenwriting camp

“I love working with the students and seeing their ideas come to life throughout the workshop,” said Ms. Kraus. “One of my favorite parts is on the last day, when they do the performed table reads of their scripts, and also the a-ha moment when they realize how to break down the structure of a story.”

Summer Screenwriting Workshop 2019 Flier

Another fun feature of the program is that selected final scripts will have a chance to be used in the following Filmmaking Workshops, where the stories and characters will come to life on the screen in several edited versions.

“Good stories come from great characters and great characters come from living your best life,” proclaimed Professor Kraus. “What inspires you? Write about it!”

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Film & Video Music

Filmscoring Camp Takes Young Music Composers To The Movies

Mason alum and Hollywood composer Vincent Oppido returns to Fairfax from Los Angeles for another extraordinary Art of Filmscoring summer camp, June 24-28, 2019. More advanced music composition students ages 13-18 are invited to go to the movies!

Vincent Oppido is a rising talent in Hollywood. His music has been performed and recorded in Europe and Japan, and across the United States from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood scoring stages of Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Studios. He returns to Mason’s School of Music on the Mason Fairfax campus in Fairfax, VA (in the Washington, DC Metro area), where years ago he studied composition and conducting with Professors Mark Camphouse and Anthony Maiello (pictured below with Mr. Oppido at Mason in 2013).

Vincent Oppido and Anthony Maiello

Mr. Oppido’s recent scoring credits include the indie films Alien Code (Archstone/Sony Home Pictures – starring Kyle Gallner and Richard Schiff), Watch the Sky (Breaking Glass Pictures – starring Renee O’Connor), and the upcoming CollegeHumor series Troopers. Other writing credits include original music for Sinclair Oil‘s 2017 commercial advertisements and musical source arrangements for projects such as It Happened In LA (Sundance Selected) and the upcoming Paramount Pictures film What Men Want. He has also composed additional music for projects including Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween and TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything: Reanimated History. Also an orchestrator, Oppido has worked on projects such as Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2, Cobra Kai, and NBC’s Timeless. His first job in Hollywood, as a music proofreader, enabled him to work on dozens of motion pictures and television shows including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Frozen,Family Guy and The 2013 Oscars.

Listen to examples of works by Vincent Oppido:

The Art of Filmscoring workshop gives students an inside look into today’s film and TV industry and provides some direction as they consider next steps for higher education and/or a professional career. They will learn specific compositional skills to be a unique composer in today’s media and technology-driven age.

“We will take a look at some recent projects I worked on, including the upcoming College Humor series Troopers, the video game Fortnite, and the TV series Adam Ruins Everything,” said Mr. Oppido.

Filmscoring Workshop Flier 2019

“Watching student’s compositional growth in just a few days of study at the camp is wonderful to witness,” shared Mr. Oppido. “One of my favorite moments is at the end of the week when the students share the scenes they rescored.”

If you love creating music and are considering a career in composing music for film, television and other media, then you will have a great time at the Art of Filmscoring!

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Acting Film & Video

Summer Screenwriting Camp Builds Characters

For Mason Film & Video Studies Professor Amanda Kraus, it’s all about building character – or better said, “characters” – when writing a good script, as she will demonstrate in this summer’s Screenwriting Workshop, which focuses on creative writing techniques for movies and television.

The workshop dates are July 9-13, and it is open to kids and teens ages 11-18. Due to the large age range, students will be divided into teams accordingly. Character development, plot and dialogue will be explored as students try their hand at writing their own scripts.

“Your child will learn that great stories come from great characters,” explained Ms. Kraus. “We will focus on how to develop these characters that ultimately audiences will love and care about and become invested in. In the end, they will learn how to be a better writer!”

Summer screenwriting workshop for kids

Some fun elements of the program include the “Getting to Know Your Character” exercise, group brainstorming sessions, and the opportunity for creatively minded students to collaborate/ write together.

At the end of the week, the students will present staged readings of their scripts to parents, families and friends. “The reading of the scripts on the last day is one of my favorite moments, as both a teacher and a scriptwriter,” said Ms. Kraus.

To add an extra bit of excitement, through a voting process, a few of the scripts will have a chance to be produced and filmed in the following Filmmaking Workshops! Although it is not required, many Screenwriting students will also register for the two-week film workshop to have a complete summer experience.

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Film & Video

New Summer Film Camp Focuses On Documentary Storytelling

Mason Film & Video Studies Professor Sam Meddis, formerly a deputy managing editor and video team lead at USA TODAY, will direct the new “Making Of A Documentary” summer workshop for teens, where students will produce fact-based films depicting the stories of real places and people around them.

In contrast to our popular Summer Filmmaking Workshops, which tend to explore fictional storytelling and characters, the two-week Documentary workshop, June 18-29, will blend filmmaking, journalism and principles of photography to provide students with an immersive experience which will help them see with new eyes and greater empathy things in the real world that are often unobserved or taken for granted, and to tell that story. Working as filmmaking teams, students will learn how to better collaborate and communicate with their peers, and produce their own short documentary film.

Film and video summer camp

In addition to producing short documentaries, students will also watch, and learn how to interpret, some of the world’s top documentaries. They will study in a collaborative environment designed to help produce a lifelong appreciation of documentary films.

“We live in an increasingly visual society,” explained Mr. Meddis. “This course will help equip students to more fully participate in it by learning the fundamentals of visual storytelling and communication. Students will experience the personal satisfaction that comes from expressing themselves creatively.They will begin to acquire skills that they can apply to a wide range of fields in in their education, future careers and beyond. Most important, they will realize that filmmaking is great fun!”

In previous roles at USA TODAY, Sam Meddis helped oversee news coverage and operations of usatoday.com, coordinated training programs for print and online editorial staff, and supervised the editorial technology group. He is a founding member both of usatoday.com and USA TODAY the newspaper. At Mason, Mr. Meddis was awarded a GMU Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award in 2018 and a GMU Teacher of Distinction commendation in 2017 for his work in the Film & Video Studies program.

“My favorite part of the workshop is the final day,” said Mr. Meddis, who produced the video above, “when students’ films are presented in the class for family and friends, and we all get to applaud their fine work.”

Although not required as a prerequisite, students who have previously taken our Filmmaking Workshops are highly encouraged to attend. Spaces are limited for this program – sign up now!

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Film & Video Music

Film Composer Brings Hollywood To Mason This Summer

Hollywood film and TV composer and Mason alum Vincent Oppido (whose orchestration credits include Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2) returns to Mason this summer to present “The Art of Filmscoring” to musically advanced high school students, where they will explore the techniques and software used in composing music for a motion picture!

This exciting new summer workshop, June 25-29, will include studying scores and sketches of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and others, rescoring select scenes from motion pictures, 2 or 3 SKYPE sessions with industry professionals (composer assistant turned composer, orchestrator, music copyist), a review of college programs that are devoted to Film Scoring, and discussions about work opportunities in Los Angeles for young/emerging composers after college.

Mr. Oppido has scored numerous films, some of which have screened at film festivals around the world, including Charlie Joe’s Hotel Motel (Hollywood Film Festival and Madrid International Film Festival – nominated for Best Short Film), Cineastes (Greek Film Festival), and Lovely Day (Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival), Panofsky’s Complaint (winner of Best Score in ‘Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood’). During the summer of 2012, he participated in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis (It), which culminated with the recording of his music on the legendary 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage. Also during that summer, Oppido provided additional orchestrations and music preparation for the Tom Hanks-starring film, Cloud Atlas. He has also orchestrated on film and TV shows such as Agents of Shield, Black Sails, Timeless, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 and Under the Silver Lake. In addition to composing and conducting, Oppido worked as a music copyist and proofreader in Los Angeles, CA, working on such projects as Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, The Book Thief, both the 2013 and 2014 Academy Awards, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

“The best part for me is experiencing a young composer’s musical growth throughout the workshop,” explained Mr. Oppido, who used to teach Music Composition classes for teens at Mason Community Arts Academy (formerly Potomac Arts Academy) several years ago while completing his own studies at Mason.

Highlights of the program for young composers and film enthusiasts include:

Discovery of new musical ideas
Insight into the many facets of the film scoring industry (composer, orchestrator, music copyist, assistant, intern, etc)
The opportunity to rescore a scene and receive feedback
Exposure to classical repertoire and film scores perhaps not known by a young composer
An opportunity to dissect how your favorite composers have scored your favorite films

If you are a high school student with strong musical experience/ background – especially those who have taken our Music Composition Explorations Workshop before – and a love for movies, this program is for you! Get a taste of Hollywood this summer at “The Art of Filmscoring”.

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