Hello DVuser forum,
I teach writing and movie making to kids ranging in age from 5th grade up to high school using a method called Tabletop Moviemaking. It involves building paper diorama worlds and using paper characters. It borrows heavily from paper theater which was really popular in Europe in the 1700 and 1800s. In fact, Salvador Dali and Orson Welles were two of the more famous users. So the historical method has some serious creative street cred.
I work primarily in Los Angeles and in the past year have helped students make over 200 of these short movies. I think it is a wonderful introduction to the movie making process because students are at the center of decision making from writing, to building, to shooting, to editing. Plus it is fast and simple which allows the students to see the results of their work.
I wanted to share my work with this community for a couple reasons:
I was an artist is residence for the LA Opera this past year and worked with high schoolers to adapt themes from Wagner's Ring Cycle to 13 short Tabletop movies. Click Here
I work the talent agency CAA and Young Storytellers Foundation to help 5th graders write a script, and then professional actors perform their script while the 5th grader directs the shoot.
Click Here
regards
Brick Maier
I teach writing and movie making to kids ranging in age from 5th grade up to high school using a method called Tabletop Moviemaking. It involves building paper diorama worlds and using paper characters. It borrows heavily from paper theater which was really popular in Europe in the 1700 and 1800s. In fact, Salvador Dali and Orson Welles were two of the more famous users. So the historical method has some serious creative street cred.
I work primarily in Los Angeles and in the past year have helped students make over 200 of these short movies. I think it is a wonderful introduction to the movie making process because students are at the center of decision making from writing, to building, to shooting, to editing. Plus it is fast and simple which allows the students to see the results of their work.
I wanted to share my work with this community for a couple reasons:
- Share something new and cool the centers on using a video camera to tell a story.
- Get thoughts and reactions from professionals who work in the industry
- See if any new ideas or suggestions for sharing the method with other groups (film festivals, art festivals, museums...)
- Finally, I would love to send out a training kit to interested DVusers who would like to "BETA test" the kit. The idea tester would have kids that are 9 - 14 years that would like to make some Tabletop movies. I am trying to build out the online support section of my site and I think the best way to do that is get feedback from people who have made some movies with my kit.
I was an artist is residence for the LA Opera this past year and worked with high schoolers to adapt themes from Wagner's Ring Cycle to 13 short Tabletop movies. Click Here
I work the talent agency CAA and Young Storytellers Foundation to help 5th graders write a script, and then professional actors perform their script while the 5th grader directs the shoot.
Click Here
regards
Brick Maier
