A few months ago, the teenagers in our house, plus a friend, began the Film School 4 Teens course. We were all quite impressed. My daughter and to a degree, my youngest son have had some interest in short film making over the past couple of years and after looking into and having some telephone conversation with the Film School 4 Teens company itself, the Intro to Filmmaking – CLASSIC seemed like it might be a really nice starting point. And it has been:).
The way the information is presented is both informal and conversational. There are 4 main sections – Lesson, Assignment, Film Report, Fun Film Facts and The Film Lesson. In both the Film Report and the Film Lesson, Damon Evans, the instructor and a filmmaker himself, has a panel of teenagers with whom he discusses filmmaking and film analysis as well as a group of teenagers in the audience, who can be heard laughing and generally appreciating the conversation from time to time. While Damon generally facilitates the conversation, the panel is very involved, free to express themselves really naturally and each weigh in with their own perspectives, as he weighs in on his own as well. I think that’s one reason it appealed to the everyone here. It doesn’t feel heavy-handed or artificial – it seems to be relatively unscripted conversation (of course there would have to have been some direction and guidelines drafted out) and the panel members each speak really individually and honestly.
What else went over well?
The films. Damon offers a range of films to watch that vary from one another in all kinds of ways from era to theme to technical style. Even the timing and chronology of where each film was placed in the course seems to be ideal. It begins with older films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Wizard of Oz ( one there is even much older than the other!) where the focus of the conversations can be quite focused on the historical and technical aspects of the film and more analytical or emotional topics can be just gently introduced. Getting closer to the end, both the onscreen panels and audience, as well as the “at home” viewers, have maybe built up to examination of and conversation about all kinds of topics, so that in later sections, it seems there is discussion about meatier and more intense films such as The Pursuit of Happiness, The Help and The Blind Side. I don’t know what the organizational process was – this is just my observation. I also notice that genres are broken up a bit so that you aren’t watching heavy theme after heavy theme or action movie after action movie. It feels nicely paced from that perspective as well.
What films are explored?
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Wizard of Oz
Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Signs
October Sky
Life of Pi
The Princess Bride
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Outsiders
Les Miserables (Liam Neeson version)
The Pursuit of Happyness
E.T.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Rudy
Wargames
The Help
The Blind Side
Film of your choice (people here chose Joyful Noise, which was a fun way to wrap up.)
The workbooks. They are really well designed – straightforward, helpful and attractive. For whatever reason, almost everyone here has always liked a good workbook if the content is interesting. I think it’s just nice to work away at something sequentially sometimes and the book lines up in a really clear way with the segments of the course. Elise had explained how user-friendly the books were and how nicely they compliment the segments and I am glad that I took her advice.
Presentation of the technical information. Each day there are new elements to find out about and put into practice. Damon explains them in a clear and engaged way and offers mini projects or ideas to try them out with. Examples of the teen panel’s own technical work, together or as a group is shown, and they analyze it together and try some different approaches and edits. This is interesting stuff around lighting, sound, angles and so many other things that my kids could tell you about and I can’t, lol, because they were more focused than I was on this part and were working directly with the material.
Script and opportunity to produce own short film. Damon offers a script to follow in order for participants to produce their own film, either as a group, or by choosing other people they know. My kids chose to follow the script as a small group, but my daughter also wrote and produced one on her own. There is then an opportunity to submit it to Film School 4 Teens. Ultimately, two people wanted to submit but one felt strongly that it was not up to par and so at this point, it hasn’t been submitted. Again, there is no pressure. This seems to be a course that meets you where you are and offers whatever you’d like to take from it.
From my perspective, there was a great deal of positive. I found it to be an ideal mix of technical information, varied film history and fun facts as well as film analysis (my favourite). I appreciated that the movies weren’t dumbed down. They had meaning, fullness and intensity but were not raunchy, unnecessarily frightening or difficult to watch together. They also demonstrated a variety of technical elements which were interwoven through the course content.
There were some concrete things that I particularly liked …
The customer service was really above and beyond. When I was inquiring to see if it might be a fit for what we’d been talking about, my email was promptly responded to and I was able to have a detailed conversation with Elise, who walked me through the practicalities of using the course and how it would fit with our particular family set up, interests, etc. In addition to having a great working knowledge of the content, she has been a long-time home educating parent so was able to offer individualized, flexible and practical advice.
When my son clicked out of turn on something in the course, it must have directly linked us for Tech support and she called right then (literally as we were starting our movie) to check in.
It is adaptable to any or every learning situation. We were able to really dive into the content and skills, each person in their own way, because that’s what works for us. However, it could be accounted for more concretely if someone was looking for specific marks and evaluation. Also, it would be a great introductory course for anyone interested. It is not so time consuming (took about 4 -5 hours a week here, factoring in watching the movie and beginning work on the short film – more at the end when working more on the film) that it couldn’t be used by kids that go to school. It would make a great Saturday event each week. Essentially, this could be a good fit and very adaptable for many, whether they are homeschooling, unschooling or in school. It is certainly geared more toward teens than adults, but as you can see, I listened in much more than I’d intended because the technical, analytical and Fun Film Facts all interested me.
It has been a springboard to watching movies in a different way – recognizing certain uses of light, sound and atmosphere, noticing stories and character growth. There are obviously certain limitations to offering material to the masses. I appreciate that Damon would likely have had certain limitations in choosing movies for a variety of reasons. Knowing our own individual thresholds for violence specific to people in our own family, and understanding where everyone is at as far as critical thinking in managing different viewpoints, we’re able to take this introduction and expand it to all kinds of films.
The films were easy for us to access from either Netflix, (someone could also use Amazon Prime, etc) or DVD format from the library. We had a couple of them on hand but chose to watch them again in the context of the course even though they were familiar (let’s just say that Wizard of Oz may have had a peak year for viewing in 2007 when my youngest son was four and essentially had it memorized). One of us had seen The Pursuit of Happyness and The Help and we’d all seen Les Miserables in a few versions, including stage, but we all watched with fresh eyes. There were no obscure films that were hard to find.
It was good value for money. It was really good value for our money. $300 USD (minus workbooks) for four people, considering the amount of information, thought, planning, movie selection and customer service was really worth it to me. They also have deals and structures for families or co-ops.
Things to note:
I found this course to be well- labelled. It truly is an introductory course. It’s a gentle and preliminary look at the world of film production. If you’re looking for something deeper and more serious, Film School 4 Teens also offers Advanced Filmmaking and FS4T Crew, which I understand is an ongoing film community with several perks. Two people at our house are potentially interested in those things although not right at this moment.
It comes from a Christian worldview, which worked well for us, but my own thought is that it is usable by almost anyone. The Christian acknowledgment and references are certainly there – it is not hidden in any way- but it is also not pushed and all 18 movies are mainstream movies. Signs is likely the one with the most overtly Christian message but can be discussed from so many angles.
The workbook is likely to make everything more straightforward. Buy it if you can – it’s simple, attractive and full of fun facts.
Film School 4 Teens has been a really worthwhile addition to our time and has opened a more critical and curious way of understanding both the art and technology of film.
These are all just my own thoughts and observations though …
For a more official view, see for yourself. Head to their website here.
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Hi Liz, yes, definitely keep tucking the ideas away because the time seems to arrive before you know it! Thanks for you comment.
This sounds really good. I’ve seen it mentioned a few places now and I’m just wondering what your thoughts are on including an 11 year old? I guess my question is from the standpoint of both the complexity of the instruction as well as the films. It would be great to find something that my 11 year old could be involved in with her older sister. Thanks!
Hi Allie,
I think, like anything, it depends so much on the 11 year old but my gut reaction is to say that yes, if it’s something of interest to her, it could be really good! I think that if she’s engaged in the information, she would be able to get quite a lot out of it. As far as the technical part of producing the short film, she could be part of things in whatever way makes sense but I’d bet she’d be able to be pretty involved. In regard to the films themselves, the nice thing is that you can do some pretty quick research and give some thought to each one ahead of time because the list is all laid out – there are no surprise films thrown your way. And of course, you can expand on the information with whatever movies you all like.
Just my two cents though … I would really recommend connecting with Film School 4 Teens directly for specific details.Thanks Allie!