Grand Cinema’s youth film camp will be online only this year because of COVID-19
As summer programs for youth have been heavily cut back due to COVID-19, aspiring filmmakers in Tacoma can still look ahead to The Grand Cinema’s film camp.
It will just require doing all the learning from home.
The camp will take place virtually Aug. 3–14 on the weekdays only. Interested parties will need to fill out the proper form before spots fill up.
For the first time, there is no cost to participate due to funding from the Tacoma Creates program.
That means students between the ages of 10-16 who live in Tacoma can participate in the camp for free.
The plan is to cap the number of households at 25 so the proper time and focus can be given to each student.
Wade Neal, assistant executive director at The Grand, spoke to the importance of having the camp go on.
“With the pandemic I think we are all trying to search for ways to gather. We’re really powerful proponents of the value of having a community gather together to see films,” Neal said. “That likewise goes to film education. We’ve had film camp every year for many years. We have had such a good result with kids feeling really empowered and getting to feel like they’re good filmmakers, learning some basic skills for storytelling. Really allowing kids to feel like they can tell their stories.”
The Grand Cinema, a nonprofit theater, shut down in March and has remained closed, which required coming up with new solutions to get the film camp off the ground.
“We wanted to do anything we could to give parents in our community an opportunity for their kids to continue the film camps,” Neal said. “With the help of Tacoma Creates, we were able to get some funding together, even though we are shut down, to hire Jamika Scott who is going to be running the film camps, and we’re organizing mentors to help with kids when they’re learning online.”
Scott, a local filmmaker, was involved with the camp last year as a production assistant and is hoping to provide a positive experience.
“It gives them some type of creative outlet to either work on a skill they already have, build a new skill that they’ve been interested in but haven’t had a way to get started on that path,” Scott said. “Even for those people who never thought they were interested in film, being like, ‘Oh, this is a cool opportunity to try it.’”
That opportunity will walk students through some of the nuts and bolts of making their own film.
“Sometimes films do take a lot of big equipment, and it helps make it really cool and shiny,” Scott said. “But you can also do some really cool stuff with your cell phone. And you can do some really cool stuff in a short amount of time. You don’t have to make a feature length film to make something that is powerful, funny, or whatever emotion you’re trying to convey to your audience.”
The focus will be on crafting those emotion filled stories from start to finish.
“We’re going to be teaching a lot of the same skills so they’re going to get storytelling as a primary part of it, character building, scripting,” Neal said. “Writing is the really the basis for film making.”
Editing will also be taught on the phone via the free app InShot that the camp is recommending people download.
Internet accessibility will be required to participate.
Creating access was a complicated question the team had to think about if students didn’t have the necessary internet capability.
“It is tricky. We don’t have a plan for that, and it’s not because we haven’t considered it, it’s just because we’re not quite sure how to make that happen,” Neal said.
The camp is committed to upholding values of diversity and equity.
“Diversity and equity are really important to us, so we really encourage students and families from all backgrounds to sign up,” Neal said. “We are also working on having a really diverse mentor staff, too.”
Each participant will work on a film which will be posted on The Grand Cinema’s YouTube channel.
Amelia Morris, 14, will be attending her first year at Stadium High School in the fall.
Last year, she went to the camp for the first time and produced the film “Anger Management,” about a serial killer who has a hard time managing his temper.
“One part of the camp that I liked a lot was how much the campers got to do. Our counselors were encouraged to step back and let us come up with pretty much the whole idea on our own, besides adding suggestions or reminding us of things here and there,” Morris said. “When we showed our families our film, we truly felt like it was ours because we had poured all of our brain power and energy into making it for five days.”
This year, she plans to attend the camp but laments the loss of the in-person experience.
“I’m sad that we probably won’t be able to split into groups and shoot a film of our own, but I’m very eager to learn more about how a film is created,” Morris said.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 9:06 AM.
