News

New Film Faculty Rock the MMW Roster

The 2011 summer workshops season is ramping up and we look forward to welcoming back veteran faculty and introducing new instructors to Maine students. This season, story consultant Fernanda Rossi, cinematographer Francis Kenny, ASC, and producer Maureen Ryan are among the award-winning filmmakers to join the faculty roster.

Internationally renowned story consultant Rossi, who leads a new class The Art of the Trailer Sep 25 – Oct 1, has doctored over 300 films, including Academy Award® nominees The Garden and Recycled Life, as well as hundreds of trailers. Fernanda has presented at HotDocs and SilverDOCS, and the author of Trailer Mechanics: A Guide to Making your Documentary Fundraising Demo.

Ryan is co-producer of James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire, about Philippe Petit, the wirewalker who stunned the world when he walked between the World Trade Center towers in 1974, which won won the 2009 Academy Award® for Best Documentary. Her latest film titled Project NIM won Best Director World Cinema Documentary at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Maureen teaches Producing the Short Film July 3 - 9 in Maine.

Francis Kenny, ASC returns to Maine’s faculty, having taught cinematography at UCLA and AFI. His director of photography credits include the feature films Heathers, New Jack City, Bean, A Night at the Roxbury, and Scary Movie, as well as the documentary He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin, which won the Academy Award® for best documentary full length film. Currently, he is the DP for the FX dramatic show Justified. He leads the Advanced Digital Cinematography workshops June 26 - July 2.

Special Invitation to May Events & Open House

Along with flowers blooming in May, Maine Media Workshops and College events are in full bloom and promise a fabulous spring fling for Maine alumni and friends!

The Maine Media College Alumni Show opens May 3 and runs through May 31st at the Camden Public Library. The opening reception is May 19th from 6:30 – 8 pm. Thirteen college alumni present a show with great diversity and very different visions. The show, directed by Brenton Hamilton, is the first of a tradition, a community collaboration, which we hope to sustain for generations to come.

"Connections," also opening May 3, runs through May 20 at the Maine Media Gallery in Rockport Village. The opening reception is May 10 from 6:30 – 8 pm. This exhibition is the collaborative effort of four photographers with very diverse backgrounds who met in David H. Wells’s MMW class. David comments, “Photographers tend to work as individuals. The surrender of this autonomy led to a body of work with sharply defined individual visions and greatly enhanced personal connections.”

Rounding out Maine Media’s May exhibition season is the Maine Media College Graduation. MMC’s Professional Certificate filmmaking and photography students present their work May 26. View the screening of the students’ final films at Union Hall Theatre (2 Central Street) in Rockport from 5 – 6:30 pm. Then, take a short walk up the hill to the Maine Media Gallery (18 Central Street) for the photography students' exhibition from 6:30 – 8 pm.

Sunday, June 12, please join us on the Maine Media 70 Camden Street campus between 11 am – 2 pm for the Annual Open House. Bring your loved ones for free family portraits!

 

 

Yarka Scholarship Winner Announced

MMW is pleased to announce Shaminder Dulai as winner of the 2011 Yarka Vendrinska Memorial Photojournalism Scholarship.

Through the generous donation of Mark and Tanya Bohr, who established the Yarka Vendrinska Photojournalism Memorial Fund named for their daughter in 2003, the annual scholarship is awarded to an emerging photojournalist who demonstrates financial need to continue their career, and who wishes to attend a photojournalism workshops at Maine Media, a place Yarka loved. 

A passionate artist, Yarka was drawn to photograph people often ignored by society: the homeless, the aged and the ill. She found great humanity in her subjects, and attempted to convey this through her imagery. She passed away on July 23, 2002, at the age of 32, but her work continues to be presented on her web site, Yarka.net. 

California photographer Dulai is "humbled and ecstatic" by the award, and plans to attend Ron Haviv's VII Master Class in October. "I would like to thank Yarka's family and the committee which awarded me this scholarship," he writes. "With this honor, it's possible for this nomadic storyteller to continue working on his craft and share Yarka's vision of the power of images to bring positive change to the world."

"Yarka Vendrinska: Heart of Concern," an exhibition showcasing Yarka's work and images from past winners of the scholarship, opens at Maine Media Gallery June 1.

"Connections" Opens at Maine Media Gallery

What do a travel writer, a Vice President of Marketing, a psychotherapist and a science teacher have in common? David H. Wells answers in one word, ”Photography!” 

Barbara Groom, Mary Alice Kolodner, Cindy A. Stephens and Nancy Weber present Connections, their upcoming exhibition at the Maine Media Gallery. The show runs May 3 – 20 with the Opening Reception on Tuesday, May 10 from 6:30 – 8 pm.

Connections presents the work of four photographers in a four-year collaborative photo journey mentored by Maine Media instructor, David H. Wells. "Photographers tend to work as individuals in pursuit of private goals. The surrender of this autonomy not only challenged the individual photographers, but also led to a body of work whose individual visions became sharply defined and the personal connections undeniably enriched," states Wells.

He continues, “The collaborative process has been fascinating to watch. Each person’s work reflects aspects of their personality and is uniquely their own. Yet, each person’s work is strongly shaped by the work, support and personality of group as a whole.”

Please visit the show to see this unique connection for yourself! And then, allow David H. Wells to enrich your photography in his Maine Media Workshop class, Street Photography.

Opalenik and MMW Alumna Help Others See the Light

Elizabeth Opalenik, Maine Media instructor begins, “My favorite quote from this experience came from a patient who said, ‘I’m rich, I’m rich! Yesterday I only heard your voice and today I can see your face.’”

Elizabeth, with her MMW alumna student, Rita Villanueva, joined a team of eye doctors, nurses and volunteers to serve people in poor areas of Boca Chica, an island of 8,000 people, 45 minutes by boat from Cartagena, Columbia. In their two weeks of work, the team saw over 5,000 patients, completed 250 eye surgeries and delivered 3,950 pairs of eyeglasses.

“It was a wonderful experience to be involved with so many dedicated volunteers, but what impressed me the most was the generosity of spirit and trust that the patients bestowed upon us. Vision to a photographer is so important. My intent in doing this project was to create a body of work that the organization could use for fund raising. In the end, I was reminded about the beauty of connections made during workshops and through photography and how those connections can serve you throughout your entire career.”

Seize the moment with Elizabeth Opalenik July 31 thru August 6 as she leads The Romantic Image workshop. Create stunning portraits, sensual figure images and discover new ways of conveying intention through your visual voice.

ALEXA Joins Genesis in Maine June 12

Filmmakers know, ARRI’s ALEXA is everywhere: on film shoots from The Bourne Ultimatum to Quantum of Solace, and on TV episodic sound stages like Lie to Me, In Plain Sight, and Law and Order UK.

In June ALEXA debuts in Maine, joining Panavision's Genesis, as featured cameras in our Film & Digital Camera Assistant workshop.

A compact, lightweight and affordable digital camera, ALEXA redefines the limits of motion picture capture with ultra-fast workflows and image quality akin to 35mm film.

Students in the one-week class work directly with ARRI and Panavision training representatives to learn the industry’s finest digital and film cameras from every angle.

"In this transitional period between film and digital production, training with both media formats is essential to a well-informed and trained camera crew," says veteran workshop instructor, Doug Hart. "This workshop has always enjoyed great support from Arriflex and Panavision, continuing this year with the presence of their top-of-the-line digital cameras for our students to work with, as well as their top 35mm Film Cameras."

The Film & Digital Camera Assistant workshop is at the core of Maine Media’a spring Cinematography Residency Program: the 12-week sequence starts with Basic Lighting & Grip and 16mm Film Production, includes Steadicam and 3D Cinematography training, and wraps with Russell Carpenter’s Director of Photography Master Class.

Maine Media College Brings Artistic Diversity to Camden’s Library

Maine Media College joins with Camden Library to present the Maine Media College Alumni Show. This exhibition of college students’ work opens May 3 and runs through May 31 with an opening reception on May 19 from 6:30 – 8:00 pm.

Brenton Hamilton, Photography Professional Certificate (PC) Program Chair explains, “This show, curated by Maine Media College, celebrates our students whose work runs the range from documentary to landscape, city space to abstraction. Viewers will find the work very diverse, with very different visions represented.”

Thirteen graduates will exhibit their work in the library’s Jane Picker Room. Alumni from Camden, Hope, Rockland, South Freeport, as well as California, Colorado, New York City, Chicago and Texas represent the dynamism present among the college’s program and students.

Maine Media’s President, Charles Altschul, notes, “We are one of only 36 colleges in Maine and people are often not aware of the work our college students produce. We are happy to participate with the Camden Library in this exhibition and to showcase the work our students produce.”

Hamilton stays in touch with his students and follows their career progress. He concludes, “The PC program, completed in 30 weeks, is an immersion in a rare atmosphere of deep study. Creative work is born in an atmosphere of experiment, support and practice. And that’s pure vitality, purely Maine Media College.”

It's A Horn's World

Maine Media instructor Brad Horn has been busy. From co-producing critically acclaimed multimedia stories such as ‘Losing Ground – caring for a family member with Alzheimer’s’ for AARP to being an educator at Maine Media to recently tackling the timely and socially relevant issues of immigration and migration in ‘The Price of Immigration’ and ‘Stay: Migration and Poverty in Rural Mexico’, Horn’s interests and talent knows no bounds.

His work aired nationally on such outlets as NPR, MediaStorm and AARP Bulletin. He is a partner in Luceo Images, a photographer owned and operated cooperative established with the goal of supporting the significant work of its members. He has served as an executive producer for several collaborative multimedia projects for the Veterans Listening Project, which was done in conjunction with the oral history project, StoryCorps. Horn holds a Master’s in Multimedia Storytelling degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University where he helped teach several video and audio courses, including a class in radio storytelling that he helped develop.

Horn, who claims to be “Just another American dude. No more. No less,” will be on campus the week of May 29 to teach the Introduction to Audio Storytelling workshop – a first in a sequence of audio storytelling workshops and which directly precedes Advanced Audio Storytelling.

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