This two-week program is designed for high school students between the ages of 14 and 18.
The successes of many young actors today started with learning the craft in their high school years. This two-week workshop is for high school student actors and filmmakers who want to learn how to act on camera in video and film projects. The course is an overview of acting techniques a young film actor needs in order to work effectively and professionally. Daily practice in film acting happens through exercises, scenes, and monologues. Students work on film sets with high school filmmakers producing dramatic and comedy scenes. They learn what goes into a film shoot: the master, medium, and close-up shots; camera-blocking, what it means to 'hit the mark,' moment-to-moment acting, techniques for character development, scene breakdown, emotional and physical continuity, and how to play to the camera. The class learns all the roles on a set and the importance of recorded sound and voice. Students should bring monologues and scenes they would like to work on. By the end of the two weeks, these young actors have a sense of confidence, poise, and comfort working in front of the camera and have developed their personal acting style. They leave with a DVD of their performances in a number of scenes. The class also goes hiking, swimming, and explores the Maine landscape, attends film screenings and observes what adult classes are engaged in on campus.
About the Young Artists Program
Young Artists’ days are comprised of both classroom and field/location work: lectures and critique, demonstrations, shooting, editing, writing, computer workflow and/or darkroom work, depending on the workshop. All instructors are talented industry professionals as well as experienced educators, and each works with a teaching assistant, providing additional support for their class. The students are busy all day and into the mid-evening hours, attending presentations from visiting master faculty. All Young Artists reside at a nearby residence (a motel-style building, with four students to a room, gender specific, and private bath) located 3/4 of a mile from campus. The property is controlled by Maine Media Workshops and is used exclusively by students and their counselors. Students are shuttled to the main campus each morning for breakfast and to begin their day, and are driven back at the end of the each day, following their last class or other scheduled activity. All meals are taken together. Parents can indicate any special dietary needs upon registration. Counselors supervise the students 24 hours a day, and help make group decisions about weekend activities like swimming, bowling, and hiking. Coin laundry facilities are available on campus. A lobster dinner is served (there are other choices) on the last Friday night of each workshop, and all Workshops students gather for an evening presentation of highlights from the week’s work. Parents are welcome to attend and meal tickets may be purchased in the Registration Office.
We recommend students have access to $150 over the two-week period for incidentals, snacks, movies, field trips etc.
Check-in is on Sunday, between 3 and 6 and departure is on Saturday morning.
Tuition Note: includes room and board
Sally is a true lover of art and film. She has formal training as a filmmaker from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, USA and as a producer from Lund University, Lund, Sweden. She began her career as an actress, including roles in the series Cracker and small parts in Spiderman, 21, ER, JAG and Clueless. She was trained in theatre with a concentration in Shakespeare at the British American Dramatic Academy in England. In 2011, Sally's first feature documentary Design Revolution premiered at the Boston International Film Festival and her short fine art film Partie won Boost's Greenhouse Grant. Prior to that, Sally produced and directed the award-winning historical drama Eaton's Water for the Altadena Foothills Conservancy. Her feature film producing debut was Meta starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad). Additional credits include: the PBS-NOVA/NHK-Japan television special Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor for the Lone Wolf Documentary Group. Sally has received both the Maine Arts Commission Film Fellowship and the Kodak Film Grant two years in a row. She was selected as a Jeuens Talents filmmaker by the French government. She is also film faculty at the Maine Media Workshops. Current project's include: Hyperion Pictures feature "Crawl"; Domenica Scorsese's film "New England"; and Kandis Erickson and Cameron Fay's "Summer Solstice." Sally is co-owner of the production company, Film Trolley. At present, Sally resides in Sweden