Guided by a seasoned filmmaker, develop your non-fiction project and examine the craft of storytelling.

There are no available registration dates at this time.

 

ACT QUICKLY!!!  Just ONE Seat remains.

NOTE: This class will be held in a live online format using the Zoom Platform
Class meets Tuesdays (see dates below) 11am-1pm ET + individual sessions

In this age, we are fortunate to have more accessible technological tools to make documentary films. But actually creating alchemy, using the craft of storytelling to draw on the best inside us and in front of us, is always a challenging effort for anyone – all the more so when any serious craft takes decades to learn, absorb, and practice.  

Many of us have a tendency to look outside of ourselves for filmmaking answers, without deeply learning and using the tools of the storytelling craft to fully harness the strengths within us and in front of us (our organizations/ teams and the people we film) for making compelling, resonant, and effective work that is, at once, authentic and organic, as well as strategic.

The online Seeking Alchemy residency is an opportunity to strategically engage the craft of storytelling over two months, on your schedule, in kinship with others, and with the help of this seasoned national filmmaker and mentor, who will work with you on projects of your own choosing through extensive one-on-one time (online, phone, written) and group gatherings. The projects may be of any length or at any stage of development, independent or commissioned.

A deeply experienced mentor, Dana Rae Warren centers all of her classes on using the craft to help you with who you are, what you bring to your pieces, and what you need/want.

This online residency offers: 

  1.  A professionally-supported immersion in the creative process and the craft of storytelling – using it for strategic problem solving, while aiming for alchemy – a quality of experience that helps catapult you beyond the exceedingly real and common challenges of our daily solo efforts 
  2. An ongoing safe external space for your distinctive internal journey
  3. Synergistic camaraderie with other folks on a path of storytelling growth and discovery

Group Gatherings – A minimum of four two-hour group meetings over two months:  Tuesdays, May 10 & 24, June 14 & 28, 11am-1pm ET.  Additional group meeting times are available, to be scheduled at the request of students.

Our group time will be a case-study-based immersion in the craft and tools of storytelling as they apply to you, your work, and your goals. At your pace, you are invited to share anything that helps the gathering get to know you including, but not limited to, past and present efforts.

One-On-One Time – Extensive time, on your schedule, reviewing and writing notes on your work, and/or discussing online or by phone. 

The emphasis is not only helping you with specific projects, but to help grow YOUR craft to support whatever you are working on, so that the craft tools taught can be practiced, absorbed, understood, through all that you are doing in this time period (and in the lead-up to the Residency, through an introductory call).

You will leave the residency with a new understanding of the richness and depth of the craft of storytelling.

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Instructor: Dana Rae Warren

Dana Rae Warren is a filmmaker, teacher, and consultant with 25 years in the national television documentary and independent film worlds. She enjoys and has developed particular expertise shaping stories in the edit room. Her work includes: Producer Writer on the Peabody Award-winning and twice Emmy-nominated Turner Broadcasting series Moon Shot; Producer Writer Director on multiple episodes for the PBS NOVA Science Now series, including profiles on MacArthur Awardee Edith Widder and National Medal of Science Awardee Lonnie Thompson, as well as on animal intelligence and on the link between exploring space and the deep sea; ongoing award-winning public service such as the tobacco-free campaign, Quit For Your Kids; and Great Expectations, an education series, which aired on The Sundance Channel, won an Emmy and was invited to present at Austin’s SXSW Education Conference.

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