Young film makers: Met Film School by Director Tom Kembery
Words: Too Kembery
As part of Young Film Maker session, I felt it was our duty to scale London and find the best possible courses that young (or old... i don't judge) film makers can attend to kick start their career in the film industry. Whether you're looking to be the next Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino, Studio Club has got you covered. So let's get to it! ACTION!
My first stop was one of the World's Number One film schools. With schools based around the world you can bet your ass that as soon as you type "Film" into Google, they stare right back at you, point blank in your big round face, ready to give you the training you need to become one of the best! It's only MET FILM SCHOOL.
There are loads of courses available at Met Film School, however as I'm a pretty busy and important person, I could only give up a weekend to attend a course, which is great if you're in full-time employment and fancy a career change. The course I was due to attend was the "Intensive Film Making Course", which lasts 2 days and sounded pretty intense! And it was. The course covers the full works when it comes to film making: from directing, camera operating, learning how to boss people around as an AD and sound… Not only was I about to learn all about these positions, but I was going to learn how to actually make a film from start to finish, which was great because at the end of the course, I would have made a film from start to finish!
Arriving for my first day for a 9am start, it was straight into the class room and down to business. Firstly, we were introduced to our teachers for the weekend, all with great experience, I could feel we were in good hands. Our class was headed by a german Director by the name of Dan who was a lot younger than I expected. Maybe I was expecting an old time film maker, maybe a bearded man who smokes a pipe and was going to tell me loads of exciting tales…..But no. As I sat and listened to what was going on, I couldn't help but notice the different types of people that attended the course. In the class of 40, we pretty much had every type of person you could imagine; from an 18 year old who was thinking about studying film, to a 31 year old ex-lawyer who has decide to leave his job to pursue filming making, a part of me really wished I could follow all these people to see where they end up. Maybe some of them will get back in touch one day. The rest of the morning was taken up by an introduction to different shots that can be done when making a film, followed by a introduction into the equipment that we would be using to make them.
With no time to waste, scripts were placed into our hands and we were off to shoot some footage for our afternoon session, where we would be editing it. The class was broken down into groups and we had about an hour to break down our script with the help of our teachers, before our actors arrived.
Take a breath…….Oh intense. Even though the morning was fast-paced, it was pretty easy to keep up with what was happening, and as you're working in groups, I found that everyone helped everyone to get the shots we needed. Like any course, you'll always find you get the weaker group members taking a back seat and then it starts to the show who wants to take control and get things done! Of course, you know which role I took up #PRO. The footage we shot was then upload onto an army of Mac computers for us to edit following lunch.
At Met Film School, you get 40mins for lunch, which is just about enough time for a smoke, and to stuff your face with a homemade panini. I was pretty unhappy as I didn't get time to get a piece of the homemade flapjack that was cooling on the shelf. The food there is actually really good for an independent canteen, but there is also loads to choose from from nearby restaurants.
Over to the afternoon and it was editing time! For the next 5 hours, we would be slicing, dicing and adding sounds to our footage to make it looking amazing! As a total beginner to Final Cut Pro, I felt this section was almost too intense and I found my brain fried with information. I don't know about you, but when I have too much Information Overload my brain shuts down and I totally forget what I was meant to be doing. Very frusrating indeed.
At the end of the day, we were then briefed on Day 2, where we were given a full script for a full day shooting. Wooooooo!
Based on Day 1's format, we were split into groups again and each given a section of the script to shoot. So we grabbed our gear, met our actors and off we went. Surprisingly, when you're just chucked into the deep end like that, you just automatically do what you have learned and go for it. I found a couple of people in my group pretty annoying though……Let's just call it "creative differences"…. but we got there in the end. Again, in the afternoon we edited our footage in pairs (Thank God as I had totally given up on the editing after yesterday).Finally, the course was finished off with a screening of all the films made by the group, which were fantastic. It was great to see what different people had come up with using the same script.
Overall, I felt this course was really fantastic and would recommend anyone who was thinking about getting into film to attend it. The 2 day course really does give you a good insight into all the aspects of film making. And from this point, you can decide what you want to do, or even take up a follow-up course at the College.
Sound speed! Boom
Written by Director: Tom Kembery
