Buckner is an awe­some film teacher. Actually, I loved the whole camp.
Diego Rodriguez (Filmmaking Major 2011)
Age 15 from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

Philosophy

Filmmaking at TAP Camp is a very hands-​on expe­ri­ence. Students spend most of their time with Buckner Cooke, who guides them through the process, tech­niques and enjoy­ment of cre­at­ing films from scratch. He teaches them the tech­niques nec­es­sary to cre­ate solid mate­r­ial and gives them the free­dom to be cre­ative and inno­v­a­tive. Campers also take work­shops in screen­writ­ing, film direct­ing, cast­ing and more. Additionally, they are given the oppor­tu­nity to take non-​major classes in voice, dance, act­ing and tech­ni­cal theatre.

Curriculum

Students exam­ine cur­rent trends in the indus­try and explore their per­sonal cre­ative process as they learn film pro­duc­tion from con­cept to prod­uct. In a very hands-​on approach, turn your con­cept into a screen­play and your screen­play into a film. Filmmakers are given the tools and sup­port to cre­ate films of their choos­ing based on the theme for the final show­case. Each stu­dent pro­poses a film con­cept for approval on the sec­ond day of camp. The first week is spent writ­ing the screen­plays and engag­ing in film train­ing classes. Week two, film­mak­ing majors are assigned a job on each film and each direc­tor is given a cast (campers from other majors). Each film major plays a dif­fer­ent role on the mul­ti­ple films cre­ated, with the oppor­tu­ni­ties to write, direct, assis­tant direct, pro­duce, mix, boom, gaffe, and edit. The third week is for edit­ing and all films are screened on the final day of camp.

Course Descriptions

Production Equipment

A com­pre­hen­sive intro­duc­tion to basic film pro­duc­tion tech­niques and equip­ment. Proper pro­ce­dures are explained for the use of cam­eras, lenses, lights, micro­phones, mix­ers, and edit­ing equipment.

Directing

Introduction to the crafts of act­ing and direct­ing for the film medium; with empha­sis on the visu­al­iza­tion of the screen play, the junc­tion of the actor in inter­pret­ing the script, and the role of the direc­tor in han­dling actors in the pro­duc­tion of a film.

Screenwriting

Turn your con­cept into a screen­play by explor­ing plot, char­ac­ter, scenes and dia­logue. Emphasis is on char­ac­ter devel­op­ment as well as shap­ing and refin­ing the story. Learn the basics of screen­writ­ing as you develop your own work.

Cinematic Techniques

Addresses the basic prob­lems of design­ing and direct­ing scenes for motion pic­tures. Some of the prob­lems dis­cussed are the rela­tion­ship of film to real­ity, con­ti­nu­ity, shot selec­tion, cov­er­age, cut selec­tion and visu­al­iza­tion techniques.

Editing

We offer hands on expe­ri­ence in the cre­ative and mechan­i­cal aspects of edit­ing for both sound and pic­ture. Students will have com­plete access to the tools nec­es­sary to pro­fes­sion­ally edit their films on Apple G5 com­put­ers and the Final Cut Pro edit­ing soft­ware. This is the same soft­ware used on award win­ning films such as True Grit, No Country For Old Men, (500) Days Of Summer and this year’s Academy Award win­ner for best edit­ing: The Social Network.

The Motion Picture Grip

In this hands-​on course, stu­dents will learn basic grip skills and oper­ate equip­ment and tools used on loca­tion and the motion pic­ture stage.

Lighting

Examines the tools and tech­niques of light­ing. Classroom time includes lec­ture but is pri­mar­ily devoted to hands-​on light­ing and shoot­ing exercises.

Sound

This is an his­tor­i­cal, tech­ni­cal and aes­thetic overview that cov­ers micro­phones, loca­tion sound record­ing prob­lems, micro­phone types and place­ment, trans­fer, ADR, Foley, sound effects, sound edit­ing and mixing.

The History of Film

History of the devel­op­ment of motion pic­tures, with exam­ples, from their begin­nings to the present day. Emphasis is placed on the American fea­ture film. In addi­tion to lec­tures on film his­tory, fic­tion films from the silent era to the mod­ern day will be screened and discussed.

Specials

Guest artists may be brought in for spe­cial top­ics such as Stage Combat, Resume Creation, Make-​Up, Film Acting, Film Producing, Film Casting, etc.

Practicum

Once the films have been writ­ten, the Filmmaking Majors spend their time on loca­tion film­ing each movie, and then they go into the edit­ing room to cre­ate the fin­ished products.

SHOWCASE

Not only do film majors get the oppor­tu­nity to per­form live on stage with their fel­low musi­cal the­ater and act­ing campers, they also have their own pre­sen­ta­tion of films as the final event before every­one goes home. All of the orig­i­nal films pro­duced through­out the camp will be pre­miered in the main the­ater in front of campers, staff, and parents.

Don't forget to check out...

• Suggest Packing List 2014
• Placement Audition Information
• FAQ_​2014

Bindlestiffs wins the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at Slamdance Festival 2012. We are so proud of for­mer TAP Campers Andrew Edison (Co-​creator/​director) and Katie McDowell (Director of Cinematography) for their awe­some success!