The seventh annual T Tauri Film Festival and Movie Camp will take place in Batesville, Arkansas from July 18 to July 30. The celebration of youth filmmaking includes a national young filmmaker competition judged by area high school students in the Lyon College Upward Bound APPLE project. Over 150 entries by filmmakers age 18 and under from 15 states were received last year. T Tauri also includes several days of public screenings of competition “Official Selections,” that feature the best youth-produced films in the country.
The T Tauri Movie Camp consists of two weeks of filmmaking workshops for students in grades 3 through 12. Workshops take place on the campus of the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville (UACCB) and at the historic Landers Theater building in downtown Batesville and range from two to four days in length. All of the work created in the workshops will be screened at the T Tauri Film Festival Finale Screening on Saturday evening, July 30, at UACCB. The workshop registration deadline is July 10; some workshops reach capacity early so we advise registering before May 31.
Script to Screen is a 3 ½ day workshop open to students entering grades 6 through 12. The workshop covers the basics of narrative filmmaking including script writing and storyboarding, production planning, acting, shooting, sound recording, and editing. Students work in small groups to complete short films. The workshop meets from Wednesday, July 27, to Saturday, July 30, on the campus of UACCB. Cost is $100 which includes all equipment and supplies. Students are encouraged to bring their own cameras.
Poetry in Motion, for beginners entering grades 3 through 8 meet for three half-days. Students will make short films built around poems. They will select (or write) poems, then decide what moving images, sound, and music best communicate the meaning and feeling of the written words. The workshop meets from Monday, July 18, to Wednesday, July 20, at the Landers Theater building. Students may attend either the morning session from 9:00 am to noon or the afternoon session from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Cost is $40, which includes all equipment and supplies.
Claymation is a type of stop-motion animation that uses clay figures as the primary characters. Students entering grades 4 through 10 will sculpt moveable clay figures using a wire skeleton covered with moldable clay. They will also write dialogue for their clay creatures, create scene props and backgrounds, and add narration, music, and credits. This new workshop meets Monday, July 25, and Tuesday, July 26, on the campus of UACCB. Cost is $75, which includes all equipment and supplies.
Acting on Camera is a new workshop for students with a passion for acting. The workshop helps young actors translate their stage acting skills into the basic building blocks to become adept at acting for the camera. Through reading and performing scenes from existing scripts, students will learn how to interact with fellow actors while maintaining a relationship with the camera. A final ensemble scene showcasing all workshop participants will be screened at the T Tauri Finale. The workshop meets at the Landers Theater building Tuesday, July 19 through Thursday, July 21. It is open to students entering grades 6 through 12. Cost is $100 which includes all equipment and supplies.
Flow with the Pro: Final Cut Pro Editing Workflow is a new workshop that focuses on the CORRECT way to use Final Cut Pro editing software. While it includes instruction in the software’s basic user interface and core operations, it is more concerned with how a film editing project is planned and organized. The workshop will save novice Final Cut pro users hours, if not days, by demonstrating the proper sequencing of steps and cataloging of video footage, sound clips, still photos, and other elements in a video production. The workshop is open to students entering grade 8 through age 21. It meets Wednesday July 20 through Friday July 22 at the Landers Theater building. Cost is $150.
All workshop participants receive an official T Tauri Film Festival t-shirt, admission to the Finale Screening, and a DVD of the work produced in the workshops. Students provide their own brown bag lunches and beverages. A wrap party will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 30, on the UACCB campus, with burgers, hot dogs, beverages, and other treats. Time will be announced. Family members are invited to attend.
Workshop faculty members are experienced filmmaker/educators. Full workshop descriptions, faculty biographies, registration forms, and parental risk and consent forms are available at www.ttauri.org. Cancellations received on or before June 20 will qualify for a refund, minus a $10 cancellation fee. Refunds cannot be issued for cancellations received after June 20.
The T Tauri Movie Camp is non-residential. However, Comfort Suites, the official hotel of the
T Tauri Film Festival, is offering a special festival rate of $76.49 for rooms booked by July 1, subject to availability. Comfort Suites is within two miles of both workshop venues and equipped with an indoor pool, hot tub, and exercise room and provides a continental breakfast buffet included in the room fee. All Comfort Suite rooms have convertible sofa beds, so the rooms accommodate at least two children and one adult. Call 870-698-1900 and ask for the T Tauri Film Festival rate.
The T Tauri Film Festival and Movie Camp is the youth division of Ozark Foothills FilmFest, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation, founded in 2001. Sponsors include First Community Bank, UACCB, Fellowship Bible Church of Batesville, Batesville High School, the Arkansas Arts Council, Canon U.S.A., The Field Shop (Little Rock), the Independence County Recreation Fund, and Daylight Donuts.
