Searching for ways to spice up your lesson plan and add excitement to your classroom? Digistars makes it easy for parents or teachers to add movie making to the school curriculum!
31Aug2020
“I have a way of filming things and staging them and designing sets. There were times when I thought I should change my approach, but in fact, this is what I like to do. It’s sort of like my handwriting as a movie director. And somewhere along the way, I think I’ve made the decision: I’m going to write in my own handwriting.” – Wes Anderson
In honor of Wes Anderson’s second feature length animated film and cinematic masterpiece ‘Isle of Dogs,’ we at Digistars Make-A-Movie Workshop would love to share some formal techniques and hallmarks of Wes Anderson’s Films that make them so amazing! His work is easily distinguished by its aesthetic, particularly his use of framing, color, and music.
Wes Anderson’s Staging and Framing Techniques
First, he often uses planimetric staging and symmetrical framing. Planimetric staging is when the camera is placed 90 degrees perpendicular, or at a right angel, to the subject. Symmetry is the balance of similar forms on both sides of the frame, in other words, it is when one side of the frame nearly mirrors the other side. Here is a video from cinema essayist Kogonada that shows symmetrical framing as well planimetric staging in Wes Anderson’s films.
Wes Anderson’s Use of Color
Secondly, Wes Anderson’s use of color is highly developed. One of the first things I learned in art school that I find to be true is that many novice artists use bright colors, which is certainly not the case for Wes Anderson. You can see from the following video that his pallet is wide ranging, but his frame is often comprised of tints, shades, and tones of various hues arranged in color blocks of complementary, complementary and analogues, and warm and cool color combinations.
Wes Anderson’s Use of Music
Lastly, to choose the music in his films Wes Anderson works with his music supervisor Randall Poster. They search for music that conveys the emotion of a scene and that they want to bring to a film’s audience. The hardest part of that process is having to get the rights from the artists and publishers to use the music. In his earlier films such as Rushmore and Bottle Rocket he used music from popular culture such as Elliot Smith, Nico, and David Bowie, but in his more recent films he has used mostly scores by Alexandre Desplat. You can listen to almost all the songs (approximately 196) ever used in Wes Anderson’s films here: Music In Wes Anderson’s Movies
Kids can start learning to animate like Wes Anderson does in our claymation program! Attend a summer camp or suggest bringing Digistars Workshop into your school, and maybe one day you will be working on your own animations, or perhaps even helping make a Wes Anderson movie!
‘Isle of Dogs’ is in theaters now: Go see it and prepare to be awed by how beautiful and life-like animation can be when it’s done at 24 frames per second and at such high level of precision. Try to identify where the elements discussed here appear in the film, and notice how they add to the viewing experience. Then incorporate them into your own movie productions!
Have a great week!
C Diamond
Program Director
Digistars Make-A-Movie Workshop
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018, brings a rare screening of the award winning environmental documentary ‘To The Ends of The Earth,’ followed by a a panel discussion by workers in the solar and wind industries from 6pm to 8pm at the Ecotech Institute in Aurora and sponsored by Food and Water Watch.
This inspiring film explores the economic and environmental issues associated with fossil fuel development and highlights the energy transition that is starting and possible right now.
Documentary films can be valuable vehicles for communicating a message and sharing knowledge. Digistars recently worked with eighth graders at KIPP Sunshine Peak in Denver, CO, on their documentary film submissions for the National History Day competition.
This free film screening is sure to offer a lot information about this emerging issue that affects all of us. It’s free but you must RSVP to attend!
March 1, 2018 – Carbondale, Colo. – HOW WE GROW won Best of the Fest Award at the World Premiere at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival (CEFF), February 22 – 24, 2018. With only five awards given out at this festival, the HOW WE GROW team is thrilled to have won the top honor.
“Our team is so incredibly honored to have received the Best of the Fest award at CEFF,” says Haley Thompson, CO-Director/Editor of HOW WE GROW. “Our stars – the farmers who work hard everyday to grow healthy food for our communities – shined so bright in the film. And their message was well received by an audience who’s ready to help make change in the world.”
“We are currently submitting our film to other major festivals around the country,” says Tomas Zuccareno, CO-Director of HOW WE GROW. “This is such a great honor and we are thrilled this important message about supporting young farmers, is starting to make an impact.”
HOW WE GROW is a feature length documentary film about ambitious young farmers building community around locally grown food in the Roaring Fork Valley of Western Colorado.
After two years of documenting how young farmers create resilient communities through regenerative agriculture, the HOW WE GROW team is thrilled to unveil this inspirational story to a community that cares deeply about being stewards of the land.
With the average age of a farmer in the U.S. being 58-years-old and approaching retirement, it is essential for the next generation of farmers to have community systems that support them. Support for young farmers ensures resilient communities for generations to come.
Healthy soil depends on many organisms working together. A healthy community needs the same. This film looks at the characters and systems of farming through the themes of education, legislation, community, food access and micro-finance – in order to tell the story of how these farmers are able to create resilient food systems.
Filmmakers, Tomas Zuccareno and Haley Thompson, intend for this story, all shot within 15-miles of Carbondale, Colo. to act as an inspiration for any town or city in the U.S. working to create resilient communities through regenerative agriculture and join the local food revolution.
“The local food movement is happening all over the country, but the Roaring Fork Valley is unique considering its rich history in agriculture and the growing number of beginning farmers determined to feed their community,” says Haley Thompson, CO-Director and Editor of HOW WE GROW. “You cannot help but feel hopeful when watching people intentionally care for the land they way that they do.”
STARS OF THE FILM INCLUDE:
Harper Kaufman and Christian La Bar – Two Roots Farm
Casey Piscura and Kirsten Keenan – Wild Mountain Seeds
Erin Cuseo and Jimmy Dula – Erin’s Acres
Woody Tasch – Founder and chairman of Slow Money Institute, a nonprofit that has facilitated the flow of more than $40 million to over 400 local, organic food enterprises.
Diane Mitsch Bush – Former Colorado State Representative, who’s legislation has played a huge role in helping these farmers get access to land.
REDFORD CENTER GRANT + KICKSTARTER
In November of 2016, HOW WE GROW was awarded a Redford Center Grant. In collaboration with the world’s top documentarians at the Redford Center in Sundance, Utah – the HOW WE GROW team created a short film, a vignette of the micro-finance chapter, from that grant. (Please see link at the top of the release).
This short debuted at 5Point Film Festival in April 2017 during their Changemaker Program.
In September 2017, the HOW WE GROW film asked their community to support a Kickstarter campaign to help finish the film. With $24,000 raised in one month, the team was able to finish their film for submission to festivals.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS:
Tomas was raised on a small family farm in New Hampshire and grew up with a deep respect for the land. He has a B.A. in Photojournalism from Prescott College where he was awarded for his powerful storytelling style. He has travelled the world – working for organizations like The National Geographic Society, Condé Nast and Forbes. He has been a part of the Marketing team at Aspen Snowmass for 23 years and a Staff Photographer for ESPN Images for 17 years. A desire to tell the story of the community that has been his family for more than two decades inspired him to make HOW WE GROW.
Haley was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. With a BFA in Film and Writing from Emerson College, she has built a career around her love of storytelling through film. From documentaries and independent/foreign films to comedies of all genres, Haley has 12 years of experience as a trailer editor and producer in film advertising, having worked for some of the top agencies in LA and NYC. The energy around the local food movement of the Roaring Fork Valley inspired her to move back home and make HOW WE GROW.
FIND How We Grow ONLINE AND ON SOCIAL:
Website: https://howwegrowmovi
26Feb2018
We don’t typically think of Uganda as a hotbed of filmmaking, but at least 700 Ugandan features and short films have played at festivals in the past five years, according to Ruth Kibuuka, content development manager at the Uganda Communications Commission. And these films are enabling Ugandans to tell their stories and share their history like never before. Learn more about the Ugandan film industry here.
Actors on the set of ’Kony: Order from Above’ Photographer: Alex Ireta/Atongam
Hollywood has h
istorically had trouble lighting people of color in the movies, which makes the achievements of the recently released Black Panther movie all that more impressive.
Get the behind-the-scenes story of lighting and makeup in Black Panther here.
Have you ever thought about how fonts and typography are used to enhance film posters and promotions? Michael Janicki explains how customized fonts reflect the tone of a movie.
Visual storytelling has different demands than a story told on a printed page. The movies and shows we watch in theaters, on television, or online are thoughtfully crafted to transport us into their reality and believe that we are there with the characters. When we watch a series of episodes in a show, the producers can use a type of shorthand to remind of us what sort of world we might be entering in the opening credits.
The opening credit sequence of a show can set the mood, establish the location, introduce the actors, and even preview the storyline; or it could be as simple as a single word on a black screen that sends shivers down the spine of the viewer. In this modern age of countless viewing options, the opening credit sequence plays an important role of capturing watchers away from other distractions.
While early television shows used the opening sequence to pay homage to sponsors, a good opening can become iconic. The original opening sequence for Game of Thrones, for example, took 3 months and 35 people to create. Read more about the fascinating history of the opening credit sequence in Katie Ingram’s recent article for The Week magazine.
While we haven’t yet started filming series of shows with our 8-year old filmmakers, Digistars programs encourage participants to create title screens and end credits as part of their complete moviemaking experience.
Titles and credits are just one part of the moviemaking process that we cover in all of our programs for elementary- and middle-schoolers.
Register for a Digistars program today to introduce the wonder, fun, and skills of digital storytelling to your favorite child!