The Video Production Workshop jointly organized by İFTYD and FG is approaching its end. Participants received theoretical and practical education from documentary filmmakers Tahsin İşbilen, Zuhal Çetin Özkan and Hande Zerkin in May and June. They then broke into groups, and using the workshop equipment, they’ve been busy shooting short films since the beginning of June. Next week, they’ll be handing over their productions to the workshop coordinators. While we’re waiting with great anticipation, we thought we’d share some moments from the workshop to give you an idea how they went.
Zuhal Özkan Çetin: "Let’s say you want to make a documentary film about the Foça Castle. If you want, you could talk to an archaeologist and tell the history of the castle. You could also follow a child chasing a ball that rolled into the castle by accident and then film the instant when the kid encounters the world inside. The important thing is, “What story do you want to tell?” That will decide how you tell it.”
Tahsin İşbilen: "You might not always be able to shoot a documentary exactly as you planned it in your script. But if you’re clear about what you want to shoot and why you want to shoot it, you can always shoot a substitute scene in place of what you had planned.”
Hande Zerkin: "When you’re editing, you need to be clear about what images you want to use and where, what audio you want to use with what video. Your editor should have a clear storyline to follow, and you need to keep all your material well organized.”
Here are a few images taken by our workshop participants while they were shooting their films:
The Video Production Workshop is being held as part of the “3-Festival Cultural Exchange in the Southeast Mediterranean” project jointly organized by Foça Film Days, AegeanDocs and Cyprus AEI Film Festival. Films produced in the Foça workshop will premiere at all three festivals together with amateur films produced in similar workshops with local residents being conducted by our partners. What’s more, an international jury will vote on their favorites, and the winning films will take part in an international on-line awards ceremony in November.
