2017 Panels, Workshops, Master Classes

Panels & Workshops & Master Classes

Learn about state-of-the-art of filmmaking by attending one of the Festival’s panel discussions led by several noteworthy film professionals, or this year’s workshop and master class (see “Renaissance Man” for more info on Filmmaker-in-Residence Josh Seftel’s “A Singular Voice in the Changing Film Landscape” on Monday, July 31). These sessions are educational and provide an insider’s perspective and the opportunity to interact one-on-one with working filmmakers.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Science and Storytelling • Sponsored by ScreenCraft
Sunday, July 30, 2:00 PM, Woods Hole Community Hall

People who become scientists often credit films such as The Andromeda Strain or documentary television series such as Carl Sagan’s Cosmos with inspiring their careers. In turn, some scientists feel the need to communicate science to a wider audience by becoming filmmakers themselves. With the rapid changes in technology enabling more scientific inquiry, accurately conveying information about scientific discoveries to the public is more important than ever. Star Trek Beyond writer Doug Jung, Heroes executive producer and writer Nora Kay Foster, Filmmaker-in-Residence and former Nova ScienceNow producer Josh Seftel, The Mars Generation director Michael Barnett, and several scientists from the Woods Hole Scientific Institution discuss how scientists and filmmakers work together to tell better stories and accurately depict science in this discussion moderated by ScreenCraft’s Emily Dell.

NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams will also be a featured guest at the panel followed by her participation in the Q&A after the screening of The Mars Generation (see “Kids Day” article for more information), in which she appears, at Kids Day on Sunday, July 30. The Needham, Massachusetts native and retired U.S. Navy Captain is a veteran of two International Space Station missions and has spent 322 days in space. She is currently assigned to the cadre of astronauts training to fly the initial test flights for America’s first commercially built spacecraft.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Survival Strategies for Independent Filmmakers • Sponsored by Women in Film & Video/New England
Monday, July 31, 3:00 PM, Woods Hole Community Hall

Despite industry-wide recognition of the need to provide more opportunities for women in the film business, women made up just 7% of all directors of the top 250 films in 2016, a 2% decline from 2015. What can female filmmakers do to beat the odds?

Five directors, each of whose films is playing in this year’s Woods Hole Film Festival, will discuss how they negotiated the industry’s barriers to entry—often by wearing multiple hats, including screenwriting, producing, acting, and whatever else it takes—to make it in an industry that historically has not fostered the creation of works by women. Panelists includes: Raiders of the Lost Ark actress and Berkshires resident Karen Allen, who’s presenting her short drama A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud., her directorial debut based on a short story by Carson McCullers that was filmed in the Berkshires; Boston director, producer, screenwriter, and actress Elika Portnoy, who is screening her short narrative The 6th Amendment, which imagines the jury deliberations during the Boston Marathon bomber trial; Erika Frankel, director of the documentary King Georges, about famed Philadelphia restaurant chef Georges Perrier of Le Bec Fin; and Vermont native Catherine Eaton, whose narrative feature The Sounding was shot on Monhegan Island in Maine and Long Island (see “Magnificent Obsessions” for more description).

WORKSHOP: Storyboarding for Film
Wednesday, August 2, 10:30 AM, Woods Hole Community Hall

Storyboards provide a means of quickly communicating intent and vision to a crew whether the medium is animation or live action and formatted for film, TV, commercials, or games. Since the first storyboards were created at Disney Studios in the 1930’s, storyboarding has gained acceptance as a means of envisioning a director’s concept for a narrative film. Simple drawings are often the best for communicating ideas, and even a stick figure can provide actor and camera positions, as well as location information.

Animator and Kendall College Professor Brad Yarhouse returns for the second year in a row with this workshop that offers quick tips and practical ways to save time and money, as well as effective methods for communicating your visions through storyboards. Topics include: Translating Your Vision Into Panels; Differences Between Boards for Different Mediums; and Tips and Tricks for Drawing Panels.

No prior drawing experience is necessary although there will be a considerable amount of drawing to do during the class. Pencils, paper and other resource materials are provided, but you are encouraged to bring your own scripts or ideas.

PANEL DISCUSSION: The Next Storytelling Frontier: Accessing New Realities with Emerging Technology
Friday, August 4, 3:00 PM, Woods Hole Community Hall

Documentary filmmakers have often been at the forefront of innovation with regard to form and content. MIT Open Documentary Lab Director Sarah Wolozin moderates a panel that explores ways nonfiction storytellers work across platforms and with virtual, mixed, and augmented reality technologies in order to tell stories about science that reveal new realities and reach new audiences. Harvard University Visualization Research and Teaching Laboratory’s Rus Gant, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Bill Lange, and Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Danish Installation Artist based in New York, who was part of the team behind the virtual reality film Tree, which mysteriously transforms the viewer into a rainforest tree, will join Wolozin in this discussion about science storytelling in today’s changing media landscape.