Vassar College
Summer Filmmaking Workshop
June 14 - July 31, 2007
» Download Application (PDF)
The Vassar Summer Film Workshop offers excellent instruction in both filmmaking and screenwriting. The program encourages students to develop their original ideas into script form suitable for production and provides them with the filmmaking techniques and equipment necessary for the transformation of these scripts into successful films. In the filmmaking classes, students will create several fictional or documentary exercises and then produce a final project, which may be either a fictional narrative or a documentary. In the screenwriting sessions, students will create a short script for their final project, as well as work on development of a feature-length screenplay.
While producing their short films, students will have access to the excellent facilities and equipment in the new Center for Drama and Film at Vassar. Included is a wide variety of traditional 16mm equipment, such as Bolex and Kraznogorsk 16mm. cameras, Marantz and Nagra recorders, and Moviola and Steenbeck editing machines. In addition, the center provides the latest in digital filmmaking tools, including a variety of Panasonic DV and Sony DVCAM video cameras and numerous G5 digital editing stations equipped with Final Cut Pro and other types of post-production software.
For current or prospective Vassar film majors, the Summer Workshop offers a unique opportunity to develop rapidly as writers and filmmakers through an intensive seven-week experience. They should, however, consult their advisors about the relationship between the workshop and regular winter courses, as well as JYA. For Vassar students who do not plan to major in film, and those from other colleges and universities, the Summer Workshop provides a unique opportunity to study filmmaking and screenwriting under the tutelage of two gifted Vassar professors. Upon successful completion of the program, all students will receive 2 units of Vassar College credit, equivalent to approximately 7 credit hours at most other institutions.
The Faculty
Kenneth M. Robinson, Professor of drama and film at Vassar, will teach
the 16 mm production course. Professor Robinson came to the college from
the University of Southern California, where he taught for a number of
years in the USC School of Cinema Television. He has directed, edited,
recorded/mixed sound, or produced over 80 16-mm/ 35-mm professional films.
His specialty is editing, and he served as co-editor on the 1984 Prince
film, Purple Rain. At Vassar, Mr. Robinson teaches courses in all aspects
of film and video production.
Teaching screenwriting will be James Steerman. Currently a professor of drama and film at Vassar, Mr. Steerman holds MFA and DFA degrees from
the Yale School of Drama, and has also studied film in Paris and London. He has had wide experience as a narrative and documentary filmmaker, playwright and
screenwriter. His stage plays have won national contests and several have been produced in New York. He is currently working on a screenplay dealing with the
crews who manned the huge sailing ships that carried cargo around Cape Horn to Australia as late as the 1930s. During the regular academic year, Mr. Steerman
teaches playwriting, screenwriting, and film history and theory.
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