In this two weekend, hands-on workshop, participants will work one on one with acclaimed Winnipeg filmmaker Deco Dawson, delving into the creative possibilities Final Cut Pro affords the user in working with difficult, messed up or “blah” footage.
Deco will spend the first day working with the entire group of participants, exploring some trouble spots such as “unwanted relfections,” working on incorporating archival footage into a cut, running through a host of FCP plugins for creative fixes, dealing with stabilizing footage, animating footage and titles, creating mattes and garbage mattes, and finally examining some aesthetic choices in reworking an edit.
Having been introduced to a multitude of options, participants are encouraged to go back home and try to incorporate some of these tricks into their own project before returning the following week for a one on one, 2 hour private session with Deco and their project. During this session participants are free to ask Deco anything about their edit, and together they can work through the problematic areas and essentially fix them, or concentrate specifically on pacing, momentum, narrative through lines, experimental techniques, etc…
To maximize this workshop it is highly recommended that you are presently working on an edit of your film. Alternatively, it is required that you have some sort of footage to work on in your private one on one session with Deco.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops if they are running FCP version 6 or higher.
For more information on workshops, please contact the Production Centre Director, Ivan Hughes at 925-3456 ext 109 orivan@winnipegfilmgroup.com
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Deco Dawson is an internationally-acclaimed Winnipeg based filmmaker whose 12 innovative, surreal, short films have toured the world extensively. Known for his inventive, unique, editing style, Deco has put his editorial stamp on many films and music videos such as The Heart of the World, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s diary, a full length live DVD for Metric as well as music videos for Metric’s Help I’m Alive and Stadium Love. Often Deco uses the editing room as a place in which to “create” the work, manipulating stills, found footage, archival footage, shot footage and audio together in creative ways.
Deco’s latest work Keep a Modest Head won best short at the TIFF, is a dazzling, inventive portrait of Jean Benoît, the last member of the influential surrealist movement. Originally born in Quebec in 1922, Jean Benoît moved to Paris in 1948, met Andre Breton and was soon invited to join the surrealists. Using an effortless blend of narration, visual effects, miniatures, archival footage, and a stunning sound design, Keep a Modest Head is as whimsical as it is humorous, a film truly as spirited and daring as the artist himself.
Presented in a partnership with Video Pool
