Mediacast takes Blackmagic back to school
Published: MEA
UAE: Dubai-based distributor Mediacast recently conducted a Blackmagic Design workshop on filmmaking for students at the city’s Cambridge International School. The first Learn From the Pros workshop covered a range of video production topics and featured presentations from Mediacast’s pre-sales manager, Lawrence Malari, who offered sessions on camera, filming and production, and the distributor’s DaVinci Resolve specialist, Abigail Young, who offered postproduction tips. The gear used included Blackmagic’s Pocket Cinema Camera which the students also used to shoot their film, as well as DaVinci Resolve, Zoom Recorders, Miller tripods and lights from Ikan.
Faculty Leader BTEC/Film, Media Studies and drama teacher at Cambridge International School, Parvin Mirshahi teaches the school’s Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 students. ‘We have very enthusiastic students here and they have a lot of good ideas,’ she commented. ‘My vision for the media department, especially BTEC courses which are more hands-on, is to be able to allow students to express themselves creatively. We’ve already started the film club to encourage and empower the students to make films, to edit films and explore their creativity.
In addition to a Blackmagic product demonstration, Mr Malari gave students tips about cameras, filming and production, while Ms Young covered postproduction techniques. The students were then tasked with coming up with a story, deciding the directors, DoP and actors, and then shooting it.
‘I’d really like to thank Mediacast for choosing our school to visit with their demo and engaging our students,’ added Ms Mirshahi. ‘These are students that have never had any hands-on experience with the equipment, they were completely new to the things Mediacast introduced. With this workshop they learned the concept of storytelling and how to plan, to get very briefly introduced to how to make a film. I think that was very inspirational for them. Many have also chosen to do Media Studies next year, and these sessions helped them to make that a clearer decision.’
‘I enjoyed using all of the equipment and getting to direct the film,’ commented one of the students following the workshop. ‘It was a new experience and I was really excited to do it.