SFFILM Exclusive

SFFILM’s Youth Filmmakers Camp 2020

Students and Instructors Reflect on Remote Learning and the Importance of Film Education

Reflections on Teaching the Art & Craft of Film During a Pandemic
by Maddy Leonard with support from Davia Schendel, Rachel Gamson, and Jeanette Paak

When I found out that SFFILM was not going to have Youth Filmmakers Camp in person in July of 2020, I knew I still wanted to find a way to serve the young artists in our community in a fun and innovative way. Since teens were going to be forced to spend their summer in isolation, I proposed that we redesign camp to build an online resource and community support system for young filmmakers to gather, learn, grow, and develop stories they care about.

These are the goals I had going into camp:

Create meaningful relationships that students can draw from in the future — account for one-on-one time with teachers, so that students feel supported and have the opportunity to build a mentor/mentee relationship with their teachers.
Develop students’ independent filmmaking skills, so that they can emerge from camp as more self-sufficient filmmakers.
Train skills for online media creation that will help students be creative and innovative filmmakers and use the resources they have at their disposal to create art and film.
Finish camp having created several small but polished projects that students can add to their portfolios.
Provide the opportunity for students to learn from a diverse group of filmmakers.
Create safe spaces where students can ask questions and discover what working in the film industry feels like.
Introduce students to online and free resources that can be used to experiment with film outside of camp.

With these goals in mind, I began outlining a two-and-a-half-week-long schedule for campers that consisted of Zoom lectures, pre-recorded lessons, Zoom “check-ins, workshops, film screenings, guest presentations, and student activities. I understood that students had been forced to have classes on Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, and they were probably suffering from Zoom fatigue, so my co-teacher Davia Schendel and I designed a daily curriculum that was diverse in terms of platform. Campers would spend a few hours a day doing solo work, and a few hours a day on Zoom in either large or small groups.

Campers were divided into two groups: beginner and advanced campers. The beginner campers started a few days earlier than the advanced ones, so that they could get oriented in the world of filmmaking by learning some basic terminology and film history. Once the advanced campers started their session, the students spent most of their time collaborating as one large group. Campers were engaged daily in Zoom lectures and supplementary activities on topics around film production, theory, and history, media literacy, and the social and cultural impacts of film. Outside of that work students were doing with their instructors, they also had the opportunity to speak with some pretty incredible guest speakers.

We had the pleasure of having Jonas Rivera, a producer from Pixar who produced Up, Inside Out, and Toy Story 4, as our first guest lecturer. Jonas shared his journey working for Pixar and the behind the scenes making of these beloved films. Jonas’s extensive art knowledge proved to be valuable during the story development process at Pixar, and campers learned much from him about how different aspect of the creative process intersect. He reassured the campers that they could always be part of the filmmaking creative process no matter the level of their technical skills by advising that “understanding art is equal to being an artist.”

Daniel Freeman was our second guest lecturer at camp. Daniel is a SFFILM FilmHouse resident who is currently working on a feature-length narrative film called Teddy Out of Tune. The campers loved chatting with Daniel about his process. He stressed how important it is for filmmaking to be accessible to everyone, and gave the campers excellent advice about how to get started on films with a minimal budget.

We were extremely lucky to have another FilmHouse resident come speak at camp. Reaa Puri, a cinematographer, director, editor, and founder of Breaktide Productions, brought her two other co-founders to camp to speak about their filmmaking careers. Breaktide is a production company that is owned and operated by women of color, and they work to democratize filmmaking while elevating underrepresented voices behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Gabby, an advanced camper, told me her favorite activity at camp was the guest speakers, because “they really offered insight into what it’s like to make films as a career.” She added, “my favorite lecture was from Breaktide Productions, because as a girl it was so inspiring to hear from an all-female team. I learned that film is a process, and about all the steps that are generally taken before and during the movie-making process.”

Anaiis Cisco, a filmmaker from Brooklyn and an Assistant Professor of Moving Image Production at Smith College, spoke with the campers about halfway through camp. At the beginning of her scheduled hour, she took the time to learn every student’s name and hear about their filmmaking interests. This activity not only helped Anaiis get to know the campers, but it also helped the campers get to know each other a little better outside of the normal camp day proceedings. Many of them described how they developed new interests during camp and were excited to dive deeper into these aspects of filmmaking.

The day after Anaiis’s lecture, Andy Jimenez of Pixar Animation Studios spoke with the campers about his collaborations on several films, such as One Man Band and The Incredibles. Incorporating his pre-production documents and animatics for both live action and animation, Andy shared an incredible wealth of materials that the campers were truly fascinated by. Sharing with campers that the road of an creative artist can be winding, Andy reassured them that everything one does in life will become part of their art practice in surprising and very useful ways.

Alice Wu, director of Netflix’s The Half of It, joined us for a very special guest lecture towards the end of camp. She shared some background information about how The Half of It came to be, but focused a lot of her time connecting on a personal level with the campers. She was very honest and vulnerable about the lessons she’s learned throughout her career. She reflected on her experience with us by saying “I really loved getting a chance to chat with the young filmmakers at SFFILM. The way they think about storytelling, about their lives, is so fresh and sophisticated — so much more sophisticated than I was at their age — and I say with pleasure that these kids are almost certainly coming for our jobs! And it’ll be a good thing.”

The last filmmakers to join us as guest lecturers were Anne Flatté and Marlon Johnson. This director/producer duo spoke to the campers about their newest film River City Drumbeat, a documentary about music, love, and legacies set in the American South. They also facilitated a lengthy discussion with campers about the ethics of documentary filmmaking and sparked the curiosity of these young filmmakers.

Our last presenter was SFFILM’s very own Rosa Morales, who works as part of the SFFILM Makers team. Rosa had a wonderful conversation with campers about how to market yourself as an artist and filmmaker, and helped them understand how they can stay involved with SFFILM in the future if they are ever in need of support or funding.

Among my favorite parts of camp were the moments when the campers, other instructors, and I had radically honest conversations about how film and media play into this moment in US history. I was so impressed by the introspective comments students shared about representation in the media they consume, and how they want to make the film industry a more just industry to work in. Here are just a few examples of the insights campers shared while Davia was lecturing about diversity, representation, and allegory:

“There’s a big shift happening in representation in media — we’re not all the way there yet, but let’s not disregard our accomplishments.” — Rose

“She-ra in the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was the first lesbian kiss I had ever seen, and the first gay main character. As someone who was obsessed with 80s She-ra as a kid… I was again inspired by her in the new one as a lesbian main character. It really helped me come out to my family.” — Shayla

“The show Sex Education on Netflix… represented women so well and in an accurate way. They represent them with goals other than chasing boys or dating which I thought was important. I really appreciated women being seen as powerful without having to actually be tough.” — Gabby

Here are some other very insightful reflections students had when we were discussing why it’s important to learn the history of race in film:

“I thought that the evolution of black representation in film was interesting… I found that it was important to have diversity in the film industry because it inspires younger girls and people of color and gives role models to them.” — Ella

“I think that diversity in film is extremely important. As children we are very impressionable, and seeing ourselves on screen makes us realize that we can do anything. When movies are more diverse, they are relatable to a broader group of people. It is also important to portray different groups of people in diverse roles so that they aren’t just playing the same types of roles every time. I think that studying film is important, because it is a big part of our society today.” — Grace

“We need to study film to learn about our past just as we study history in schools. It is extremely important to make sure you understand the mistakes of the past so as a nation and society we do not repeat them. But like any part of history we must be careful and think about who is the one creating the film and what biases they might have. In the early years of film, there was not much diversity in the cast and crew, now as we are entering a new era of digital film we are realizing the importance of having diversity in organizations such as Hollywood to inspire different types of people across many generations.” — Lathrop

Over the course of camp, I was really impressed by the vulnerability these teens were willing to share with each other. They really connected as a group, and made plans to stay in touch after camp to support each other’s art. These campers didn’t just learn how to make films but they learned how to support other filmmakers. It was really special to be able to see the constant encouragement they had for each other’s projects, and the friendships that they formed.

Maddy Leonard (she/her) is a filmmaker, artist, and the former Education Program Coordinator at SFFILM. She is a creative educator who has spent half a decade teaching youth about film and media literacy, and mentoring youth as they produce their own films. She has a degree in Cinema and Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University, and has a passion for learning from and creating socially aware documentaries and experimental films.

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Guest Post: Novelist-Turned-Filmmaker Natalie Baszile on Her SFFILM Djerassi Fellowship Experience

June: Good News
It’s mid-June at Chicago O’Hare, and I’m standing at the edge of Terminal C food court, debating whether a quick bite at…

Guest Post: Novelist-Turned-Filmmaker Natalie Baszile on Her SFFILM Djerassi Fellowship Experience

June: Good News
It’s mid-June at Chicago O’Hare, and I’m standing at the edge of Terminal C food court, debating whether a quick bite at Billy Goat Tavern or Manchu Wok is less likely to kill me, when I check my phone and see a new email from the folks at SFFILM. The email says they’re offering me a month-long residency at Djerassi Resident Arts Program. They want to know if I’m interested and available. I’ve been to artists residencies a small handful of times although it’s been many years. I’ve been so busy trying to get my new novel on its feet and write the accompanying screenplay that I haven’t applied for any, not wanting to pester friends for recommendations. I keep telling myself I’ll get around to it “next year,” but “next year” never seems to come. Still, I know they are magical spaces where time slows and the world falls away. I know how glorious it feels to step away from the daily grind and completely lose one’s self in one’s work. I know that even two weeks at a residency can be as productive as three months at home.

It takes me approximately 5 seconds to respond to the invitation. “I’m In!” I write back.

August: Breaking Away
It’s one thing to accept a 30-day residency; it’s another thing to prepare for it. There are bills to pay, dogs to board, laundry to do, plants to water. Normally, there’d be a husband to console, but he packed his bags two weeks ago and relocated to Los Angeles. He’s a lawyer and has a big trial that’s demanding every ounce of his time and attention. THANK GOD. Otherwise, I’d have to watch him mope and listen to him sigh dramatically about spending a month by himself. “Man up!” I fantasize about saying. “You don’t hear me complaining when you travel for your job.” It’s an old response to an old dynamic; one that arose years ago when I was struggling to write while taking care of kids and pets and managing the challenges that come along with having creative life and a family. But those days are long gone. Our daughters are young adults with lives of their own. It’s just the two of us. We’re Empty Nesters. And the truth is, he’s happy for me, excited for this new phase I have pivoted into as a novelist-turned-filmmaker. So, I give myself a little pep talk. “Come on, Baszile. Be fair.” Then I head down to the garage where I’ve set aside one of the super-sturdy cardboard boxes from Sunbasket, the meal delivery service we subscribe to now that we don’t have to cook for kids. I drag it up to my office and for the next two weeks toss in every novel, craft book and film script I think will inspire me, along with all the notecards, notepads, and Post-Its on which I’ve scribbled notes for my story. I shove in the three-ring binder that houses my novel draft and the folder where I keep the different versions of my script. A bundle of Ticonderoga #2 Pencils. A ream of paper just in case I need to print pages. Extra pens. A fresh pack of highlighters. Poetry books. A hole punch and paperclips. Everything I can think goes into my box. If I were stranded on a desert island, I could keep myself occupied — no problem — until the rescue party arrived. By the time I finish packing everything I think I might need, I can’t lift the box.

September
In the past, I’ve always flown to the residencies I’ve attended, but now, for the first time, I can drive. Djerassi is a little over an hour south of Oakland; 50 minutes if I time the traffic just right. My Toyota Prius is packed with everything I think I might need and then some. In addition to my box of work stuff, I’ve stocked up on gummy bears, potato chips, those sinfully delicious baked Cheeto-type-things from Trader Joes. I never eat this stuff at home (well, not too often, and certainly not in these quantities) but I’ve never been away for a month and Dejerassi is located on a sprawling 600-acre ranch in the middle of nowhere. Who knows when I’ll next see civilization. I’ve packed my special tea and my favorite ceramic mug with the thick handle, along with two containers of whipped honey. I don’t have a lot of writing rituals, but a morning cup of tea is essential. I cram everything into my car, double-check the front door, and set off by 11:00 am. For the last three months I have dreamed about this day, wondered how I’d get everything done so I could step away, but now I seem to have done it.

Yield To Whim
That’s what the sign on the Djerassi Property reads as I pull through the big iron gates and make my way down along the winding road to the barn. I’ve actually seen that sign once before — 10 years ago when I visited a friend who had a residency here. She invited me down for dinner and we spent the late afternoon hiking around the property — past the enormous nest made of fallen branches and across the babbling stream that cut through the redwood grove. She showed me the watercolors she painted on the private deck outside her room and introduced me to a French dancer whose tumble of blond curls and child-like figure made me think of pixies and wood nymphs. After dinner he handed out hand-drawn maps and invited everyone to his performance, which he held in a cave somewhere on the property. Gripping our flashlights in one hand and each other’s elbows with the other, we stumbled through the dark until we found the cave entrance then inched our way through the tunnel until we reached the den where he lay naked except for a baby-blue blanket. We all huddled around shivering as he recited poetry. It might sound crazy, but it was a magical.

Now, as I pull up to the barn, I think about that night, that dancer. I can already feel myself relaxing.

But it’s when I get to my Middlebrook studio that the real magic happens. The moment I open the door and step into my room overlooking the wide meadow and the ocean beyond, I know I’ve made the right decision in coming here. There is nothing to hear but the wind in the grass and the occasional screech of a hawk overhead. The quiet is ABSOLUTE and for the first time in so long I can’t remember, I can actually hear myself think. The silence is revelation — a reminder of how noisy my life is with constant drone of BART trains and the low din of traffic, the text notifications and the occasional sing-song of my neighbors’ voices. The news. The News. THE NEWS! No wonder I haven’t been able to dream my way into my story that way I need to. No wonder I haven’t been able to hear what my characters have to say. No wonder that for months I’ve felt like I had cotton in my ears and a layer of cement spread over the top of my brain. No wonder.

Kabuki Dancers, Playwrights, Painters, Poets & Mountain Lions
Just as I suspected, my fellow residents are a fascinating bunch. They hail from states as far as Vermont and Main, and countries as far as Australia and Argentina. They are visual artists and playwrights, memoirists and Kabuki dancers. There’s a young composer who sings like an angel, a woman who paints by shooting ink through tanks of water, and another who fashions rope from items she finds in the natural world. On our first group hike, we all show up with our sunhats, water bottles filled, and our long pants tucked into our socks.

We are a gentle group, curious about each others’ work and various life’s journeys. Over the next 30 days we will laugh together and cook together, listen to presentations on each others’ work and engage in deep conversation about music and the power of dance and poetry. We will reveal our vulnerabilities and insecurities. Drink too much wine and kombucha and eat too many avocados and chocolate chip cookies. We will bond over many things, most of all a shared preoccupation with mountain lions which we’ve been told roam the property. At dinner every evening, we talk about what we might do it we were to encounter one on the trail. We keep an eye out for their scat. We listen for their cries in the night. And when one resident celebrates her birthday, we toast her with a homemade mountain lion-themed card and a toy someone bought on their trip to town.

October: Souvenirs
How do you sum up 30 days of uninterrupted creativity? What price to do put on 30 days of peace and quiet? How do you measure the gift of time and space? I don’t know.

What I do know is that as I packed up my studio and returned everything I’d brought with me to my cardboard box, I promised to take a bit of Djerassi home with me. I vowed to remember the stunning quiet and the view of the rolling hills unfurling all around. I promised to remember friends I’d made and the conversations I’d had. The redwood groves and the sunsets.

December: Reflections
I’ve been home for exactly two months and I am happy to report I’m still able to slip back into that space. The difference my Djerassi residency made has been profound.

So, thank you to SFFILM for the generous gift of time, space and quiet. I had no idea I needed it as much as I did.

For more information about SFFILM’s artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

Guest Post: ‘Hair Love’ Filmmaker Matthew Cherry Spends Time with SFFILM Education

In late October, SFFILM Education brought the creators of the Sony Pictures Animation short film, Hair Love to San Francisco. We hosted…

Hair Love, a short film by Matthew A. Cherry

Guest Post: ‘Hair Love’ Filmmaker Matthew Cherry Spends Time with SFFILM Education

In late October, SFFILM Education brought the creators of the Sony Pictures Animation short film, Hair Love to San Francisco. We hosted school visits, special screenings, and an animation workshop giving Bay Area students, teachers, children, families, and animation enthusiasts the opportunity to engage with the film’s director Matthew A. Cherry and its executive producer Frank Abney III. Matthew and Frank were able to speak about the inspiration behind the story and elaborate on the film’s themes of family and diversity.

Our Education Coordinator Maddy Leonard and Education Intern Hannah Wheeler wrote this wonderful recap of the multi-day events.

We kicked off our Hair Love events with a screening at Alamo Drafthouse. The audience had the chance to view the short film, and then engage with a special “Behind the Making of Hair Love” presentation. Matthew and Frank shared insights into their filmmaking process and showed examples of animation and character development. At the end of the presentation, Frank lead a “draw along”, and the audience was encouraged to follow along as he drew the main character Zuri.

Frank Abney III and Matthew A. Cherry at SFFILM FilmHouse

Later that afternoon, SFFILM Education and the Hair Love team brought the short film to SFFILM’s Filmhouse for a workshop. Close to 30 young participants screened the short then watched a presentation that highlighted the way the story, characters, and overall aesthetic of the film evolved throughout the filmmaking process. After the presentation, the participants engaged in a Q&A session with the creators, sparking their curiosity by allowing them to individually engage with the industry professionals.

The event concluded with a hands-on activity in which participants were guided through the process of creating the main character Zuri. They were then encouraged to take the activity a step further by creating their own characters. After learning how Matthew created Hair Love out of a lack of representation of different identities in animation, the participants were inspired to come up with a character of their own that represented either themselves or someone in their community that they would like to see up on the big screen!

The following Monday afternoon, SFFILM Education hosted about 275 students from multiple Bay Area Schools at SFMOMA for another special Hair Love presentation. The students were incredibly engaged throughout the presentation and had many questions for Matthew during the Q&A. The event concluded with a meet and greet, allowing one-on-one interactions between Matthew and the students and teachers!

Finally, SFFILM Education brought Hair Love to three separate San Francisco classrooms. We visited 4th and 5th graders at Sanchez Elementary, high school youth at Woodside Juvenile Learning Center, and a class of after-school elementary and middle school youth at San Francisco Community School. Matthew presented the film to the students, gave its back story, and answered all of their questions. The students at every school reacted to the film extremely positively and were able to connect with its themes. Multiple students expressed how the film related to their relationships with their parents or to challenges they have faced in their own life. Some young animation fans, loved the more technical aspects of the presentation, and were inspired by Matthew to continue working towards their goals of becoming animators themselves one day!

Meet the 2019 Essential SF Honorees

It’s fall, and the end of the year is in sight, which means it’s the time when the SFFILM team picks up its annual conversation about the…

Meet the 2019 Essential SF Honorees

It’s fall, and the end of the year is in sight, which means it’s the time when the SFFILM team picks up its annual conversation about the individuals and institutions that we think help make the Bay Area film community what it is: inspiring, unique, brilliant, passionate, sophisticated, aware, and active. The result of that discussion is this year’s additions to the Essential SF list — the organization’s ongoing compendium of the Bay Area film scene’s most vital figures.

Essential SF is a way for SFFILM to celebrate the diverse talent of the Bay Area, and to shine a light on just a few of the people and places that make this one of the best places in the world for those who love film. This year’s — acclaimed documentary production company Actual Films, beloved Public Defender and filmmaker Jeff Adachi (posthumously), youth media organization BAYCAT, film engagement and impact strategist Duong-Chi Do, longtime BAMPFA library director Nancy Goldman, and legendary film exhibitor Gary Meyer — will be celebrated at a special ceremony in December, with friends and colleagues sharing stories and discussing their inspiring contributions to local film culture. Let’s meet the 2019 Essential SF honorees:

Since 1998, Actual Films — co-founded and led by Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, and Richard Berge — has produced critically acclaimed, award-winning documentaries for the widest possible international release. These films have been shot in dozens of countries around the world and range in subject matter from personal stories to historical examinations to international politics. The company’s filmography includes An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017), Audrie & Daisy (2016), 3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets (2015), The Island President (2011), Inside Guantanamo (2009), Wonders Are Many (2007), The Last Christians of Bethlehem (2007), Blame Somebody Else (2007), The Rape of Europa (2006), Democracy Afghan Style (2004), Lost Boys of Sudan (2003), Open Outcry (2001), They Drew Fire (2000), and more.

Jeff Adachi attended City College in Sacramento and UC Berkeley before obtaining his law degree from UC Hastings in San Francisco. Adachi was elected Public Defender of San Francisco and held that office from 2002 until his passing in 2019. He implemented performance measures, launched community outreach initiatives and made the office more accountable to the City and to the office’s clients. Adachi had also been a strong supporter of the arts — his three films, The Slanted Screen, The Jack Soo Story, and America Needs a Racial Facial, explore the questions of ethnic diversity, race relations, and the importance of cultural traditions. He completed a short documentary The Ride (CAAMFest 2017) and expanded it into the feature-length documentary Defender, which had its World Premiere in 2017 at the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival.

BAYCAT exists to end racial, gender, and economic inequity by creating powerful, authentic media while diversifying the creative industry. BAYCAT is changing the stories that get told and the storytellers who get to tell them by educating and employing low-income youth, young people of color, and young women in the Bay Area, and by being story strategists for organizations that tackle the world’s problems. Middle schoolers start in a free Academy to explore their creative passions after-school, continue with paid jobs in our Studio and Crew, and years later walk out of BAYCAT’s doors confident, resilient, and able to succeed in post-secondary media programs and careers. In 15 years, they have educated more than 4,250 youth, launched the careers of over 225 paid interns; and placed 82% of their intern graduates into creative careers with Lucasfilm, Pixar, Netflix, Youtube, CBS Interactive, Airbnb, and more.

Duong-Chi Do is a media engagement and impact strategist working at the intersection of arts, social justice, and civic engagement. She spent eleven years at ITVS spearheading audience engagement and impact efforts for over 90 film campaigns. While at ITVS, Do led the engagement unit’s transformation from a start-up to a social impact enterprise, scaling their ongoing operations to reach over 100 communities nationwide. She also developed and implemented impact campaigns for Women and Girls Lead, a public media initiative focused on gender equity. She also created a distribution, outreach, and national partnership strategy for Community Classroom, an educational program providing documentary film content and lesson plans for schools and youth organizations. Before her tenure at ITVS, Do worked for APPEAL (Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy, and Leadership) where she supported the expansion of its leadership development programs to elevate grassroots organizers in fighting Big Tobacco’s targeting of diverse communities.

Nancy Goldman began her film education at the Pacific Film Archive, where she took several film classes during her undergraduate years at UC Berkeley. After graduating in 1977 with a B.A. in French, she worked for the film distributor Audio Brandon Films. Goldman received a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from UC Berkeley in 1980, and was thrilled to land a position at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive that same year. In 1982 she was promoted to Head of the BAMPFA Film Library and Study Center, a position she held until her retirement in 2019. Goldman managed all aspects of the Center, including providing reference and access to its vast collections, and also initiated and directed PFA’s film-related database CineFiles, which provides free online access to thousands of film reviews, press kits, film festival program notes, and other documents.

Gary Meyer started his first theater in the family barn in Napa when he was 12 years old, and his first presentation in an actual movie theater was Tarzan of the Apes at Sonoma’s Sebastiani when he was 16. At SF State, Meyer programmed many film series, and selected films for a commercial repertory cinema. Unable to find a job in film production in San Francisco, he took a job as a booker for United Artists Theatres, which prepared him to co-found Landmark Theatres in 1975. Landmark became a national art house chain focused on creative marketing strategies to build loyal audiences for non-Hollywood fare and helping to launch the careers of dozens of filmmakers. In 1998, Meyer joined the Telluride Film Festival, becoming a Festival Co-Director (2007–2015), and in 2001, he resurrected the Balboa Theatre. In 2014, Meyer founded the online magazine EatDrinkFilms.com and the EatDrinkFilms Feastival, presenting food-related movies.

Essential SF was inaugurated in 2010 to shine a light on the region’s exciting and diverse contributions to the filmmaking world. Those honored previously at Essential SF include: Craig Baldwin, Richard Beggs, Les Blank, Peter Bratt, California Newsreel, Canyon Cinema, the Center for Asian American Media, Joan Chen, Ninfa Dawson, Nathaniel Dorsky, Cheryl Dunye, Cheryl Eddy, Zoë Elton, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Netta Fedor, Michael Fox, Pamela Gentile, Susan Gerhard, the Grand Lake Theatre, Joshua Grannell, Nicole Paradis Grindle, Hilary Hart, Dennis Harvey, David Hegarty, Marcus Hu, ITVS, Liz Keim, Kontent Films, Karen Larsen, James LeBrecht, Jeff Lee (posthumously), Lynn Hershman Leeson, Allie Light and Irving Saraf, Carrie Lozano, Anne McGuire, H.P. Mendoza, Anita Monga, Eddie Muller, Jenni Olson, Jennifer Phang, Dawn Porter, Rick Prelinger, B. Ruby Rich, Marlon Riggs (posthumously), ro•co films, George Rush, Joel Shepard, Gail Silva, Kent Sparling, Judy Stone, Wholphin, and Terry Zwigoff.

As always, for more info about SFFILM, visit sffilm.org.

Guest post: ‘The Sound of Silence’ producer Ben Nabors on the SFFILM Dolby Fellowship experience

In 2018, SFFILM and the Dolby Institute partnered to create a new fellowship, supporting films from development through post-production…

Guest post: ‘The Sound of Silence’ producer Ben Nabors on the SFFILM Dolby Fellowship experience

In 2018, SFFILM and the Dolby Institute partnered to create a new fellowship, supporting films from development through post-production. The SFFILM Dolby Fellowship provides an exciting opportunity rarely afforded to independent filmmakers — to thoughtfully elevate and deepen the role of sound and image in their finished films with advanced technology from Dolby Laboratories. SFFILM Makers, and the Dolby Institute offer the hand-picked recipients artistic and industry guidance, facilitate introductions, and provide a cash grant allowing them to begin work with a sound designer during the screenwriting stage. Fellows also gain post-production support, with comprehensive sound design, a Dolby Atmos mix, and Dolby Vision color correction and mastering support.

The Sound of Silence, co-written/directed by Michael Tyburski and co-written/produced by Ben Nabors, was the inaugural recipient project of the SFFILM Dolby Fellowship. On the occasion of the film’s theatrical opening in San Francisco, we asked Nabors to tell us a bit about their experience during the fellowship.

ROOM TONE, PLEASE
by Ben Nabors

Sound is not treated fairly in screenwriting. We have syntactical conventions for representing dialogue, character action, camera shots, and even props on the script page, but what about sound? It’s easily 50% of the moviegoer’s experience (many wise filmmakers would say that it represents even more), yet does it share half of the real estate on the screenwriter’s page? Does it receive a comparable line item in the budget to that of the camera department? Does sound get a fair share of a director’s prep time? And ask a sound recordist what response they hear when they sheepishly request “room tone, please.” Check your outtakes: they hear a collective groan.

Sound, both conceptually and narratively, is fundamental to our SFFILM-supported project The Sound of Silence. Sound is setting and character. In our case, it emerged naturally from the story — the film follows a house tuner named Peter Lucian who calibrates the subtle noises in people’s New York City apartments to adjust their moods. Though a fictional profession, the house tuner’s work is steeped in real science and musical theory. He understands the emotional influence of sound on his client’s lives so that he can tweak and adjust their sonic environments, all while inching closer to a grandiose theory about the impact of sound on the city as a whole. Peter Lucian (played expertly by Peter Sarsgaard) is a human antenna, personifying the power of sound through his own hypersensitivity and emotional exposure.

Michel Tyburski and Ben Nabors (photo by James Chororos)

Myself and director/co-writer Michael Tyburski spent several years staring at our script pages and imagining the movie in our heads. When it came to what the movie would look like, we had New York City around us and an archive of past films that contained traces of our own. When it came to what the movie would sound like — what it had to sound like to tell our story well — there wasn’t much to reference. We knew what we wanted to do, but we didn’t know how: technically, creatively, even financially.

Enter SFFILM and the Dolby Institute. SFFILM and Dolby literally made our movie possible. There, I said it. We would not be telling the same story without them. We had the intention to represent sound as an evolving character in our story, we hoped to invite the audience into a rare and empathetic sonic-point-of-view, and we imagined immersing viewers in the sonic textures of a vibrant city… But, we didn’t have the means or the technology to do any of this. Why? We were on a budget. To my opening questions about the diminutive role of sound in the preparation and production process, there’s one simple answer: resources.

Ben Nabors, SFFILM’s Caroline von Kühn, Dolby’s Glenn Kiser, and Michael Tyburski (photo by Terry Dudley)

It’s not a ground-breaking revelation but a common lament: independent filmmakers don’t have enough time or money to allocate to picture and sound equally. So, they must compromise. In a culture that has tricked itself into prioritizing “the look,” sound suffers. The SFFILM Dolby Fellowship allowed us the tremendous luxury of not compromising. From the pre-production stage, we engaged our sound design team to discuss the sonic atmosphere of each scene much as a director would discuss paint colors with their art department. Creative conversations with Dolby Labs’ Chief Scientist Poppy Crum enabled us to check the finer points of our script against the real research of sound and its effect on the mind and body. Extended time in the sound mix allowed us to overlap picture editorial, music composition, and sound design so as to better serve the story. Access to Dolby Atmos technology, an immersive object-based sound system, enabled us to swallow our audience in sound, very much akin to the experience of our main character. Michael and I had always hoped to accomplish these things as we were writing our story, but we had no means. SFFILM and Dolby made it possible.

The Sound of Silence is indebted to the Dolby Institute and SFFILM. For Michael and I, there are few things we can do to repay the gift these organizations have given to our movie, but hosting the surviving family members of the great Ray Dolby (no doubt a kindred spirit with our own Peter Lucian) at our film’s Sundance premiere was hopefully some small way of saying “thank you.”

For more information, visit sffilm.org/makers.