CreativeScreen

Current seminar dates are in New York City June 7-8, 2008, and Santa Monica, CA June 14-15, 2008. Scroll down for details or click to register:

Enrollment is limited, giving you plenty of direct access to the teachers and time for your questions. To ensure a space in class, scroll down to enroll now. Cancellation policy is at the bottom of this page.

Directors have unique way of looking at the script as they are preparing for rehearsal and production. In this unit of his seminar, Master Teacher and Director Mark W. Travis will take you step-by-step through a process that will bring new insights into the material you have written or the material you are about to direct.

At the core of every film are characters in relationship and every writer and director must understand both the psychology of character and the techniques and tools of acting. In this unit of the seminar, Mark will take you through the intricate process of working with actors and demonstrate the Travis Technique, which consistently generates powerful performances.

The Rehearsal Process

Mark’s unique approach to working with actors will be demonstrated and explained in this unit of the seminar. Rehearsal Techniques that will bring the character to immediate life and simultaneously place that character within the scene will give you new tools and insights into the Rehearsal Process.

Staging, the Director's most powerful Tool.

Staging is one of the film director's most powerful tools. Used appropriately it can bring a scene to life, illuminating the subtext and character relationships. Misused it can hamper the work of the actors. In this concluding portion of the seminar you will witness the power of staging and see how you can employ the techniques that Mark has developed over years of directing.

You will first learn how to use camera movement to enhance your story. The underlying principle is that camera movement should be invisible. It should serve the story without calling attention to itself. The course will describe the three kinds of camera movement that function in this way.

Next students will be taught how to move the camera most effectively by systematically trying to fulfill Five Tasks when designing each moving shot – specifically each moving master shot. The Five Tasks are to: (1) show the audience everything they need to see to understand and believe what happens next (2) focus the audience’s attention on the center of the drama (3) generate eye candy (4) pick up coverage and (5) create an esthetic of seamlessness by eliminating edits. Some of the Tasks actually compete against each other. For example, the more a shot focuses the audience on the center of the drama, the less eye candy and seamlessness it generates. To deal with this, students will be taught how to identify the correct organizing principle for balancing the demands of the Five Tasks against each other.

Spielberg revolutionized the look of contemporary films by consistently moving the camera and forcing perspective. Every professional director must know how to enhance drama and heighten action by using different lenses to force perspective. This unit of the seminar will teach this skill

About the Teachers:

	GIL BETTMAN is a director and a professor at Chapman University. He has directed three feature films: Crystal Heart, Never Too Young to Die and Night Vision, multiple episodes of the television series The Fall Guy and Night Rider, and numerous rock videos. He is the author of FIRST TIME DIRECTOR. He has been a STAR Speaker for the past two Screenwriting Expos. "Gil Bettman lucidly sets down the ABC's of directing so that dedicated students can learn exactly what will be required of them when they step onto a set." - Robert Zemeckis, Academy Award winning director of Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away, Beowulf, and more

	Mark Travis is one of the most sought-after consultants and teachers of filmmaking in the world. For the past 10 years, he has been sharing his techniques on writing, acting and directing in the US, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Japan and the Netherlands. He has consulted on feature films and television projects at both the Studio level (MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal Studios) and Independent. He is a partner in development and consulting company Travis-Johntz Productions which was instrumental in the success of many studio and independent films including: Barbershop, Barbershop 2, Men of Honor, The Day Reagan Was Shot, Black Irish, The Last Run, and Norman Jean, Jack and Me. Mark is the author of the Number-One Best Seller (L.A. Times), THE DIRECTOR'S JOURNEY: the Creative Collaboration between Directors, Writers and Actors. His second book on directing, DIRECTING FEATURE FILMS (published in April of 2002) is currently used as required text in film schools worldwide. www.travis-johntz.com "With astonishing clarity Mark Travis articulates the techniques and skills of film directing. Not only does the beginning student find invaluable guidance on all stages of the directing process, but the experienced director will learn rational explanations for many of the things he may have only been doing intuitively." - John Badham, director of Saturday Night Fever, War Games, Blue Thunder, and more!
Cancellation policy: You may cancel your registration and receive a full refund minus a $25 processing fee up to seven days before your seminar. Within seven days of the seminar, we offer credit only for a future two-day Travis-Betttman directing seminar.