James Graetrex - coordinator, Reelout

I feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to coordinate these workshops with reelout and CitizenShift. I learned a great deal about the film making process, especially in relation to interpersonal work and the ups and downs in organization for shoots. In addition, it was very rewarding to address some very basic human rights issues and to see how each participant translated their individual understanding of the issues into a visual form. Colleen Ayoup's insights and contagious enthusiasm made for a wonderfully informative and eye opening experience. I can't wait to apply what I have learned in my future films. We live in such an interesting age of communication and I feel very fortunate to be involved in a project that aspires to affect positive social change. The marriage of Reelout and CitizenShift for this project has provided a great forum for the work to be viewed by a large audience and further perpetuate our understanding of the issues of homophobia and bullying. When I was in school a professor once wrote on a script that I had written that the best work leaves the audience with a feeling of improvement in learning something new, that by watching or being involved in something inspiring we feel somehow better, more informed, more motivated to improve our lives and others. I feel that the creative process of the workshops accomplished this for everyone involved and produced some very interesting results. I think we all walked away with new skills, new understandings and a feeling that our voices can and will be heard. It reminds me of the quote 'The only way we can make the world a better place is to make ourselves better people' - the workshop helped me to remember this.

Thank you to everyone for your dedication to this project.

 

J.G.

James Greatrex is a 29 year old multimedia artist and independent film maker. He has made several short films about science and religion and space time vortexes. He has worked on documentaries, animations and experimental films and enjoys using the medium as a device to convey ideas about social change and spiritual development. In his spare time James writes scripts , draws pictures and animates stories about social change and spiritual development.

 

Bradley -participant

My name is Bradley Heaslip, I was born December Twenty-fifth, Nineteen eighty-three in Edmonton Alberta. I have loved writing, art, music, film, acting for the camera and singing for the camera since early childhood. I have been raised from age four to the present in Kingston Ontario and Gananoque Ontario because my mom wanted me to be close to my grandparents.

From age seven to age twenty I volunteered as a singer in two different community choirs. In high school I was in three different focus programs surrounding all sorts of theatre and performing. I have been involved in some capacities in several different independent film projects in my Kingston community.

My plans for the future are to continue on in the entertainment industry in some way, shape or form. I am currently deciding on whether or not I want to go to college for drama/theatre, film, television, communications, creative writing or music. as I am sure you can imagine, it is proving to be a most complicated decision for me.

I took this workshop in order to build up my technical abilities in assisting with the filming process and gain behind-the-scenes-on-set experience. I took this workshop because I wanted to meet young and like-minded individuals in order to build up my network of contacts headed in the direction of film making. I feel as though alot of my goals for the workshop were achieved to a strong degree.

I learned that the formal technique that serious film makers use to set up a particular shot can be really complicated and really rewarding when it is done right. This might sound funny, but until now I had only seen them before and I didn't know what a boom mic really was. I learned a lot of useful things about the wide array of boom mics and accessories. I feel like this project was a crash course for young people in the realities of what regularly happens in real film making.

My favorite part of this project was getting to work with Mackenzie who is only 14 and had not made what she considered to me 'film' before and she had not consider herself an 'independent filmmaker.' I enjoyed learning about how you had to ask consent to use mainstream music, mainstream art, corporation names, etc and i felt it was an important thing to know. I enjoyed asking people on the street about homophobia and getting opinions and consent from individuals on the issue.

It would improve this workshop by focusing on engaging exclusively young people aged fourteen to twenty four. Youth aged only fourteen to twenty four tend to be the folks who need the most help figuring out if film is where they want to be. My view is young people in that age bracket are the people most directly affected by homophobia and bullying. The workshop can be improved by changing it to be a seven day workshop. Seven days would make it so participants can have more time shoot as well they can get a great coach on getting started on the editing process. Seven days will be what will help to make this workshop run more smoothly and comfortably for everyone involved. i would recommend this work shop to others because all the training that some who want to go into the field can get, the better.

 

 

Mackenzie - participant

My name is Mackenzie and I'm 14, almost 15 in January. I go to school, play the drums and walk home everyday, I'm a pretty normal kid. From a young age I decided I wanted to be a vet because I really care about animals and I don't believe enough of the vets these days REALLY care that much.I decided to do this workshop because I really believe that there is some way to prevent bullying and homophobia (to some extent) and I wanted to gain some insight on that. I also wanted to learn how to work with a camera and all those aspects. My favourite part of the workshop was when we got to play with the special effects of the film, and also the interesting discussions we ended up having. I would hope to improve the workshop by maybe putting up some flyers around school so next time more kids my age would show up because I think they could learn something. I would recommend the workshop to other people because even though there were no kids my age the people in the workshop were easy and fun to work with.

I wanna thank you again because the workshop was awesome and I learned alot.

 

Kevin - participant

Welcome to the wonderful life of me. Kinder for sparking the imagination into a blaze of light. Well enough about me and more about me, you are asking for a bio after all. What to say? I specialize in a few things: filmmaking, acting, writing, being annoying, singing, designing, and the list goes on... there it goes, wave goodbye to it. If people tell you that I'm strange than they probably know me very well; if they tell you that love having the spotlight, they don't know me at all. That's the rule; I don't write them, they just come to me. I find people who are normal usually very nice people but they're as boring as an ox. Don't ask me why oxen are boring, it's just in their nature I suppose. Yes, we shall not praise the ox and those horns... why. To sum it all up, my name is Kevin, I'm not boring but don't hold me on that (the name part) and, by the way, I'm not trying to use proper grammar in this, for all you nuts, that includes me. Happiness is a candy bar at your local store.

 

Peggy - participant

I'm 26. In school & having fun. I love food, but can't cook worth monkeys. I'm Christian. I love my family and someday would like to have one of my own. I've come out after 20 something years in the closet. Out and finally proud! Yeah!!

The past few months volunteering with Reelout, has really reminded me of the one thing that I felt passionate about while growing up - creating images. I spent hours, sketching, shading, thinking, dreaming, creating.

Besides that, I've been spending some quality workout time with Taekwondo. Am a brand spanking new white belt. In the summer, I love swimming (though I'm deathly afraid of the deep end and won't go there unless I have a wall). I'm also terrified of roller coaster rides and bees.

Life rocks!

 

Peggy's WORKSHOP REVIEW

Me? Make a short? Yeah right. I don't know the first thing about making films. I signed on to help out James with organizing the details for the Reelout Digital Video Youth Project because I liked what the project was trying to do - reach out to queer youth in Kingston.

Then I sat in on the first workshop session.

Ideas from everyone started bouncing around. Colleen Ayoup, our guest professional filmmaker from Montreal, in the thick of it, patiently guiding and helping to bring shape to the young filmmakers' ideas. The wheels in my head started turning and just wouldn't stop. Andrew, a fellow participant, gave me a nudge, and I joined. I can't honestly remember when I last felt so pumped about a project.

I'm happy with the direction my short is taking. My short will have an experimental flavor to it, allowing me to dabble with editing and sound effects, and focusing on creating great images tied together with a simple narrative.

Thanks so much to the crew help everyone gave me. I wrapped up all but one of my shots in under 6.5 hours. My first short ever. Wooh!!! Colleen & James then sat me down, and taught me the basics of editing. I'm so looking forward to digging into it.

The experience has been nothing short of amazing. Colleen has patience like a saint, and has been an awesome person to work with. James was infinitely attentive to details, ensuring everything needed was available. This has been an awesome awesome weekend! Thanks Reelout and CitizenShift!!