On Tuesday, September 24, CTE/AVPA Film students and Game Design students were treated to a workshop with Visual Effects Supervisor Kelly Port. Port has been nominated for two Academy Awards for his work as a Visual Effects Supervisor on Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers Infinity War.
At the after-school workshop, Port taught students about the various production processes of visual effects, showed films clips of before and after visual effects scenes, and discussed all the various careers within the world of visual effects. After his presentation, Port led students in a hands-on workshop on how to light and shoot green screen, and how to direct actors on green screen.
Students then filmed a scene where AVPA Film student Sophia Sanginitto “flew over New York” – a scene which will be composited by Game Design teacher Kian Darien, who is also CTE/AVPA Film’s advanced screenwriting and editing instructor.
“Up until last year, when we had our first visual effects shot in a film thanks to a collaboration with the Game Design program, we have been very traditional in our filmmaking endeavors,” said CTE/AVPA Film Creative Director Holly Gable. “My goal this year is to encourage students to incorporate more visual effects into their films. As a former live action and visual effects producer, I am eager to collaborate further with the Game Design students and to push ourselves technically and creatively as filmmakers.”
As an added perk, AVPA Film Alumni Ginger Port (class of 2019) was there to help students with lighting and operating the camera. Ginger, who occasionally returns to AVPA to give small-group student workshops in cinematography and lighting, has been steadily working in “the business” as a camera operator since graduating from Bard College with a degree in film.
The students are looking forward to seeing Sophia flying over New York and creating more of their own visual effects scenes in their upcoming film projects.
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