Do you know a child or teen who loves movies? TV? Telling stories? Do you know a creative young person? Apollinaire Play Lab is offering filmmaking classes, beginning March 4, for ages 6-9 and 10-14.
New to the Apollinaire Play Lab team is filmmaker Natalie Peracchio. Ms. Peracchio is finishing her MFA in Film and Media at Emerson College and is excited to bring the art of filmmaking to youth.
“I grew up with a lot of cousins and brothers and sisters and we played pretend together and made up elaborate stories,” Ms. Peracchio shares. “I would play with action figures with my little brother, and we would create dramatic soap operas with them. As a kid there were not any video phones. If there were, I would have been obsessed!” Ms. Peracchio says with a laugh.
It was in a college photography course that Ms. Peracchio was first inspired by image making and storytelling through images. Then came her love for filmmaking and “creating a world for a story to live in” as she explains it. Ms. Peracchio has gone on to write, direct, and produce numerous short films, including a Canada International Shorts 2019 winner, and a film featured in the Discovery Indie Film series on Amazon Prime Video.
“Filmmaking is storytelling and kids have so much imagination. I can’t wait to see what my students come up with when they try different mediums,” Ms. Peracchio shares. She has designed exciting classes for the two age groups that will culminate in short presentations of their film work on May 6.
In filmmaking for ages 6-9, students will test out a variety of filmmaking mediums to create short videos in a collaborative and fun environment! Students will learn to use green screen, stop-motion techniques, and editing to put their videos together and create finished works.
Filmmaking for ages 10-14 will empower students to express themselves and their stories with filmmaking fundamentals. Students will collaborate to write scripts, choose costumes, design shots, and edit their videos to create their own short film pieces.
Ms. Peracchio names several ways in which filmmaking is beneficial for youth. In her classes they will learn collaboration, communication skills, storytelling, technical skills, and how to plan and see a project through as part of a team, all in a fun and creatively open environment.
Filmmaking classes run Saturdays March 4 to May 6 at the Riseman Family Theatre, 187 Winnisimmet Street in Chelsea.
Registration is now open.
The Apollinaire Play Lab offers an EBT Card to Culture discount as well as scholarships to all who need them. Visit: www.aplaylab.com, or call 617-615-6506.
In-person registrations are being held at the Riseman Family Theatre, Chelsea Theatre Works, 187 Winnisimmet Street in Chelsea, Saturdays, until Feb. 25, from 10 a.m. – noon, and Wednesdays, until March 1, from 4-6 p.m.
For more information about the Apollinaire Play Lab visit: www.aplaylab.com.