Our seminars are designed to run no more than one day in length. This allows you to come, learn what you need, and get on with your life. If you are interested in a seminar that is not currently scheduled, please contact us to request it.
Essential Audio Techniques Register NOW!
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Saturday March 20, 2010 - 12:30 - 5:00pm
Overview: Audio is half of your film. Unfortunately, audio quality in independent film production is typically overlooked or under budgeted. In this 4-hour seminar you will lear to bring professional level audio results to your independent productions. Hands-on demonstrations of industry standard equipment will highlight the "Field Audio" portion of this seminar. Learn the proper ways to set audio levels, hold and position a boom pole, reduce and eliminate background noise. A live demonstration of audio editing techniques using Apple's Soundtrack Pro will highlight the "Post Production Audio" portion of this seminar. Learn how to normalize dialog levels, mix music, use filters like compressor, eq, noise reduction, and exporting your final mix back to your editing software. This is a seminar you don't want to miss!
The Importance of Quality in Indie Filmmakking
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Class: 1 hour
Schedule: Not Currently Scheduled
Overview: Filmmaking has become extremely accessible with low-cost cameras and non-linear editing software that comes pre-installed on every PC and Mac. It has become easier than ever to create and distribute your films. In order to succeed as a professional in this ever-changing industry, you need to set your standards high. In this hour-long seminar, 2009 Arizona Filmaker of the Year and Rocky Mountain Emmy cinematographer Webb Pickersgill will be exploring the absolute necessity of the relentless pursuit of quality in filmmaking. Quality that is needed in order for us to survive as individual artists, and more importantly to be taken seriously as a professional filmmaking industry here in Phoenix.
Essential Cinematography Techniques
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Not Currently Scheduled
Overview: You want to know professional techniques to improve the production quality of your films? Don't want to take an entire 15-week class at a film school? In just 4 hours we'll cover the fundamentals of cinematography and making your films look great. Simple and effective lighting, framing, and camera movements. Live demonstrations with top-of-the line equipment and lighting. Webb Pickersgill is a producer/director/cinematographer/editor who has credits in feature film, short film, and commercials. Raise the quality of your cinematography, and sign up for this seminar today.
"Fly on the Wall" Editing Workflow with Webb Pickersgill
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Saturday October 3, 2009 - 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Overview: Over the course of my career, I have been asked my many people if they could just be a "fly on the wall" and watch an editing session. So, I designed this over-length seminar to help reproduce an actual end-to-end editing session. Using footage that was shot for a 48-hour film challenge, we will be working in real time to edit a short film from importing the footage through outputting to tape. Topics covered along the way include: Footage ingest, media management, rough edit, cutting for continuity, cutting for time, final editing, basic special effects, color correction, audio post-production, final render, compressing for the web, and delivery on tape. Software that will be demonstrated is: Final Cut Pro 2.0, Soundtrack Pro 2.0, After Effects CS4.
48-Hour Film Challenges - Secrets to Success
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner-Advanced
Price: $50 (Discounts for IFP/Phx Members and team registrations.)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Saturday October 31, 2009 - 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Location: IFP/Phx Office, 1700 N 7th Avenue, Suite #250, Phoenix, AZ 85007
Overview: A very fun and exciting way to make a short film is to participate in one of the various 48-hour film competitions. In the competitions, you must write, shoot, edit, and deliver a film within a short time period (typically 48 hours), that have specific requirements like a line of dialog, a prop, and a genre. Do you want to bring your 48-hour team's film production to the next level? Do you want to improve the production quality of your film and overall effectiveness of your time-crunch-team? Webb Pickersgill is a producer/director/cinematographer/editor who is a 4-time 1st Place winner of the IFP/Phx Beat the Clock Film challenges (48h-2006, 48h-2008, 36h-2008, 24h-2009) as well as the 2009 Arizona Filmmaker of the Year. In this specialized seminar, he will discuss in detail the process and techniques he and his team used to make his award-winning films. Some of the topics covered are: effective pre-planning, essential scheduling, allowing for sleep and food, common pitfalls, structured collaboration teamwork, using the prop, dialog and genre properly, production techniques to improve your quality, editing and post production, and delivering effortlessly on time.
Awesome Adobe After Effects CS4
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Saturday November 21, 2009 - 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Overview: Adobe After Effects has been a staple of visual effects artists for years. It can be used to create a wide variety of visual effects from animating title sequences to compositing complicated multi-layer visual effects. This seminar will demonstrate in realtime, several shots from locally-produced independent films, and how the visual effects were created. Topics include: pulling good green screen keys, manual rotoscoping, "fixing it in post" shots, object removal, motion tracking, corner-pin tracking, particle effects, and much more.
4-Hour Film School
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Saturday December 5, 2009 - 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Overview: The bootcamp of filmmaking. Come in with nothing, leave with the best tips and tricks to make a film. Topics covered include: Pre-production and planning, essential cinematography for great shots, lighting essentials, basic audio techniques, editing your film, basic color fixes, audio mixing, and output. Do you have a home video camera and some editing software at home? Learn how to make a film!
Codecs and Video Quality - Editing through Delivery
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Intermediate
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4.5 hours
Schedule: Not currently scheduled
Overview: We will discuss in technical detail the various types of codecs that can be used in video, which ones are most appropriate for editing, and which ones can be used for final delivery to a distributor or film festival. We will also discuss the variety of physical media types available for delivery (DV, HDCAM, DVD, BluRay, etc) and some of the challenges of getting your final film onto these types of masters.
Getting Professional Results with your Home Camcorder
Presenter: Webb Pickersgill
Level: Beginner
Price: $50 ($30 for IFP/Phx Members)
Class: 4 hours
Schedule: Not currently scheduled
Overview: You have a home camcorder, or perhaps you've invested in a "prosumer" camcorder. You have raw power in the palm of your hand, but you really don't understand what all the options and features of your camera are for. In this interactive seminar designed for beginners, we will go over basic camera operation and features found on most modern-day cameras. We also cover basic cinematography and lighting concepts to help improve the quality of your videos.