Workshops

Don’t miss these inspiring, educational and FREE film making workshops during the 2013 West Chester Film Festival.

All are welcome to the Meet & Greet at Pietro’s Prime on Saturday and to the workshops at the Warner Hotel.

Original Music in Filmmaking

Presented by Joe Moser, Music Composer & Sound Designer

Saturday, April 27, 12:00 PM at The Warner Hotel, 120 North High Street

This workshop will explore the role of a music composer in the process of filmmaking. The group will be involved, collaboratively, in the process of putting music to a short film clip. Through audience input regarding the dramatic needs of the scene, Joe will play options that demonstrate how the same piece of film can be affected in different ways by the mood, tempo, and timing of the music. In the process, he will touch on various ways of communicating with a composer throughout the filmmaking process, and will conclude by discussing some other budget-friendly ways of attaining and placing music for your own film.

Joe Moser has studied jazz and classical piano since an early age, and continued his education at Berklee College of Music. He has since become a prolific composer, producer, sound designer, and musical director, accruing a substantial list of film, advertising, and musical theater credits. Joe’s music often merges elements of a wide variety of genres. Some of his primary influences come from traditional orchestral repertoire, the electronic dance music scene, jazz history, and pop/rock music.

Through the years, Joe has worked with filmmakers from around the country, including local film production company, Crossbow Studio. For Crossbow Studio, under the direction of Greg Koorhan, he has composed original music for two past West Chester Film Festival award-winners, “Level Up” (2010) and “Following Chase” (2012). He has also worked on the musical teams for films such as Tim Burton’s “9″ and “Beethoven’s Big Break.” Most recently, he co-produced a remix/re-interpretation for Grammy nominated recording artist BT.

Now running a recording studio in Brooklyn, NY, Joe writes and records his music for film and advertising in-house, and produces and performs on albums for many New York based music artists. His studio is fully equipped to handle the recording, mixing, and mastering of music, as well as sound design, foley, ADR, and sound mixing for video.

Stuff That Works for Us

Presented by James Thompson and Pat Taggart

Saturday, April 27, 2:00 PM at The Warner Hotel, 120 North High Street

In film there are no rules, but there are definitely guidelines that will help you avoid disaster. Join former West Chester Film Festival Award-winning filmmakers Pat Taggart and James Thompson for a secret-sharing session that will cover every phase of the production process. Among many topics, Taggart and Thompson will discuss their tried and true formula that guarantees 100% commitment and engagement from both cast and crew from pre-production through post. Whether you are planning on making your first film or have several under your belt, this is a workshop not to be missed.

Lights, Camera, Action: Women’s Sexuality in and on Film

Presented by Darragh Dandurand Friedman

Sunday, April 28, 12:30 PM at The Warner Hotel, 120 North High Street

Ever wonder about the changing (and unchanging) roles of women in cinema, media desensitization and how these things affect us in our everyday lives? “Lights, Camera, Action” is a workshop focused on discussing ideas about women, sex and filmmaking. Concepts like social scripts, gender and sex representation, normality, media literacy, and cultural narratives will be dissected, prodded and poked! (Don’t worry, they’ll be defined at the beginning of the presentation!)

Darragh Dandurand Friedman is a student at Temple University in Philadelphia where she is studying Media Literacy and Women’s Studies with a focus in gender identity and human sexuality.
Darragh has addressed audiences on numerous topics, including a recent engagement at the 3rd Annual Girl Talk Summit in Harrisburg, PA speaking on media’s glorification of teenage pregnancy. Other recent topics have covered beauty, media and society, feminism and sexuality.

At present, Darragh is employed by Temple as a freelance production assistant and editor. Additionally, she tutors media and film software and is on the executive board of a newly founded undergraduate media research council. She is also working on her second documentary, “The Voices of Time Before They Are Silenced: Beautiful Agitators,” about civil rights activists in the mid-Twentieth Century. Darragh is the co-founder of the feminist website, FatalFemmes.wordpress.com.