Students learn making movies starts with having a story

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"How do people create movies?" asked Elise Diaz's fifth-grade students at Prairie Trail School in Wadsworth.

Every movie starts with a story.

Movie screenwriters create the story with the scenes in mind. They work with a producer to entice potential investors to fund the film and cover costs, such as filming, actors, staff, equipment, editing, location rentals, travel and a host of other items.

Actors are hired, scenes planned and, action - the paper script transforms into a three-dimensional story.

Bruce Sheridan, professor and chairman of the Cinema Art and Science department at Columbia College, Chicago, offers this advice to budding filmmakers: "This will sound counterintuitive, but the most important thing is to read and listen. Not just print, though. Comic and graphic novels have great value, as does music.

"Film is deceptively easy to learn to a basic level and extremely difficult to master. When we read or listen, it helps us to generate our own mental imagery, which is the key to avoiding being merely derivative while retaining the ability to work from and extend the work of others we most value."

Sheridan has a long list of film achievements that include winning the New Zealand Best Drama award for the tele-feature "Lawless." He is currently completing work on "The Cage," a film that takes place in Italy and features a child who attempts to use his artistic talent to raise money to buy a caged bird he becomes enamored with in a market. In Chicago, he is filming "Children First" in collaboration with the Cook County Family Court.

Columbia College offers more than 200 undergraduate courses in filmmaking through its Cinema Art and Science department and offers graduate-level film degrees, making it the largest film school in the country. Famous alumni include Paul Garnes, executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film "Selma."

Sheridan sets high goals for Columbia College students.

"Our aim is to graduate students who, after four years in the undergraduate program, are already professionals - at a level equal to or beyond where somebody could expect to be if they learned in the industry," he said.

Sheridan places an emphasis on the creative process and encourages students to develop strength and a commitment to a personal vision.

"The greatest challenge to aspiring young filmmakers is balancing their own confidence," he said. "They need enough to be motivated, but not overconfident, which becomes a barrier to learning and changing. They can have difficulty finding their own artistic voice if they are only interested in repeating the work of their filmmaking heroes."

Film fans might be interested to see Hollywood's picks for the best film talent. Tune into the 87th Academy Awards broadcast live on television Sunday, Feb. 22, 6 p.m. Central Time.

Check it out

The Warren-Newport Public Library District suggests these titles on filming and movies:

• "Get Filming!" by Mary Colson

• "I Want to Make Movies" by Mary R. Dunn

• "Learn to Speak Film: a Guide to Creating, Promoting & Screening Your Movies" by Michael Glassbourg

• "Writing, Producing & Directing Movies" by Geoffrey M. Horn

• "Art in Action: Have You Got What It Takes to be an Animator?" by Lisa Thompson