By Modupe Lamikanra
Our delightful AFP project manager, Kemi ‘Lala’ Akindoju, actress and host, started day four on May 31 by offering each filmmakers advice on how to tweak their stories to give the best pitch on Friday. She then transitioned into the first masterclass of the day on casting.
Lala Akindoju
She advised the participants to always cast according to budget and the characters in the story, while bearing in mind the vibe each actor brings to set.
The next session was on Make-up and Feyzo make up and body artist brought on her A-game. She also spoke on costuming on a film set.
Feyzo
Feyzo started by showing a picture of Lala made-under for a role. It took the filmmakers a while to guess who was in the photo. She expressed how TV and film is make-believe and how everything needs a tiny bit of exaggeration.
She reminded the filmmakers that the goal of being on set is to make a good movie and knowing this can allow the best collaboration on set.
The masterclass ended with a Q&A about the process that Feyzo uses to create looks for movies, telling stories about how she had to use her creativity to come up with new solutions to make characters come to life.
After a lunch break, the filmmakers came back to a masterclass on producing for the online community by Director, Screenwriter and Producer, Victor Sanchez. He started the class by explaining how writing samples are essential to get into a writing room and how the equivalent to this for directors is a show reel.
Victor Sanchez
He explained the best way to network, advising the writers in the group to talk to producers and the actors to connect with directors. He also advised them on how to pitch, saying, “leave them wanting more, creating narrative pull and knowing what the people you are pitching to want to hear.”
He highlighted the little differences between working on film and TV, including the 100 meters dash that he does multiple times a day between the control room and set. He continually reminded the filmmakers about the importance of gaining an audience and how a web-series can help them win a community around it.
He ended the class wishing the filmmakers success in the future and gave them a note, “the reward for good work, is more work.”
Meanwhile, Director and Cinematographer, T Saint, who is also an alumnus of the Accelerate Filmmaker Project (2017) gave a few wise words of advice to the participants about short films. He said: “keep your short films short, suspense filled and punchy at the end.”
T Saint (Director & Cinematographer and Accelerate Filmmaker Project alumnus)
See more photos in the slides above
Read also: AFP Day 2018 Three – Directing & Cinematography
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