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The Marquee

What’s happening at The Picture House

Summer is the Season for Creativity at The Picture House

by Francile Albright

It’s almost time for summer camps at The Picture House! We love seeing our theaters filled with students making movies, and we’re excited for all of the fun themes we have planned for this year.

We’ll start things off on August 1st with our Documentary Intensive for High School Students. In this camp, students learn about the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking and work together as a film production crew to create a short video for an area nonprofit. Not only do students get to learn and film on location with a professional filmmaker, they give back to their community by creating a video that highlights a deserving organization, and are eligible to receive volunteer credit hours for their school.

The fun continues when we begin Green Screen Camp at our location in Bronxville, and Page to Screen Camp at our location in Pelham on August 8th. In Bronxville, we are working in partnership with Shake the Tree Productions, which will transform one of our theaters into a mini film studio! Middle school students will work with this professional crew to learn about the technology behind their favorite special effects. Students will then create and produce their own short film, using their new skills in green screen technique.

In Pelham, students in grades K-5 will spend two weeks adapting and filming their own version of the beloved children’s story No Pirates Allowed! Said Library Lou. Students will work all together, and in smaller age-specific groups, to write their adapted script, scout locations, design props and set pieces, and learn about all of the different jobs on a movie set. In the second week, the focus is on casting and filming the movie — there are so many wonderful characters to act out, and maybe a few new ones that the students will add this summer!

All of the finished films from our summer camps will be featured in the annual Student Film Showcase, which will take place in October. At this free event, we feature the films made by our student filmmakers over the past year up on the big screen, and invite family, friends, and filmmakers to walk the red carpet and appreciate their hard work and creativity.

We are looking forward to seeing all of the new stories our students come up with this summer — future Oscar winners have got to start somewhere!