MZed announced that it will kick off its touring filmmaking workshop tomorrow, (July 22), in Detroit. “Alex Buono’s Visual Storytelling 2: Style & Subtext in Cinema,” featuring Saturday Night Live cinematographer Alex Buono, is scheduled to hit 32 cities this summer, as a follow up to its 2013 tour which visited 31 cities and drew over 4,000 attendees.
The workshop will focus on lighting and shooting techniques with a full day of live demonstrations. Buono’s 15 seasons shooting for SNL have given him the opportunity to shoot essentially every filmmaking genre. Because of SNL‘s format, he faces incredible time demands. Virtually every shooting situation presents challenges that must be overcome with almost no prep time. He teaches attendees skills and techniques for a variety of lighting and shooting situations, such as shooting in mixed color temperatures, shooting in a car, choosing the proper lens and controlling natural light.
The workshop will be taught using gear that is practical and accessible. There will be a limited gear package used during the class and the instruction will use the same set of tools in different ways. This approach will give filmmakers range and flexibility to create several different looks with a modest set of affordable and easy-to-acquire resources.
Like its predecessor, Visual Storytelling 2 is divided into a daytime hands-on workshop and an evening lecture. For the lecture, Buono will focus on visual subtext, one of the biggest things that separates average films from the greatest films of all time. He will delve into art history, literature, religion, politics and philosophy, and will discuss the seven most practical ways to add subtext to your films – things like camera movement, composition, lighting, sound design, production design, hair design and even makeup.
For more information, visit www.visualstorytelling.com.
