A few years ago, director/DP Ari Golan of Golan Studios/Atomic Imaging, in his continuing camera education efforts, came across Per Holmes’ Hollywood Camera Work’s “Master Course on Staging, Blocking and Special Visual Effects,” two 10-part DVD volumes.
After buying the volumes, Golan, who calls them “the best training in my lengthy career,” became a such an avid fan that he formed a partnership with Holmes, to give live seminars based on the Master Course in Los Angeles and New York — “where they are instant sellouts”– Golan says, and in Seattle, London, Copenhagen and are taking it to South America this summer.
Holmes’ one-of-a-kind “Green Screen Seminars for Directors and DPs”, and everyone else interested in being more competent to work on a high end green screen shoots, will be held this weekend, May 4-6, at Golan’s Studios’ new 1,900-sq. ft. stage with a 122×28-ft. green screen cyc.
Director and Hollywood Camera Work’s founder Per Holmes himself is the lead presenter, with Golan, who pioneered green screen production in Chicago, having run a green screen facility for 20 of his 27 years in business.
“People get blown away with this seminar because we show you all the cool things that open a world of what you can do with green screen,” says Golan.
“We start out with an image shot by a famous $20,000-a-day DP that has 14 staging and lighting errors in it. By the end of the seminar the guys have become very competent so when we reprise the image, they can identify the now-glaring errors made by the director and DP.”
The seminar takes the attendees – limited to 25 – through the full virtual set production, with camera moves, set extensions and solutions to live action problems.
“There’s a lecture and hands-on shooting and compositing,” Golan notes. “We work with every aspect, from decision making on the set, such as camera moves, markers, lighting, getting perfect green screen exposure easily and cheaply, to postproduction tracking, match-making, and compositing.”
Seminar hours are Friday, 4-9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cost is $895 and includes snacks and refreshments. At Golan Studios/Atomic Imaging’s Green Screen stage, 1501 N. Magnolia.
Golan Studios/Atomic Imaging is a full-service production facility for feature visual effects, corporate (McDonald’s, Apple, Unilever), commercials (Michelob, The Beef Council, Jaguar,) and live multi-camera television shows (Netflex Live-on-location shows, all Chicago summer festivals, and webcasting for the pharmaceuticals and music industries.
