Overview of the Interactive Film School
Farther down the screen is an area call What's Taught

Filmmaker Rajko Grlic was approached about writing a textbook for a masters class in film directing. But, his experience in the classroom showed that his students weren't reading assigned textbooks. So he decided to produce a multimedia text, enabling him to use film clips and sound to demonstrate the techniques of film and video storytelling.

Like many educational CD-ROMs, this one is set in a virtual classroom building with each room focusing on a different topic. Students can move from room to room by clicking on doors and hallways using a computer mouse.

A short film titled "Pasta Paolo" was written and produced for the CD-ROM. From the original premise to the final cut, each step in the production of "Pasta Paolo" is used to demonstrate the concepts and techniques of filmmaking. Throughout the program, the user can discover notes from the actual crew on the problems they encountered during the production.

The film school environment that you enter is one of an actual film school that's closed for the summer, allowing the user unlimited access to the entire building, including nooks and crannies that hold the most useful secrets of filmmaking. Once you enter the film school, you'll find the deserted virtual classrooms, dilapidated walls are covered with cobwebs, paint splotches, and graffiti, and chairs and podiums stand empty. But, as the voice of a narrator explains, all the materials from last year's film courses are lying around — lecture notes from professors, completed assignments by students, and pieces of a student-made film. There's also plenty of virtual equipment to play with.

To create the film school environment, the team first photographed the institution's empty rooms and litter-strewn halls. They then "painted" in, one at a time, each of the papers, posters and objects that belong in the school using Adobe Photoshop on Macintosh computers. Animations were added, and over two thousand graphics were created to bring the School to life. The designers paid plenty of attention to details in the virtual environment. Some of the graffiti illustrates film-making techniques, and posters for famous films abound. The paper-towel dispenser in the bathroom rolls out film trivia.

"I chose the deserted film school to develop in each of the students the spirit of discovery, of curiosity, and at the same time to offer them a chance to find their own way," says Mr. Grlic. In fact, the environment is based on an abandoned mental institution in Athens, Ohio. "It fits perfectly," quips Mr. Grlic. "I started to think there must be some secret connection between mental institutions and film schools."

The virtual film school is also a kind of critique on the practices of some real film schools, says Mr. Grlic. "Many film schools are very inflexible and kill the student's imagination so that they become 'technical artists,'" he says. The CD-ROM, he adds, "is a shelter which protects its students and allows them to experience film and decide what they really want to do."

The film school's course content is found in twelve interactive rooms on four floors. It's made up of about 1200 pages of information on-screen, and over 100 QuickTime movies. Rajko Grlic also contacted respected professional filmmakers and instructors from the world's most famous film schools. They agreed to write "guest lectures" (some sent video clips) which are featured throughout the school.

The CD-ROM can also provide rich examples that would be impossible in a printed textbook. A section on "film grammar" shows examples of what a tilting shot looks like, as well as a low-angle shot, a zoom shot, and many others. A lighting studio lets students turn on lights in various positions to see how different combinations appear through the camera. A sound-mixing board in the production room lets users hear how the addition or subtraction of ambient sound and sound effects changes the feel of a film.

On the second floor of the virtual film school, users walk through the entire process of making a short student production: writing the script, auditioning actors, shooting the film, editing it, even adding credits. Although the abandoned-school conceit continues, this portion of the CD is essentially an interactive documentary about an actual course Mr. Grlic gave at Ohio University two years ago. Users can peek at the notes his students wrote about the process, see what mistakes they made, and enjoy photographs of zany moments in class.

The CD-ROM is also a reference tool for aspiring film makers, with listings of film festivals, descriptions of popular camera and lighting equipment, and a bibliography of recommended books.

The package contains four discs. Discs one and two hold the film school building, and disc number three is a footage disc. It holds 40 minutes of digital footage from the student film featured in the program. Music and sound files are also included, allowing the user to edit his own version of the film with any desktop editing software. Also on disc three is a detailed academic syllabus for educators who wish to use the program to teach a one-year production course. Disc four holds updated programs and the production hand book in PDF format.

Some professors are considering using the virtual film school in their courses. "It's much better than the abstraction of a textbook," says Larry Elin, an assistant professor of television, radio, and film at Syracuse University. "It's not quite the same as having a real experience with cameras and lights, but it's pretty darn close."

As a side note: the price of the Interactive Film School is $119.95; the college (Ohio University) is offering a related on-line course, for approx. $6,000.

What's taught in the Interactive Film School?

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What Is Your Refund Policy On the Master Film School?
Since CD's and DVD's can be copied and then returned (which we have had some problems with people doing), there are no refunds on the Master Film School. Defective items will items will be exchanged for the EXACT same item. There are NO exceptions to this policy.