The post-Haitian earthquake period is a challenging time for
the youth and young adults in every Haitian community. The Mirebalais Youth
Filmmaking Learning
Center is being developed to address
some of the issues being experienced by the poor youth and young adults in the
Mirebalais community in Haiti.
There is a fertile and active community of videographers and filmmakers in
Mirebalais, who have numerous needs that cannot be addressed by existing
organizations in the community.
Cultural programming can be a powerful tool to help young people
make sense of the challenges they face; meaningful experiences in the arts,
humanities and sciences can help foster positive growth that is essential to
becoming a successful adult.
Program
Goals
1. To help the youth of Mirebalais increase
their creative skills and talent in arts
2. To improve the general academic
performance of children, youth and young adults in the Mirebalais community in Haiti
3. To increase opportunities for youth to
use their skills for the good of the general
public, for profit and/or non-profit.
4. To teach children and youth about
filmmaking and the film industry and how to market their finished products.
5. To enable Mirebalais youth and
children to achieve a school attendance rate of at least 92%.
6. To empower low-income, at-risk youth
to work as a team to learn about movie making, including learning about the process of
developing concepts, and planning, directing and producing documentary and
feature films. MPAH’s “Video and Filmmaking Learning Center for Youth in
Boston” program recognizes the fact that the key to performance is experiencing
success and that success is always a motivator—Many children and youth are
natural movie lovers and are motivated by this to experience all phases of
filmmaking, including learning how to create their own films.
Program Objectives
1. Pre-Production
Low-income,
at-risk youth will learn all the theoretical information needed prior to
starting a video or film project: how to
create a budget, do a script breakdown and create strip boards, develop a
production schedule and shooting schedule, find crew, scout locations etc…
2. Camera, audio and lighting technique
Youth participating
in the program will know how to use the camera, including setting up or
configuring the camera to get the best possible shot. They will learn how to
set up the lighting for documentary
interviews and for feature films.
3. Directing technique
Youth participating in the program
will learn how to turn a script into a film. For example, they will know how to direct the
actors to get the best out of them; how to shoot a variety of types of scenes,
including slow motion scenes and comedy scenes;how to develop small character
roles; how to balance a scene, etc.
4. Acting technique
Youth participating in the
program will learn about various techniques that can lead talented individuals
to become great actors.
5. Production
Youth will learn how to step into
production: They will know how to approve
a Script Lighting Diagram Shooting Schedule, Budget Breakdown.
6. Post-Production
Youth participating in the program will
know how to turn individual scenes ( “raw footage”) into a finished motion picture. They will know
how to use the best non-linear editing software to edit a movie. Students will
also learn to work as “composers” to add background video and filmmaking to
create dramatic or comical effects. They will learn to work as part of a “special
effect team” to add computer-generated images and backgrounds to enhance the
set or provide an as-yet-unseen character. Students will also learn how to fix
mistakes not corrected during principal shooting.
The Impact
Low-income, at-risk, disadvantaged youth will be able to direct
and produce their own documentary film and feature.
However, the Mirebalais youth filmmaking learning center
will
- Helps to improve and
enhance Intellectual and Emotional Intelligences of the disadvantaged youth,
the two factors that lead to Success.
-
- For the youth the
“video and filmmaking learning center” will improve their organizing &
higher order skills, creativity, self-assessment, flexible thinking, and
toleration of ambiguity.
- As for the components
of Emotional Intelligence, These video and filmmaking classes will have a
positive effect on all of them: Self-awareness, Mood Management,
Self-motivation, Impulse Control, and People Skills. They will learn to
identify their emotions, to use them appropriately and escape foul moods,
they will learn to work with an intrinsic motivation that follows their
feelings of accomplishment and success, they will manage to regulate their
emotions and impose self-discipline, and, finally, they acquire empathy
and warmth.
- They will become
visually literate and expressive at a level consistent with their
Intellectual, emotional and
physical development. To reach their potential for visual expression, students:
The
Motion Picture Association of Haiti, Inc. (MPAH) is seeking funding to support
the implementation of our Mirebalais
Youth Filmmaking
Learning Center.
This grant will be used as general operating support to aid our efforts to
diversify and deliver video programming instruction and production to the youth
in Mirebalais, Haiti and by assisting local
independent filmmakers through our wide range of services.
This fund will be used to help purchase video equipments and lighting sets.
Other Ways You Can Help
You can also donate Used Video equipment or Computers to our cause
We are looking for Mac computers or PCs in good working condition with these minimum specifications:
• Processor: 1 GHz
• Memory: 512 GB
• Hard Drive: 40 GB
If you’re interested in donating a computer that meets these specifications or a video camera , please send us an email at contact@mpah.org or fill out this form at http://www.mpahaiti.org/node/38. We’ll put that computer or video camera to good use, and you can receive a tax deduction!
1. Motion Picture Association of Haiti, Inc is an all-volunteer non-profit.
2. Donations to the Motion Picture Association of Haiti, Inc, no matter how small,
will make a BIG difference.
Other Ways to Donate
Donate Time
Volunteer either at our studio/office or from your home. We are in constant need of help with our administrative, outreach, and even production efforts
Donate Books
Contact us to make a tax-exempt Books donation.