Hawaii International Film Festival's Creative Lab offers free workshops

Web exclusive

Oct. 10, 2013
 

Given the Hawaii International Film Festival’s theme, “Celebrating a Century of Film in Hawaii,” it may come as a surprise to see opening night shared by two foreign films, Gina Kim’s Final Recipe and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises. HIFF Creative Lab director Michael Palmieri, though, is not surprised.

“Right now, Asia is the biggest market for growth in the entertainment industry,” he says. “[The United States] is still one of the best story-tellers, but we need to be considering how content can be geared to this big audience that’s there.”

Palmieri’s Creative Lab is HIFF’s educational arm, a place where aspiring filmmakers can learn and collaborate over the course of the film festival and find support and mentoring over the remainder of the year. This year just 11 screenwriters were accepted to the program, including one participant coming all the way from Korea.

How did Palmieri choose? Entrepreneurial spirit. Palmieri says, “We looked for people who had went out and made something, not just written something.”

To complement the immersive workshops of the Creative Lab, Palmieri and his team have put together a set of public workshops intended for aspiring filmmakers and movie fans alike. Says Palmieri, “The workshops are for people who love movies and want to see what it’s like and to inspire that kid in the audience who doesn’t even know yet that he wants to be a filmmaker.”

Sound like you? Check out a listing of some of the HIFF Creative Lab’s public events below.
 

Broadband Accelerator: A Conversation with Bing Chen

Oct. 11

The “Broadband Accelerator” program is HIFF Creative Lab’s response to the increasing popularity of entertainment content produced specifically for the Internet (think web series and viral videos). Who better to host a conversation on the unique challenges of Internet entertainment than YouTube global creator development and management lead, Bing Chen? Chen will speak from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Modern Honolulu Hotel on how to create and protect web content. Free.
 

Writers Accelerator: A Conversation with Bobby Moresco

Oct. 17

Film buffs will immediately recognize Bobby Moresco as the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of 2004’s Crash; film fanatics might even remember him as a co-producer on the Academy Award-winning film Million Dollar Baby. On Saturday the 17th, everyone is invited to a one-on-one conversation between the Creative Lab and Moresco at The Modern Honolulu. Imagine Inside the Actor’s Studio without the television screen partition. Free, 6-8 p.m.
 

Business of Acting: The Inside Scoop on Casting

Oct. 19

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is presenting a workshop on the casting process, with input from actors, directors and casting directors, including Keo Woolford (director of HIFF’s Closing Night Film, The Haumana) and Rene Haynes (casting director of The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Eclipse). Following a discussion, audience members will be selected to audition before the panel and receive feedback, as well as a behind-the-scenes peek at how movies are made. Free, 2-4 p.m., The Modern Honolulu.
 

For the HIFF Creative Lab’s full public line-up, visit hiff.org.