Blue Jeans and Movies

What do Levi's 501s and movie making have in common?  Absolutely nothing.  But from now until the end of summer, Levi's is sponsoring a film workshop inside MOCA's Geffen Contemporary in the heart of Little Tokyo.  To be honest, the "workshop" is more like a full service production facility that is COMPLETELY FREE FOR YOU TO USE!  They also provide educational events with working film professionals as teachers.  Check the website for the full schedule:  http://workshops.levi.com/

Some of the items you can borrow for free!

This is a filmmaker's dream come true!  There are editing bays loaded with Final Cut Pro, a giant green screen setup, a mini stop-motion animation studio and all the lighting, camera and miscellaneous gear you'll need to make a film, all at your disposal for a whopping price of $0.00!  That's right!  It's all free!  You can borrow the lighting equipment, grip equipment and cameras for free.  If you shoot a movie using traditional film, the Levi's workshop will even develop and transfer it for you for a small fee (this is the only part of the workshop that's not free).

If you have movies on VHS or any older media, the Levi's workshop will transfer them to DVD for you for FREE!  I plan on transferring my performance from Point Break Live to DVD.  If you've never been to the show, the audience votes one audience member to play Keanu Reeves' role via cue cards.  The joke is that his acting was so bad, anyone could do it!  I auditioned and was voted in with the loudest audience cheer!  Keeping with the theme of the early 90's, they gave me a VHS recording of the evening's show.

While the Levi's film workshop is great for budding filmmakers, there are also activities for people that are just curious about the art of filmmaking.  You can play around in front of a super slow motion camera, make your own green screen movie or animate something via a Phonotrope, a modern day version of the Zeotrope, powered by a record player.  You can see what other people have created on Levi's Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/levis

Here's my Phonotrope animation, "HeartBomb".

I still don't know how blue jeans are related to movies, but I'm not complaining if they're going to make free resources available to me so that I can pursue my dreams!  For those filmmakers who complain that it costs too much to make a movie, you are now officially out of excuses.  Grab that script you've been working on, head to the Levi's Film Workshop and turn your story into a reality!

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