PERSONAL FILMMAKING: DIRECTING, WRITING & ACTING W/ STEPHEN CONE

Work with Stephen Cone, an award-winning independent filmmaker whose work has recently been featured in early-career retrospectives on the Criterion Channel and MUBI. 

View the MUBI trailer for AWAKENINGS below; a retrospective of The Wise Kids, Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, and Princess Cyd. Working with Stephen has inspired actors to create their own work. 

An all-encompassing personal narrative crash course, this organic, free-wheeling weekend workshop will empower aspiring actor-filmmakers to do bold, honest and interesting work for, behind, and in front of the camera. With an emphasis on lived experience, feeling, form, trust, and DIY innovation, students will leave inspired to be their own scrappy, vibrant, poetic film studio.

Day 1 Participants will collaborate on a filmed ensemble narrative experiment, followed by an extended brainstorm and writing session towards a personal film project of each participant's choosing.

Day 2  Each actor-filmmaker will have an opportunity to work with Stephen and fellow actors to sketch out and rehearse a piece of their imagined project. Finally, students will be tasked with using technology at their disposal to create an additional fragment to share, at some point in the future, with their fellow participants.

PRE-REQUISITES: This is an intermediate/advanced level course requiring strong actor training, experience, and on-camera training.  Admission will be determined by H/R. 

BIO
Stephen Cone is a South Carolina-raised, Chicago-based filmmaker whose work has recently been featured in early-career retrospectives on the Criterion Channel and MUBI, as well as at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, Berlin's Unknown Pleasures American Film Festival, and Manchester's Bigger Than Life. His film Princess Cyd was named one of the best movies of the decade by Vanity Fair, appeared on multiple Best of the Year lists including IndieWire, Vulture, Vanity Fair, Vox and NPR, and screened at dozens of festivals worldwide, including the BFI London Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, and Frameline, before it was acquired for distribution by Wolfe Releasing. Previously, his film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party was featured in The New York Times "Anatomy of a Scene" series, screened within BAMcinemaFest and BFI Flare London, and was the winner of the Silver Q Hugo Award at the 2015 Chicago International Film Festival. Stephen’s film The Wise Kids won the Outfest Grand Jury Awards for US Feature and Screenwriting in 2011 and was a New York Times Critics Pick. Most recently, Stephen has written screenplays for Searchlight Pictures and Tucker Tooley Entertainment, and is in development on projects for Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment (The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer), AgX (The Persian Version), Alix Madigan's Mad Dog Films (Winter's Bone, Hold Your Breath), and Savage Rose (Everything Everywhere All At Once), as well as his own company Sunroom Pictures. Stephen has written and directed television for AMC Networks/the Sundance Channel.

2 DAY WORKSHOP - NEW FEBRUARY WORKSHOP JUST ADDED!