Michael Mittelstaedt, director of the Motion Picture Arts Division at the acclaimed Interlochen Center for the Arts, will deliver a presentation for teenagers who love filmmaking.
He will talk about ways in which high school filmmakers can best achieve their creative and professional goals. He will also answer questions from students and parents.
As digital media has spread around the globe, teenagers are now able to produce high quality films that previously required significant sums of money and large professional crews. As a result, standards are rising and competition among young filmmakers is growing more intense. Mittelstaedt will share his insights around not only producing creatively accomplished films, but also navigating the numerous challenges that surround young filmmakers, from developing ideas, to recruiting and motivating cast and crews, and producing the film itself.
Mittelstaedt created and leads the film program at Interlochen Center for the Arts. The MPA program is five years old and is housed in the DeRoy Center for Film Studies, the only facility of its kind in the country, dedicated to film studies and production at the high school level. Interlochen offers both a high school and a summer arts program. Interlochen is also unique in the degree to which it facilitates collaboration among actors, musicians, dancers, visual artists and filmmakers – all of whom live and work together in an artistic community.
This presentation is made possible by the Westport Youth Film Festival (WYFF), which is a program of the Westport Arts Center, a not-for-profit arts organization. Interlochen and WYFF maintain a strong relationship, and each year one WYFF entrant is eligible for a scholarship to Interlochen's Summer Arts program.
