Films with voice workshop
Hi! I'm Cami.
Hello my friends! I'm so excited to be here with you to create some beautiful and powerful work together. I know you will create beautiful and powerful work, because you all have something important to share, and I just want to help you share it in the most powerful way.
By way of introduction, I live in Utah, I'm a mom of four kids ages 7 to 18, and wife of a crazy supportive husband. I am a family photographer and videographer, and I explore all avenues of creative expression (mostly photography-related) in my personal work, which I consider to be my most important work. My hope is always that any efforts I put forth in my personal work will eventually seep into my business, which will make it more uniquely mine. But my real passion is teaching. I've taught music, writing, photography, gymnastics, planning and organization, and a host of other little things, so it's safe to say I've always been a teacher. But I also love cycling, books, movies, paddle boarding, and all sorts of other human things. I'm an absolute introvert, but if I'm at a party or event, I'll find a way to make myself the center of attention. It's a paradox, but dichotomy and and internal struggle is pretty much my obsession, so it all makes sense to me.
Why are you here?
Memories and thoughts are more than words or images, they are feelings. If you’ve ever tried to explain a moment of huge impact in your life, whether it be an event or an idea, you have likely had a hard time putting it into words. You might have tried to create the feeling using images. It seems an impossible task at times to express ourselves adequately, especially when deep emotion is involved. But many of us feel the urge to try. This is why we become artists.
As photographers or filmmakers, we spend most of our time trying to figure out how to create a story through only visual means. “Show, not tell,” becomes the photography storyteller’s mantra. But let’s remember, that advice was originally meant for textual storytelling, not visual. It seems no matter what medium we use, the artist’s goal is always to get to the heart of the story, the underlying emotion in any given moment or event, without having to spell it out. Chances are, you’ve found some limitations in still images, so you’ve found your way into moving images through films. Now, even with all the added emotional impact of video and music, you might have found another stumbling block when you often feel the need to explain some deeper meaning. So here you are, trying to find your way back to words.
Why Me? Why Films?
I started with words. As a child, I was never naturally drawn to or especially talented in the visual arts. When I had pictures and overwhelming emotions in my mind, they spilled out in poems, stories, and journal entries. I had all these really big ideas and feelings inside me about the world I saw and experienced—everything from the warm grass feeling like home, or a climbing tree or an open field felt like adventure, to the way the mountains surrounded our entire valley like a giant fortress of motherly protection. I did not look at the lake shining in the distance from my house and say, “Oooh, that’s pretty.” Instead there was almost a pain of longing for the words to describe what I felt. I was a relatively independent and solitary child for someone who comes from a family with 7 children. There was no one I especially felt I could share any of this with, nor did I really feel the need to share it. I didn’t expect anyone to understand me. I just wanted it out of my head, somewhere else, so it all didn’t feel so big inside me.I went to school to study literature and copy editing, and I still love all things about the written word.
Later on, in my early motherhood years, I longed for a more visual outlet. I have two sons who were diagnosed with autism when they were very young. They had an extremely hard time expressing themselves and a very limited vocabulary for a long time. I wrote and wrote in a blog about the difficult challenges we faced as a family, but I entered the world of the visual, almost instinctually, to tell their story in a way that made sense to me. I began art journaling, as poor as my drawing and painting skills were. Eventually, I turned to photography instead, storytelling from the beginning. I’ve spent over a decade focused on photography as my main artistic outlet.
Over time, my focus moved away from my boys (now independent teens) and our life with autism. I’ve learned who I am as an artist, so much about what I want to express. I use my girls as subjects most often, but have found so many other ways to explore my voice. I have always broken rules and pushed boundaries as I search for the best way to get those inexpressible feelings out. In the process, I realized I’ve pushed aside so many other opportunities for expression. I started to feel the pull toward something more than just a still image. I began to write short poems or essays that were illustrated by images, and created more involved photography projects that could show more than one piece of the puzzle at a time.
Filmmaking was the obvious next step, as I could create movement, develop a storyline, and then add that master manipulator—music. I can’t ignore the major impact music has had on my life either, as I studied and taught viola, piano, and vocal music through college and well into my adult years. The more we feel, the more mediums we look for to express those feelings. These tools build on each other, work together, and reach all of our senses for a reason. We as humans have always looked for ways to get what is inside out into the world, and we will use every imaginable context to try.
I have split this workshop into 3 weeks, but feel free to take it at whatever pace you wish! There is a minimal amount of text to read, and most of the lessons are in video form. All videos can be streamed straight on this website, or can be downloaded to watch at your own convenience.
As I am not doing this workshop live, I will not be giving feedback on assignments. However, i would still love to see them! You can join the Facebook group to share your progress and connect with other students, and I’ll drop in from time to time as well!
FACEBOOK GROUP COMING SOON.
Good luck and have fun!