Double the Fun!
School’s out, but students are staying busy at Youth Beat! 72 eager-to-learn Oakland teens will be with us this summer learning Photography, filmmaking techniques and 3-D animation, and producing professional-quality videos for clients around the Bay Area.
And 72? Well, that’s twice as many students as we were serving during the summers before COVID!
15 students will be learning animation via Zoom, and they’ve already picked up tripods and tablets to start sketching and bringing their 3-D animated characters to life -- all from home -- and they’re super excited that Pixar Animator, MontaQue Ruffin, will be joining their class to fill them in on how he acted out and drew characters for the hit movie, Soul. We’re sure the summer animation students are going to produce outstanding creations, so stay tuned to see those at the end of July!
30 students are enrolled in our beginning filmmaking class. Like the animation students, they’ll also be attending class via Zoom. They’ll learn all the basics of film production and will film and edit four films by the end of the program . . . and of course, we’ll be sharing those films too.
And we’re super proud that 15 Oakland highschoolers are enrolled in our advanced filmmaking class, and they’ll be coming to KDOL-TV for classes! This is a really big deal since these are students who started with Youth Beat during the pandemic -- practicing skills at home and attending class via Zoom. So it’s fantastic to get to meet these students in person. And for the students? It’s a genuine joy for them to get to be in the same space with their Youth Beat friends -- kids they’ve only known through Zoom!
These advanced students will learn to use the next level of camera equipment and lighting techniques. And they’ll explore the many roles within a fully functioning production company. They’ll work on a couple of narrative films -- with scripts written by Youth Beat students! They’ll also be the masterminds behind a number of Youth Beat PRO projects -- including projects for Oakland Unified School District, Visit Oakland, and Oakland’s Rotary Club -- and they’ll get paid for it!
The bottom line? It’s going to be one big, AWESOME summer at Youth Beat with 72 Oakland students flexing their creative muscles, taking creative risks, chatting with industry experts, and gaining employable skills that will take their filmmaking and animation careers to new heights!