the ART of Micro Cinema
Film making workshop - techniques of micro cinema
Dive into the Art of Micro Cinema to discover the extraordinary worlds and intriguing narratives hidden in the textures and movements of familiar objects normally lost to the naked eye.
When we point little cameras at tiny objects we begin to see things in a totally new light. We can imagine a multitude of surprising scenarios - a birthday cake divided up but then reformed into the pieces of a chess game, or a ghost story retold amongst a collage of dusty old photos. We can watch the beautiful effects created by water and inks and play in the blur of the light to create mystery and atmosphere. Anything goes. Simple things made big and given meaning by finding the Art in the everyday.
We can arrange, light and record these tiny narratives on smartphone or video camera. Then by combining your own skills, whether that be animation, puppetry, editing, sound or any other artform, you can create you own unique little movie to show online, on screen or in the theatre.
Suitable for all video artists, filmmakers, animators, scenographers, theatre makers and any creatives who want to learn, play or just refresh their creativity in this fun hands-on laboratory style workshop.
During the workshop we will
1. Get a bit technical with cameras and lighting, focus and composition.
2. Discuss the work of other filmmakers, surrealists and experimental animators
3. Then straight to the Art working individually.
4. Gather materials and props and start to experiment with your camera.
5. Look at different technical and narrative possibilities.
6. Record your movie.
7. Select the best shots and learn some very simple editing.
8. Finally present your Micro Cinema masterpiece to the rest of the group.
Participants will be asked to bring
1. Smartphone and/or tablet with at least 5Gb memory to record video at 1080p.
2. Laptop. I will suggest you download the free Davinci Resolve by BlackMagic. (there are some free editing tools for tablet or phone but a laptop is always quicker)
3. Selection of objects and materials to film.
4. Torch, small lights.
5. Simple tool-kit, scissors, glue gun etc if you think you will make something.
6. Art materials, paints, inks etc.
7. Optional extras to bring: Camcorder, DSLR, Camera tripod and smartphone clip, angle poise lamp/film light etc.
Duration: 1 to 2 days (7 to 14 hours)
Capacity: maximum 12 adults
Testimonials from Pinerolo workshop 2024
'Gavin has a wonderful way to give space to the artists so they can find our own way to grow. I also really value that we had the opportunity to share and inspire one another every day. I think this was really helpful and created a great bond between us.
I am looking forward to the next one'
Physical theatre performer - France
'I learned to trust my own free experimentation with video and in doing so, I now understand the value of using the simplest working tools and to focus on well-shaped ideas. I realised that looking at the videos we had just made on the projector was really really useful. Not just to appreciate our images but also to look at them in a more objective and critical way.
I will now be implementing this approach in my own working method'
Film animator - Italy
See Calendar for upcoming workshops
Press reviews for Gavin Glover's recent short movies online
Bleak House
commissioned by the London Mime Festival
'For something more peculiar, and far darker, head for Gavin Glover’s Bleak House, which snoops inside a very grotty miniaturised house, through which a cot bed hurtles on a pulley, baby gurgles offset against recriminatory adult voices. A jostling congregation of armchairs round the cot and telling dribble under it provides a sinister evocation of unspeakable abuse. What starts by being quaintly charming becomes truly disturbing'
Dominic Cavendish - The Telegraph
'Bleak House, by puppeteer and theatre maker Gavin Glover, has a darker, more austere humour.
His camera, travelling through the rooms and corridors of a miniature derelict house, dislocate spatial scales and unsettles our perceptions – intriguing, disquieting and witty'
The Observer
The Shark was aware of Me
written by Alan Bissett, commissioned by Mull Theatre, Scotland
'The miniaturised city streets, with their tiny people and cardboard buildings, have a paradoxically strange familiarity… visualised and animated with the distinctive brilliance of master puppet-maker Gavin Glover'
Mark Brown - The National
Press reviews for movies in the shows by Faulty Optic Theatre of Animation
Bubbly Beds
'...is like a palm-sized Monty Python skit'
Peter Marks - Henson’s Puppet Festival - The New York Times
Soiled
'The satanic figures and trapped souls are projected onto a screen, creating a creepy but vividly compelling evocation of a bad dream'
Finton O’Toole - The Irish Times
'In this merging of live puppetry and film animation, Faulty Optic have discovered a genre they have made their own: they are indeed masters of their universe'
Dorothy Max Prior - Total Theatre Magazine
Horsehead
'We meet Horsehead on screen, alive and kicking, and later dead and maggot-ridden in a wonderful scene that has something of a Swankmeyer quality...'
Dorothy Max Prior - Total Theatre Magazine
