PROGRAM REGISTRATION: After you have your room assignment, go over to the Road Scholar table to register with the program staff and pick up your arrival packet which we'll review during our orientation session before dinner.

ORIENTATION: Begins before dinner. We'll have an overview of the program ahead and review the up-to-date schedule, responsibilities, safety guidelines, emergency procedures and any other administrative issues as well as answer your questions. Please be aware that local circumstances may require adjusting program elements. In the event of changes, we will notify you as quickly as possible. We appreciate your understanding.

Menus are contracted for the program and are designed to offer balanced, healthy meals for the participants.

Freshi Film staff introduces the overall course and sets expectations for the week.

Enjoy the remainder of the evening getting to know your fellow participants and discovering what you share beyond a love of lifelong learning.

Teams create the overall arc of their comic book panels, cast the parts from within the group, and figure out the best location on the hotel property to shoot the photos needed for their comic book.

Freshi Film teacher introduces the computer software that will be used and participants do hands-on exercises to familiarize themselves with the software basics.

Freshi Film teachers introduce the concept of "What is a Superhero?" and explore the powers and characteristics that make up a superhero, how the group will embody this originally created character, and how they will make a comic book and animatic of this superhero.

For this project, the group will be divided into smaller PRODUCTION UNITS. The groups meet and each group decides on a different superhero style premise for their comic book and begins early design ideas and story ideas.

Possible Superhero Style Premises (and descriptions):

1. Zero to Hero (A "nobody" down on his/her luck, with no-to-low social status, finds a way to acquire some super powers to become a superhero.)

2. Mutation (Through some extraordinary chemical or physical process, a person is able to mutate at will (or not - think "The Hulk") from an ordinary person into a superhero.)

3. Mind Powers (Through some quirk of fate or exposure to other forces, a person has a unique ability to bend nature with the mind and its powers.)

4. Powers passed down from family members (It's all about "the genes." Like a family trait or characteristic, superhero power is passed on from one to another by DNA.)

5. Secret Identity (This superhero lives a "double life" by living a routine workaday life by day, and a dynamic, danger-filled superhero life by night, or vice versa.)

6. Super Hero Teams/Squads (Superheros team up to accomplish certain goals, often complementing and sometimes contradicting one another's powers.)

7. The Price of Power (Eventually, every power exacts a price. What does a Superhero sacrifice for his/her power, and more importantly, what will he or she DO with that power? Fight good or fight Evil?)

8. Crime Fighter Born Out of Personal Tragedy (Batman, The Punisher)

9. Stranger (often alien) with the ability to help

The Scavenger Hunt for Camera Shots

The Freshi Film teacher will pass out film term sheets that have definitions of all of the Camera Angles they will be using. They will explain and demonstrate each of the terms, including all of the camera angles the film crews will have to record on the Scavenger Hunt.

Each crew will receive a camera and a Scavenger Hunt shot list. They will head outside to capture all of the shots on the list. This gives everyone a chance to get used to shooting with the camera and learning the different camera angles to use when they are shooting their film project.

They work as a production unit to create a rough draft of their comic book with dialogue.

HANDS ON EXPERIENCE: A stunt/movement specialist will conduct a workshop with participants to demonstrate safe and proper choreography and positioning. This allows participants to "think beyond their normal corporal/ physical norms" and assist in staging their superhero for an exciting and dynamic effect before final photos are taken for the Comic Book. Special attention will be paid to how body language translates into an action, that then elicits a particular feeling, thought and/or emotion.

Work on voice-over in rehearsal and, with the assistance of the teachers, record the voice-over tape for the animatic.

The teams review their storyboards and check to make sure they have all of the props, masks and costumes they need. They will decide what locations they need to shoot their panels and scout the hotel/adjoining public properties and other easily accessible shooting locations. Principal photography for panels begins. Freshi Film teachers monitor each team to assist with any technical issues and to make sure the teams are following/ modifying their storyboards efficiently and shooting effectively. Teams download and edit their photographs. Some photo treatments may need to be edited into the photo collection, such as a black & white or sepia treatment.

Enter onto one of the world's hottest and most active studio lots and be introduced to some of the artists that make the superhero action happen, from the comics to the big screen!

Up close and personal look at how a Comic Book is conceived and rendered from a professional Comic Artist - the perfect follow-up to a day at the studio. Delve deeper into what it takes, and the needed breaks, to make it in the commercial world of Comic Book creators.

HANDS ON EXPERIENCE: Finalize Films with Music, VO and Credits.

Freshi Film teachers continue to monitor teams and assist with any technical issues.

Principal Photography finishes. Editing continues and Comic Books are finalized and sent off for publishing and binding.

Teams move on to create Animatics. They use video cameras to film panels and match the voice-over track, add Music, and assist with editing to add special effects, sound effects and transitions between panels to fully produce a video of their Comic Book Superhero story.

Kicking off the final full day of the program, all Participants will receive a full color, high quality bound copy of the Comic Book Superhero book they have created throughout the week. An "Amazing Animatic Film Festival" will follow, and they will each have an opportunity to share their work, in a Q&A format, with the entire group. Digital downloads of the finished book onto Participant-provided thumbdrives will also be available following the Animatic presentation.

An Industry Panel of leading Comic Book Professionals or a single Giant in the industry will present how they individually contribute to the industry, what it takes to make the grade, and how new up-and-comers might approach getting a responsible and realistic start in the industry.

HOTEL CHECK OUT: This concludes the program. We hope you have enjoyed our Filmmaking Intergenerational program and will join us for other rewarding programs in the future. Best wishes for all your journeys.