An innovative program from Cinema Ed and our collaborators, FilmBoot24 is a 24-hour filmmaking bootcamp that brings together diverse members of the education and arts communities to support central tenets of Cinema Ed's mission: connecting high school students to their curriculum through filmmaking; exploring careers in the arts, specifically in the filmmaking industry; and providing a platform for students to share their stories with the world. This program looks to the future and presents new approaches to solve ingrained issues like youth unemployment and low graduation rates in our local communities. The weekend bootcamp works like this:

 

On Friday, high school students meet on a college campus and are matched in teams with college students and filmmaking professionals who serve as mentors. Each team is given a theme for their film that is tied to the current high school curriculum. Additionally, each team is required to use the same prop somehow in their film. Then, it is off to the races!

 

Teams have 24-hours to produce a short film!

 

So on Saturday, students return to campus to shoot, edit and fine-tune their work with the help of Cinema Ed’s professional mentors, Drew students and volunteers. It is an amazing day of shooting and editing and where teams race the clock to submit their film by the 6:00 pm deadline.

 

Sunday morning is reserved for professional judges to review each team’s film and determine which one will receive the Grand Jury Prize. On Sunday afternoon, the doors open for a “Red Carpet” event where all films are premiered at a free public screening and awards are presented.

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The impact has been amazing. Since FilmBoot24's inception in 2017, students have found work, via connections with mentors, on film productions in New York and New Jersey. Their films have been seen by industry professionals from HBO and Showtime, as well as Hollywood writers and producers. Some students are now working as mentors themselves.

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