Movie Games are a fun and challenging social way to play with the visual magic of cinematic storytelling. They are designed to help people quickly and effectively learn screen acting, shooting, and editing. The process requires sharing a video camera as a Video Improv Team. You can learn more about Video Improv here: Creative Team Sport Here is a short video highlighting what it looked like in action at the Shelburne Film Camp in 2015.
This site is here as a free resource for anyone who wants to know the basic visual grammar of telling stories with motion pictures. Here you will find basic visual guidelines that are used in all Movie Games. Please read everything before you begin. You will find some sample games at the end. Try them out and see what fun happens. Let me know how it goes. Invent your own Movie Games once your team gets the hang of it.
More questions? Just write: Kimberly Smith
All movies are made edit-in-camera in a linear sequence shot by shot. Every player has to act and every player has to shoot. Each player gets one shot then passes the camera to the next player until the sequence is complete. Skillful teams can create spontaneous improvised movies in a fraction of the time the conventional movie making process requires. Many of the games take less than 30 minutes for a team of five to accomplish. Some as little as 15!
The only things you need are a love of your community, the courage to perform, a video camera, a tripod, and a screen for playback. You can even use a smartphone! Every Movie Game results in a finished edit-in-camera movie. You can play back your results immediately and learn faster. Serious artists can use Movie Games as a daily form of practice. The more you practice, the stronger and more efficient your Video Improv Team will get.
History: These movie making activities are an adaptation of ideas found in the book, “Improvisation For The Theater”, by Viola Spolin, published by Northwestern University Press in 1963. Seminal work for this approach to movie making began during Neptune Theatre School’s very successful Video Doc Shop for youth which I facilitated in July 1998. The Irondale Ensemble Project in Halifax, Nova Scotia was instrumental in helping me develop many of the newer movie improvisation ideas and activities in January 1999.
Learn more about Viola Spolin.
Get started now! Click Basic Guidelines
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