Generator – Video production workshop

Medrar Studio

Workshops

Medrar For Contemporary art

1 September 2014 - 1 December 2014

Generator  –  Production workshop for video art and experimental film 

About the Workshop:

Over the past few years, Medrar has been developing the Cairo Video Festival into a platform for local production, as well as the promotion of international experiments in filmmaking. The first video art and experimental film workshop took place in late 2013 and resulted in four shorts. This year, we decided to expand the program to provide participants with small production grants (supported by Pro Helvetia – The Swiss Arts Council) in addition to insightful presentations, discussions and critique sessions to assist them in making new films, which we are proudly showing in a special screening program.

Mohamed Abdelkarim (Egypt) and Christoph Oertli (Switzerland), both internationally acclaimed visual artists and filmmakers, were invited to lead the workshop and oversee the new productions. They selected five Egyptian artists of diverse backgrounds to join them, Christoph and Abdelkarim used the narrative based on cinematography and creating allegory that play a role as interpretation. for the subject I’m threading on it. 

The workshop aims to create a think tank and atmosphere that enables the development of the participants’ skills and knowledge in the process of video production, with an overview of video making history. 

Workshop program: 

Theoretical Sessions

The workshop included theoretical sessions that covered the following topics: classics videos, Found Footage, Image-Sound, video Installation, Staging reality, Camera as a tool, Video clip, Time manipulations, Cinematography, narrative videos, video and politics, feminism movements in cinema.

Production & Post-Production

Participants were asked to choose an idea / theme as subject of their work. Then, in one or multiples sessions, in a one on one setting, the selected ideas were discussed, analyzed and conceptualized to become a seed of an art project. At this stage, participants conduct research and collect material to be used in the making of the video. 

After shaping the project theoretically, each of the participants chose a location to shoot his/her video with the assistance of a producer. Some artists took their footage under the guidance of their mentors, while others preferred to shoot on their own. 

As the levels of proficiency of the participants varied, those who had experience in video making chose to do the editing by themselves, while the others edited their works at Medrar. 

Produced videos

  • Ahmed Shawky, Cactus Painting
  • Mai AlShazly, Undercurrents
  • Marwa Benhalim, Refrain: (Verb)
  • Nadia Mounier, Made in China
  • Rania Fouad, Haiku