Day 1 Of A Filmmaking Workshop With FYI Films by Alex Munoz
Alex Munoz, Filmmaker and Founder of FYI Films: The story of The Scorpion and The Toad…do you know that story?
Film Courage: No?
Alex: They [his class] love this story and we act it out. So there is a toad, right? And he’s walking around and a scorpion comes down and says Hey, Toad. I need to get to the other side of the street. You know I can’t swim. Please help me. And the toad says I’m not going to help you because you’re going to sting me. I know how scorpions are.
Film Courage: What is Day 1 like for the FYI workshop [Alex’s program with incarcerated youth]? What are you going over first?
Alex: Well, Day 1 my students are like this [folds his arms in front] like Who are you? Some Hollywood guy telling us how to make films. And they’re like We don’t want to make Hollywood “b.s.” films. We want to make real sh*t. We don’t want to make fake stuff.
So they are…they resist me. And when I say We’re going to make a film. They do these phobic tilts like What? What is he talking about? How are we going to make a film? We’re locked in here? You’re feeding us b.s. Then I show them films that were made in the past and then they are Oh wow? And they become open to the possibility that they can really write and direct and perform their film over there.
So the first day is just ice breaker, it’s me getting them…me learning to trust them and them learning to trust me and we talk about stories. For instance I start out every day with the story of The Scorpion and The Toad…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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