The After Effects of Using Adobe Software at a California Summer Camp
From Summer Computer Camp at UCLA to Cinematographer for the Stars
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 30, 2006
A few summers ago, Jeremy, a freshman at the time at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, enrolled in a Digital Video & Movie Production course at iD Tech Camps’ UCLA location, one of the company’s many California summer camp locations. At this hands-on technology computer camp for ages seven to 17 located at universities nationwide, Jeremy developed an understanding for shooting, editing, and creating special effects using Adobe software. Jeremy’s father, an animator for Disney, inspired his son at a young age with a passion for filmmaking and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). Since perfecting his skills at camp, Jeremy attended Hollywood movie premieres as the cinematographer for 16 year-old Fred Medill, the host of “Fred TV.”
While having used Adobe software for school projects, Jeremy never used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects to create special effects for a movie until attending iD Tech Camps. Along with classmates, Jeremy created high-end special effects and learned advanced compositing and cinematography. Many of the effects that they created have been used in popular Hollywood movies. While a completely new program for Jeremy, After Effects quickly became a favorite. “You can do everything with After Effects, from making it rain to making a guy freeze in mid-air,” says Jeremy while describing his camp movie about the powers of good vs. evil. Jeremy and his classmates used an effect which caused three fleeing men to freeze in mid-air, before resuming running.
Jeremy’s movie premiered at Family Open House during camp. “Everyone watching the movie was very impressed by the quality of the special effects my son’s group was able to create in just one week,” says Jeremy’s mom. “The movie was a hit and I think we’ve watched it 100 times since then!”
Students like Jeremy use digitized footage in Adobe After Effects to add special effects like chroma key. They composited multiple layers of video to give the footage different effects. The software is so user-friendly that even a teenage camper like Jeremy can easily add impressive lasers and fire using plug-ins.
“It’s exciting teaching campers how to composite layers within their digital movie,” said Jeremy’s instructor Kevin, owner of a Hollywood-based production company. “Jeremy’s passion for filmmaking poured out of him each day, inside and outside of the classroom. He just really wanted to learn everything there was to know about filmmaking and caught on very quickly,” Kevin said.
Jeremy continued to accompany Fred to Hollywood premieres, getting experience shooting the stars. Someday he hopes to be a Cinematographer for motion pictures, just like Kevin, his mentor from camp!
About iD Tech Camps
Founded in 1999, iD Tech Camps provides hands-on technology summer camps for boys and girls ages seven to 17 at 40 prestigious universities nationwide. California summer camp locations include UCLA, UC Irvine, Pepperdine University, Cal Lutheran University, UCSD, Tiger Woods Learning Center, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara, St. Marys, Stanford University and as well as 29 other sites nationwide and in Spain. At these day and overnight camps, students produce digital movies, create video games, design web pages, learn programming and robotics, and more. The hands-on, project-based programs offer one computer per student with an average of 6 students per instructor. Each student completes a project at the end of the weeklong program. Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Canon and others have partnered with iD Tech Camps to raise the bar in technology education. For more information visit http://www. internaldrive. com (http://www. internaldrive. com).
Visit http://california. internaldrive. com (http://california. internaldrive. com) or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324) for additional information about the iD Tech Camp summer camps in California.
Media contact: Karen Thurm Safran, iD Tech Camps, 408-666-8353
You can download photos from www. internalDrive. com/press_photos. htm (http://www. internalDrive. com/press_photos. htm )
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