Second Session 28/09/2016: Black Star masterclass and meeting the tutors - 6pm-8pm

In the second session we were upstairs in the blue room and had 3 professional industry speakers that came in and spoke to us about their career and expertise in the film industry. The three speakers were: Tega Okiti, Emily Baily and Edwin. From each speaker I learnt something new that I can put into practice when making films as well as understanding all the different knowledge that each persona said aloud.

• Tega Okiti: Works on Black Star (Blockbuster Season)

-Makes sure everyone knows what they are doing and creates awareness to the public for which films are coming out and for the black star event as a whole.
-She is the project coordinator and is part of the event production as she makes sure that black star runs smoothly.
-Her studies include English lit and film at uni and she was recommended by careers to go into film which then lead her on to having gained an internship at the BFI, and this is how Tega came to start working in the industry.
-The progression routes that I have found out about is that one is able to get an internship at the BFI and this would be a great opportunity for myself for my future in order to start to become successful in the film industry.

As I didn't know a lot about Black Star, I decided to take some notes:

• Emily Bailey: Works as a DJ mixing visuals in films.

-Made her own animations as well as volunteering at the London Film Festival to help organise the event.

-She studied fine art at uni and put these skills into practice when she made her own footage that include artwork. 

-She does live visual mixing and projects the work onto particular objects (known as project mapping). 

-The two new aspects I learnt from Emily are that people can be a DJ in film by mixing visuals together, as well as volunteering to organise an event.

Below is a video that she wanted to show us when she was giving her presentation.

• Edwin: An artist who works in film.

-Edwin studied philosophy and this helped him to process and develop his ideas for his future in film.

-He sets up organisations such as Depden Cinema, which is part of the Black Star event.

-This tutor also works with music as he has made music and collaborated with others to create the best track they can.

-The progression routes he taught us is that one should begin with a script, then to remove any ethnicity within the characters and only add the ethnicity of the character back when the actors have been cast. This is so filmmakers can be fair to all ethnicity.