Seminar-Workshop on Basic Filming and Acting

Finally, the much awaited seminar-workshop on basic filming and acting was pushed thru last January 14 at High School Academic and Cultural Center from 8:00 AM until 12:00 NN. Approved by the Director of Religious Education Department, Fr. Cornelio E. Moral, the half-day activity was envisioned to provide necessary inputs on basic concepts and technical aspects of filming and acting in helping our REED students prepare for and come up their own short films based on the Ten Commandments and Parables of Jesus written and presented in the modern context. 

Mr. Erwin Nicavera

Mr. Erwin Nicavera of GMA TV Network, an alumnus and working student of the University was the resource speaker. His simple yet concise presentation of the fundamentals in filming and acting, citing his personal experience on production and utilizing some short films as samples, made easy for our students to grasp and assimilate the ideas they needed most. To make his talk more interesting, he provided short activities in between to allow active participation of the students and gather their ideas, too.

On our end, this activity is really bringing Religious Education to a new level by adapting modern approaches in making the subject more interesting, fascinating, and relevant. And I believe filming can be a powerful and creative tool/venue to draw out students' interest and creativity in REED subjects by allowing them to create a meaningful, creative and relevant learning output. By using ways familiar to them as young people of this generation such as filming, learning experience can be fun, and they can best articulate their learning in ways they can best express themselves. Learning the Ten Commandments and Parables of Jesus can be very boring. But using the film, students are asked to explore and communicate the moral issues and values in the commandment or parable they have chosen using their own creativity, imagination, research, and significant human  experiences. This is what drives me most why I require my students to do film projects in my class. I just simply believe in their creative minds and skills. They just simply need an inspiration, encouragement and guidance to do it. And as their adviser, I am just here to give them the right push, motivation and supervision to make their wonderful ideas and over-brimming energy be put into good use.

 

But more than just coming up an entertainment output, the films they have to produce are intended for evangelizing, social awareness and transformation. As part of the guiding criteria for coming up their films, students are asked how effective and relevant are their films in making their audience realize and respond to the issues and values they are presenting in their films. At the onset, the film makers are told that more than just entertaining people, their films must teach the values of the Gospel to highlight the religious education dimension of their opus. This simply means putting modern technology at the service of life and the Gospel. And I strongly convinced that REED students can make this happen given an opportunity and  supportive environment.

Those who participated in this seminar-workshop were REED students under my class and under Mrs. Genie Pedrosa and Mrs. Evalyn Recaido.