Coming Up: Tabletop Moviemaking

"What if we shrank it down and put it all on a table?" asked Brick Maier a couple of years ago. The former middle school teacher earned a Fullbright in 2004 and spent three years abroad researching and developing a video production methodology to use in K-12 schools as a way of enhancing not just media literacy, but reading, writing and oral skills. "Having taught digital video production for a while, I was looking for a faster way to integrate digital video into learning contexts," says the LA-based Maier, who will host the "Film Festival in 90 Minutes" workshop for students, ages 10 - 14, at the Hammer Museum this coming Sunday, July 12. "Walking through a museum at some point and seeing the diorama theater displays from Europe was where it all clicked: we could shrink the whole thing down and put it all on the table," he explains. The result of Maier's research and epiphany is Tabletop Moviemaking, which unites reading and writing with digital video by scaling the production process down to the top of a table. Participants - starting at age 5 - work with miniature sets and cut-out characters, devising a script, then shooting and editing, and adding titles and credits. "Media literacy skills are important," Maier says, "but rather than starting with analysis, I wanted to work from an active and participatory point of view, so we start with authoring, with writing, orality and language." Maier adds that this emphasis was strategic. "It comes out of developing a model that would be sustainable in schools where I know from my own background that language arts are so important," he says. More significantly, however, Maier's melding of writing and production obviates the all too common complaint that digital video ignores reading and writing. Indeed, while Maier has held numerous workshops both nationally and internationally, he currently hosts frequent events at 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center with sites in Echo Park and Venice. The Hammer's "Film Festival" starts at noon, and requires pre-registration. Visit the 826LA site, or call 310-305-8418 to register.