I first met Jeff Seckendorf on the feature film, “Finding Home” starring Genevieve Bujold, Louise Fletcher and Lisa Brenner. I was impressed. I found his cinematography and his visual understanding of how to tell a story the most impressive thing about the feature film. We’ve remained friends ever since. A few years later I had the opportunity to produce a short film that Jeff directed entitled “The Crux,” starring Misha Collins and Wilie Garson (Sex and the City). Still liked his understanding of film and how to tell the story visually.
Jeff Seckendorf has taught the “Art of Cinematography” for years at the International Film and Television Workshops (now the Maine Media Workshops). It was because of Jeff’s introduction that I began to teach a course on producing at the Workshops. One of my favorite highlights each year. More info at my website at www.EricMofford.com.
A few months ago I completed production through my production company Unconventional Media on the live action elements of the Electronic Arts (EA) video game, “Need For Speed:Undercover.” We shot a 25-minute narrative film that is interlaced into the game. Jeff was the Director of Photography and he did an amazing job. We chose the RED camera for a variety of reasons: the large chip allows full control of depth of field, and the camera records in a ‘raw’ mode which allowed us to deliver a 4k intermediate. Check out my RED Camera blog for more info.
So the long story short, Jeff has a wonderful training course for directors, cinematographers, editors, production designers called One On One Film Training. This is not a film school, but a confidential consulting and mentoring program that teaches visual storytelling. It doesn’t matter if you have a feature film or a video short, a TV commercial or music video, the process is the same. How to tell the story!
I saw the success of this program when I produced Diane Namm‘s short film “The Sacrifice” starring Chris Mulkey, Jon Lindstrom and Darby Stanchfield (Mad Men). Diane is a terrific writer and theater director but it was with Jeff’s One on One Training that she had a much better understanding of the filmmaking process. I’ve worked with many first time directors, on bigger budget shows, that didn’t know what to do. That wasn’t true with Diane Namm. She was a professional throughout production. I credit Jeff and his course (and I believe Diane would to) for this knowledge.
If you are not in Los Angeles, I know that One on One is available via ichat and podcasting. In fact, I join Jeff on the audio recording “Making a Short Film.” Check it out. Check out the program.
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