Our popular BEHIND THE LENS KIDS’ FILMMAKING WORKSHOP offering hands on, production-based experiences for creative kids has new headquarters in Character Driven Media’s unique Airstream Studio.

BEHIND THE LENS WORKSHOP and the BEHIND THE LENS KIDS FILM FESTIVAL has been encouraging the gifts and talents of young filmmakers and actors since 2003 when the first Film Festival, sponsored by Victoria’s QFM radio station, screened its first movies at the Esquimalt Community Theatre.  Behind the Lens Workshop and Kids Film Festival was founded by Joan Herron, a third generation filmmaker/photographer whose own grandfather was an original board member of the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, later known as the National Film Board. Herron moved with her husband Tim to Nanaimo when he was offered a teaching position in the Theatre Department at Vancouver Island University in 2007.

Joan’s production company, Character Driven Media, had been offering “character driven” theatre and filmmaking workshops through her Brentwood Bay and Victoria-based studios as well as through the Esquimalt and Juan de Fuca Recreations Centres.  This unique approach to the production process takes participants through the entire production process from original concept to final frame over 10 session, including storyboarding, sound, lighting, acting, directing, editing, makeup, costumes, props and myriad other aspects of the filmmaking process.  Her philosophy runs counter to the typical plot or story driven process and encourages problem solving and teamwork through Adventure, Imagination and Honour- for other team members and the craft as a whole. Joan, a licensed aesthetician, has also been a regular presenter at “JumpCuts” Victoria Film Festival’s annual event for young filmmakers where her Special Effects Makeup workshop have been a hit over the years she has been applying bumps, bruises and other, more gory, film effects. Joan who, herself has six kids, also has a background as a writer and photographer with Island Parent Magazine, the Victoria Times-Colonist’s ‘Islander Magazine’ and as a producer/broadcast for ‘Our One’ on CHEK TV after beginning her theatre training with Victoria’s Bastion Theatre.

One of the biggest considerations in finding a new home for Character Driven Media’s Behind The Lens workshops was setting up all the equipment that goes into the filmmaking experience, including the ‘green screen’, recording studio and editing suites. Kids are also introduced to creating live broadcasts and online media which requires internet access.

The problem of studio space was solved when Joan turned a passion for Airstream trailers, also inherited from her dad, into a practical solution for a mobile production facility. The Airstream Studio now has at her Nanaimo home and her son Joel, who has been working on productions since high school, designed and built a gated fence that allows the studio to be taken on the road.

For more information on the workshops please visit: www.characterdriven.com. Registration is limited, but online registration is available through Character Driven Media’s online box office service www.gigtickets.org or by calling their toll free number: 866-705-KIDS (5437).  Workshop Films and those of other budding filmmakers will be screened at the annual “Behind The Lens Kids Film Festival” this fall at VIU’s Malaspina Theatre based on sponsorship and volunteer participation. Please contact joan@characterdriven.com if you’d be interested in participating in any capacity.

Makeup segment on CHEK TV’s ‘Go Magazine’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F29lOGpDf6g
First BEHIND THE LENS KIDS film festival featured on ‘The Daily’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNDsv8xmls