Online Christian Filmmakers Academy - Review
Learn how to make professional videos with this online filmmaking course. A wonderful program for homeschoolers, hobbyists and YouTubers.
Would you like to learn how to make professional videos? That is something at the top of my daughter’s wish list for her homeschool high school electives this year so we were so excited to try the Online Christian Filmmakers Academy from Family Gravity Media, a division of Families For Christ Ministries, Inc.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
My daughter has a passion for weather and really wants to start making videos about storms and nature in our area. She also loves a wide variety of crafts and would love to start making video tutorials for them. So this course has come at just the right time for her.
Online Christian Filmmakers Academy
The Online Christian Filmmakers Academy was created by Ken and Zack Lawrence a father and son team who have over a decade of experience in the film industry.
Ken is a homeschooling father who studied radio and TV broadcasting in 2002 his oldest son Zack became interested in filmmaking. Working together they learned a lot about making films and produced a children's DVD titled The Pastor's House in 2004.
While they were learning about filmmaking they attended many training programs but found that most were intended for large groups and offered little to no hands-on training.
This caused later frustration when trying to practice what you had learned bout in a training course. In 2007 Ken and Zack started the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp to offer hands-on training for people interested in filmmaking.
Later they created an online program so that students could learn the lessons before attending the training camp. Only in the past year have they opened the online portion to public access and I'm so glad that they have!
This course is a 1-year online program that is self-paced. Navigating the course is very easy. When you log in the left side of the screen has a menu with easy links to all the course modules.
There are 5 modules in the filmmaking course:
The Camera
Cinematography
Sound
Pre-Production
Production
Each module is divided into lessons with 5 to 10 lessons in each module. As you work through the lesson it is very easy to keep track of where you're at. As each lesson is completed you simply click a checkmark box to mark the lesson as completed and move on to the next lesson.
Under each video, there is a short summary of what the lesson is about. If there are any worksheets or notes to download these are available right next to the video in the right sidebar. These downloads are in PDF format for easy viewing.
Both my daughter and I have been enjoying working our way through the filmmaking lessons. The course starts out teaching you how to use a DSLR camera but you don't have to have one to take this course.
A nice DSLR has been on my wish list for a while and my daughter would love to have one as well. In the meantime, we can use our cell phone cameras and my Canon point-and-shoot to follow the principles taught in the course.
We've been taking our time working through the lessons to really understand each step and we plan to work through it one more time when we are finished. Some of my middle-grade students are interested in working through it as well. I think it will make a fun family project to see what they can make working together.
I love that the videos are online because we can watch them and try the technique that was just taught and rewatch the video as many times as needed until we get it right.
It's the next best thing to taking a live training class in a small hands-on group. Maybe better because you can watch the lessons over and over again at any time of day!
