5 sessions: Wednesdays, October 13-November 10, 6:30-9pm CDT

Big movies, or small and handmade and shot on a phone: Finish your film!

Open to filmmakers of all levels, this lab-style course is designed for those who have a work-in-progress at any stage and of any genre: fiction, documentary, experimental, and personal, from shorts to features. The course will be tailored to the goals and needs of each student. For example, if you have shot a film and your goal is to begin the editing process and create a story arc, our process will include feedback and strategies for you to finish a rough cut during the course. If you have a rough cut and your goal is to create a fine cut, you’ll receive feedback on the work, and address sound and picture editing challenges and story structure so that you can finish. For experimental and personal works, this course will push you to go deeper, as we’ll look at work that crosses traditional boundaries and illustrates approaches and techniques you might not have tried. We’ll also discuss processes and professional practices for finishing films, including sound mixing and design, animation, and effects, plus film festivals and distribution for the finished film.

NOTE: Participation in this online course requires that you use the free Zoom cloud-based video conferencing service. For optimal performance it is recommended that you install Zoom on your computer rather than running it from a web browser. We’ll e-mail you a course reminder and Zoom link a few days prior to the first session. Click here for a Zoom tutorial.

Tuition: $235 regular | $175 member | $130 low-income

Thalia Drori Ramirez is a writer, producer, and director with 30 years of experience making motion pictures: documentary, narrative, and personal/experimental. She received her MFA from New York University, and then worked in television news production and as an indie producer in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her award-winning work has screened around the world. Adam Abdul Hakeem: One Who Survived, her documentary about corrupt, drug-dealing cops in New York’s South Bronx  and a young man who dared to challenge them, was broadcast on PBS and BET, and continues to be used a teaching tool in law schools in the Her experimental, narrative, and personal work includes the stop-motion animation comedy Corporate Sponsorship Parade, as well as dark comedies, Waiting For Darryl, Little Miss Potentiality, and her first feature: Toxic Energy ~ Little Miss Potentiality Returns.

Thalia has been teaching and mentoring students for 20 years. She was full-time faculty in Media Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. At the invitation of a women’s organization in Granada, Nicaragua, she founded Cineastas de Granada, a free-of-charge video production program for teen girls in Granada, where she taught for 12 years. In 2013, she began working in screenplay editing and reading for both Happy Writers and Women In Cinema International.

Thalia recently returned to the Twin Cities, where she continues to teach and make independent films.

Class Registration Guidelines & Cancellation Policy

• Space is assigned on a first-come basis. Registrations must include payment in full. Registrations are accepted after registration deadlines if space is available.
• If minimum enrollment has not been reached by 7 days prior to the start date of a class, FilmNorth may cancel it, in which case registrants will immediately be notified and receive a full refund within 2 business days. A check will be issued for registrations that were paid in cash. In lieu of a refund, students have the option of applying their tuition to another class scheduled in the same calendar year.
• For those wishing to cancel a registration prior to the class registration deadline, 100% of the tuition will be refunded minus a $25 administrative fee. For registration cancellations received after the registration deadline but prior to the first class session, 50% of the tuition will be refunded minus a $25 administrative fee. As of 5:00 pm the day prior to a class start date, no refunds or credits/exchanges will be given (Friday at 5:00 pm for Sunday classes). 
• Tuition is not prorated for missed class sessions.