We recently sat down with Lance Godard, one of the Heights Middle School Shorts Co-Founders, about the formation of HMSS, the three top skills that campers need, and more.
Who are you and why did you co-found a film camp?
Among other things, I’m a Cleveland Heights parent who’s been involved for a long time in efforts to give our CHUH students creative opportunities to learn and have fun. We started by providing after-school programming to RoxEl students, which led to us getting scholarships for a few students to attend University Circle’s summer camp. We then had an opportunity to start Heights Performing Arts Camp with Ensemble Theatre, a free three-week summer camp where campers would create theater productions: they would write plays, then act in and direct them.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were forced to move Heights Performing Arts Camp to a virtual format where the campers made movies instead of plays to tell their stories. That worked out really well, so we decided to go all-in on films, and created Heights Middle School Shorts. The first year went great – I’d recommend everyone reading this watch the films made in 2021 – so we knew we were on to something.
What are the three essential characteristics of a successful HMSS filmmaker?
I think the three most important qualities of a successful camper at HMSS are creativity, resourcefulness, and patience. Creativity is necessary to come up with a story to tell in the first place, and to write dialogues and block out scenes that can be turned into an interesting film. Resourcefulness, because a lot of the time the campers have to find ways to make their scenes work with the things they’ve got: the props, the locations, the actors, etc. I was very impressed last year to see how our campers were able to convey ideas and feelings and moods with the very limited resources they had.
Continue reading “5 Questions for Lance Godard, HMSS Co-Founder”
