DULUTH CLASSES

Located at Zeitgeist’s Film Lab (222 E Superior St, Suite 306). Classes are designed for those aged 16+. All experience levels are welcome!

Intro to Indie Video Production

• 9/10 – 10/29
• Tuesdays 6:00pm – 8:30pm
• Registration is $75
• Instructor: Matthew Dressel

Experience the process of making a film from conception to pre-production and all the way to post. Each class will be a different module: Screenwriting, Lighting, Sound, and Composition until the class collectively shoots and edits a film together. Come ready to pitch your ideas for a practical short film!

Meet the Instructor: Matthew Dressel

Matthew Dressel is an award-winning screenwriter and producer at Skin of the Peach Productions. His last screenplay Daniel’s Gotta Die was produced by Darius Films in Toronto and released in theaters. His short films have been featured in textbooks, exhibited in theaters, and featured on programs like The Best Short Films in the World. At any given point in his life, he is five seconds from making a Simpsons reference.

Audio in Film/TV Workshop

• Thursday 10/10 & Friday 10/11 6:30pm – 9:00pm, and Saturday 10/12 2:00pm – 4:30pm
• Registration is $75
• Instructor: Vinny Alfano

The Audio in Film/TV Workshop will explore the importance of audio in film, and show how to capture, synchronize, and edit audio elements to enhance the visual narrative. Participants will delve into the creation of sounds that add depth and realism to scenes with sound effects (SFX), ADR, foley, and examine how music sets the tone and mood of a production.

Check out Vinny Alfano’s portfolio at vinnyalfano.com.

Meet the Instructor: Vinny Alfano

Vinny Alfano is a born-and-raised New Yorker and Grammy-winning sound mixer, whose past credits include Emily in Paris, Uncoupled, and It’s Personal with Amy Hoggart. Vinny has also built a reputation as the go-to mixer for some of the industry’s most prominent comedians, mixing such specials as Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool and Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love, securing a Grammy nomination for the latter. Vinny began his career in the music industry, working as a session guitarist and recording engineer. He soon began mixing, working on various commercials before transitioning into TV and film. Still based in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, Vinny continues to provide a full suite of audio post-production services for a wide range of productions.

CHISHOLM CLASSES

Located at the Minnesota Discovery Center. Classes are designed for those aged 16+. All experience levels are welcome!

CULTURE QUEST

Journalistic/Documentary Internship Opportuniy

• 9/30 – 10/4
• Registration is FREE
• Instructor: Ian Grant

The CULTURE QUEST Team is looking for emerging documentary filmmakers to apply to intern for a documentary series segment! There are a limited number of internships available. Interns will be guided by award winning filmmakers, director, Ian Grant, and cinematographer, Ian Levasseur and will have the opportunity to learn the process of journalistic, documentary filmmaking throughout the city of Duluth. Interns will be expected to arrive at locations ready to work as supporting production interns. Interested to intern?

Meet the Instructor: Ian Grant

Ian grew up in two worlds. The son of immigrants from Scotland and Ireland, he grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, in the 1970s and ’80s, and spent much of his childhood living overseas – his father a professor – on sabbaticals and study abroad programs or simply going “home” to spend summers with family in various parts of Europe.

As an adult, his childhood is reflected in his professional life: He travels for a living. With degrees in history and art history, he spent a decade searching for unusual artifacts and objects around the world, meeting and working closely with artisans themselves to purchase, and even create, products that are environmentally and culturally sustainable. He then shipped them back to the United States and sold them to retail shops, interior designers, and collectors around the country and the world. Ian’s passion is objects that tell a story, those objects and stories serving as an introduction, a connection between the cultures and people they come from and the people he sold them to in the United States.

Ian has traveled to places like Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the mountains of Laos, over 25 trips to the coast of southern India and Thailand, and over 10 visits to Nepal, as well as the coastal region of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, Costa Rica, the headwaters of the Amazon River in Peru, and the Amazon jungle in Surinam. Ian’s specialty is finding objects that are truly unique, which means his buying trips regularly took him to remote villages and bazaars—by truck, motor-scooter, dugout canoe, on foot—whatever it took.

In 2009, Ian won an Emmy for a series he had on the Travel Channel, “The Relic Hunter with Ian Grant,” which followed him around the world giving a first-hand look at what he did for a living.

Also in 2009, Ian’s business went through a renaissance. During the economic crash, Ian decided to change the way he did business: He started searching for salvaged and reclaimed materials around the world, turning it all into furniture in his workshop with his team in Minneapolis. His company now thrives in the reclaimed materials world as well as artifacts and objects. Ian doesn’t just exchange emails with his sources – he jumps in, working side by side with salvage operations and reforestation projects in the most remote areas of the United States and around the world, coming home every day with cuts and bruises that he can’t remember getting during the day.

Ian is now back in the television world with a series of his own creation called Culture Quest, airing nationally on PBS. It’s a show that looks at life through the lens of the world’s artists, artisans and keepers of culture. His series takes viewers to places like Western Mongolia, East Timor and the North Coast of Australia. Each episode delivers a diverse mix of spectacular destinations showcasing artists ranging from under the radar to museum level, remote cultures, innovative artisans, musicians, authors and cultural leaders. The series mission is to connect audiences to culturally innovative people from around the world, their unique perspectives and traditions, as well as focusing on the everyday commonalities those people share with the series’ viewers like the farmer in North Dakota, the nurse in New York, the furniture maker in Memphis. In their first season they were nominated for a national Emmy and PBS renewed them for a second season asking for twice as many episodes as the first season.

Most recently he filmed a one-hour special in Ukraine during the war looking at how cultural leaders are doing whatever they can to resist the invasion and inspire their fellow Ukrainians. That episode won a national Emmy for Outstanding Special.

Ian lives in Minneapolis with his wife and son and their dog. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. When he is not racing around the world running his business, he spends his time playing hockey and doing mixed martial arts, as well as playing the violin and guitar, running adventure races, waterskiing and writing.

Our goal is to empower, support, and educate Northland community members ages 16+ as active participants in shaping our culture, and engage diverse communities to rethink the way we view film, art, and local storytelling. We provide access and a platform to work, learn, create, and experience filmmaking and media production in our community. 

Benefits include access to iMac computers loaded with creative design and editing software, meeting rooms, multi-media studios, film/video equipment for on-site photo/video shoots & projects, digital tools, and more.

Zeitgeist is made possible with your help

MN MEDIA ARTS SCHOOL SPONSORS