FEATURE January 25, 2018

MacBook Pro, Final Cut Pro X and the LA Film Community Boost Local Productions

In Los Angeles on a Saturday morning in November, a crew of 10 students from Hollywood High School, helmed by 17-year-old director Celine Gimpirea, are transforming a corner of the Calvary Cemetery into a movie set. In The Box, a boy slips inside a cardboard box and finds himself transported to other realms. On this well-manicured, impossibly green lawn, among rows of flat, black granite grave-markers, are rows of flat, black camera cases holding DIT stations, iPads and MacBook Pros — the tools that will bring the story to life.

Among the first mentors to view The Dancer was Sean Baker, director of 2017’s Oscar-nominated The Florida Project, as well as the 2015 feature Tangerine, shot entirely on iPhone 5S. Baker, who edits his own films, wielded the iMac keyboard himself while surveying clips from Amigone’s shoot. Each take had been marked with the Movie Slate app on iPad, which automatically stores and logs the timecode data, facilitating this invaluable session with the renowned director. Together, they discussed Amigone’s backstory as well. A stay-at-home mother of a three-year-old daughter, she knows how to maximize time and resources. She not only served as writer and director, but also star and choreographer — a complicated dance in its own right.