Making Movie Magic
JACKSON TWP — Oliver Wiehe was putting trash in a garbage can outside his home when a would-be robber ran up and stole his wallet.
Wiehe gave chase, and the two sprinted down a neighborhood street until the burglar collided with a car backing down a driveway.
After helping the foiled burglar to his feet, Wiehe reset his camera and the pair prepared to do the whole thing again for Backyard Film School, episode one: "How to make your own at-home chase scene."
"This is low-budget to no- budget theater," said Wiehe, a performing arts instructor at Seneca Valley Middle School.
Backyard Film School offers simple tricks and techniques for creating better home videos in 30 to 45 minutes.
Three episodes are now available for download to iTunes subscribers through the iTunes store under "Educational Technology."
Wiehe said he is aiming mostly at parents, whom he calls "the historians of the family," but the tutorials are general enough for anyone with a video camera to follow.
"This is for the true at-home consumer," Wiehe said.
For the long motion shots down the street, Hollywood producers use cameras attached to dollies, which run on smooth tracks along the ground. But the equipment is not easily available or cost effective for him, Wiehe said.
"I don't have that kind of money, but I do know a nurse who has a wheelchair," he said. A camera was attached to the chair and the shot was a success.
"And it was a lot of fun," Wiehe said.
Backyard Film School began to take shape about six years ago. Around that time, Wiehe toured WQED studios and watched a taping of "On Q."
"I thought, 'This is not too far off from what I'm trying to do,'" Wiehe said.
Soon after, he had an opportunity to speak with Pittsburgh documentarian Rick Sebak, who suggested Wiehe outline his idea, target audience and a few episodes.
He pitched the idea to Comcast, to be broadcast on a cable channel, as well as Videomaker Magazine, he said.
However, neither accepted."They all came back and basically said we love the idea, but we don't want to give you any money for it," Wiehe said.At the time, digital feeds such as Web logs and podcasts were gaining popularity, so Wiehe decided to move Backyard Film School to the Internet.He also recruited his co-workers to get the project off the ground and onto the Net.Middle school art teacher George Williams designed a logo, world history teacher Jay D'Ambrosio designed a Web site and Eric Fogle, a technology education instructor, showed Wiehe how to load the large video files onto the Web."Little by little I utilized everyone around me," Wiehe said.Wiehe's enthusiasm for the project made it easy to pull together, Williams said."I'm really impressed with what he's put together," he said."We help each other on a lot of different things anyway, and here at the middle school there are a lot of teachers who get along well together. We don't mind spending a little extra time together."Telling his students about the project fostered discussion, Wiehe said, especially about production and how to get the video on the Internet."I felt like my classroom reached outside of the four walls here at Seneca," Wiehe said.
The third installment, "Taking Better Pictures for Video," is now a hit, available for download through iTunes.The episode illustrates how to make video slide shows, complete with music, Wiehe said."It really is easy to put them all together and pick a song you like and put in some titles and make something watchable."His ultimate goal is to turn Backyard Film School into a TV show."He really does a good job in his craft and I'm really glad to see him get some success with it," Williams said."I'd like to see him go even farther with this if possible."Wiehe has no income from the project, but he hopes its Web popularity will open such opportunities.
