Film students on set (Image: Metro Screen)
Short courses at Metro Screen are structured to provide flexibility to students with busy schedules. Antony Waddington, tutor at Metro Screen says that Metro Screen stands out on its own as a community film centre.
‘I think it’s one of the wonderful things about Metro, and one of the very specific qualities is that it operates as an ongoing hub for the film community.
‘Students come back and hire the equipment and post-production facilities, and use it as a site to continue to develop their work.’ he said.
Metro Screen offers full-time diplomas to short courses including Directing Documentary, Screenwriting, Production Design, Camera Techniques, the Craft of Editing, Freelancing in the Film Industry and Script Supervising.
Waddington said areas such as editing and script supervising are areas that ‘don’t necessarily get the attention that the directing or producing and writing necessarily get, but are so integral and are equally as important’.
Metro Screen is directly focused towards jobs in the industry. ‘They are rigorous about doing their homework on what areas are growing, in order to provide training to meet those demands,’ he said.
Waddington, who is delivering a three-month film-producing course starting 6 July, said the course takes the student through the basic outline of how to produce a feature film.
‘We go through development, securing properties, the legal requirements around that process, we look at raising finances both privately and through our state and federal support structures in this country.’
He said that the course also provides an overview of pre-production, production and post-production, festivals and marketing, and exhibitions.
‘When you walk into Metro Screen it feels like you are walking into an indie production company: people are working on different projects, hiring out the studio, casting films, TV and web series etc. Training’s going on, masterclasses are going on and it feels like you’ve walked into the industry. ‘
To know more about Metro Screen short courses, go to the website.
Here is a short glimpse of work produced at Metro Screen by its students.
Antony Waddington bio
During his 30-year career, Antony Waddington has been an actor, writer and producer. During the 80s and 90s, he worked as an actor with Sydney Theatre Company, the New England Theatre Company, and the State Theatre Company of South Australia. At the same time he was an associate producer at Paper Bark Films, and worked on training films and music videos for Sony Music, WEA, EMI and Mushroom Records.
In 2011, Antony was a producer on Fred Schepisi’s multi-award winning feature adaptation of Patrick White’s novel, The Eye of the Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. He was also the co-writer, executive producer, and stills photographer of the documentaries, Spirits of the Carnival, Tides of Passage and Photographers of Australia.
Antony has several feature films and documentaries in development including, The Madman’s Tale, Gus, The Look and 123ABC.
His qualifications include an M.A. Performance Studies (University of Sydney) and a B.A. Communications (UTS).
