SF Film Club: Second Screening (#2)
A Film Club for Filmmakers in Tech
The SF Film Club is a series of small gatherings for filmmakers creating at the intersection of tech and film. Meetings look like this.
The club screens:
recent major releases from tech twitter
members work (with permission)
shorts & feature films (where relevant)
special requests from members
We host lessons around the fundamentals of film:
directing
writing
producing
cinematography
production design
acting/performance
music composition
editing
and more
It is a collaborative environment focused on craft, study, sharing ideas, mutual learning, and growth. The goal is that you walk away from every meeting a more informed and confident filmmaker.
Our first meeting’s Luma can be found here.
This Meeting
Last meeting we had ~1h30m of scene analysis + breakdowns, followed by 2 presentations from community members (Audrey Pinard w/ RAGNI and Will Hoppin with Water Weight).
This meeting, I want to leave more time for community presentations and a guest speaker. This will likely be the format we settle into long-term (anchor w/ cinematic breakdowns, guest speaker, community presentations).
This meeting’s structure will look like this:
Scene Breakdowns (~40m)
We’ll look at 4 scenes across 2 themes:
Breaking Form — How do filmmakers abandon traditional act structure to push the cinematic medium to its limits? We will look at Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror (1975) and The Color of Pomegranates (1969).
Sound as Emotion — How does sound accompany emotional states dialog and image have created? What happens when they align? We will look at 2 dialogue scenes, one from Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) and one from Sinners (2025).
Will Hoppin on Lenses & Building Camera Rigs (~30m)
Will from Osmo will give a talk on lenses and building camera rigs. He’ll be breaking down how glass shapes image — the decisions behind focal length, optics, and what lens choice actually does to a story.
Community Presentations (~40m)
We have 4 slots for community presentations (each ~10m long). If you’ve made something, found something, or watched something this past month that caught your attention — DM me @bephrem (or email [email protected]) and I’ll add you to present. Works in progress, references, a scene you’ve been obsessing over — all welcome.
SV Film Fund
We have a $15,000 short film grant open for submissions. Learn more at svfilm.fund (read the original post here).
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Thursday, 3/19, 6:30-9pm. Pizza will be provided.
(Reminder of the) Goals of the Club
#1 — Community: Create a sense of community, friendship, and belonging for filmmakers producing work in tech.
#2 — Bar Raising: Raise the bar for visual storytelling in tech. We aren’t even close to what’s possible. Create the conditions for impossibly good work to get made and create the environment + collaboration that makes that possible.
#3 — Industry Forming: Accelerate the emerging storytelling industry to full fruition. It is still only a small scene right now, with independent filmmakers working in silos. I believe it can be much much larger.