By Ben Robinson, DFI Educator

This year DFI’s Education and Outreach teams took our One Minute Film Workshops into colleges and universities for the first time, working closely with Qatar University and the Community College of Qatar, with the aim of creating a greater synergy between DFI’s filmmaking initiatives and Qatar’s education system.

We kicked off by running the One Minute Workshops over the course of an entire semester, starting in February with writing workshops, and wrapping up in May with film shoots and editing sessions. Working with students over several months allowed us to reach a much deeper level of creativity than before, as DFI’s One Minute Workshops usually only run for seven days.

We began with ice-breaking games and storytelling exercises, both of which help shake students out of any shyness they might be feeling. They also build teamwork, and makes students realise that filmmaking is actually quite fun! (Little do they realise how much hard work and problem-solving lies ahead if they want to be a successful filmmaker!)

At Qatar University, DFI mentor Justin Kramer and I worked with 16 girls over the course of four months. Everyone made an incredible effort to learn, and we were constantly supported by the wonderful Allyson Young from the university staff. At the same time, DFI filmmaker Lauren Mekhael and I also ran courses with the guys at the Community College of Qatar: an amazing bunch of Qataris with a hilarious sense of humour and great stories to tell.

Following an intensive few weeks analysing what makes a story ‘work’, and how we make the audience care about fictional characters, it was time for the students to write their scripts. Since the ancient times of Greek philosopher Aristotle (who defined the basics of storytelling between the years 335 and 323 B.C) mankind has always used the same three act structure of beginning, middle and end, and it’s no different during our One Minute Workshops. Defining these three acts helps the filmmaker to tell a compelling story. In the first act – the beginning – we start by introducing the character and the world they live in. In the second act – the middle – we give that character a problem to overcome. In the third and final act – the end – we resolve the problem. Our main character doesn’t always win, but we do need to give them (and the audience) some kind of satisfactory ending to their quest.

The standout filmmaker at Qatar University was Naqaa Al-Assawi, who wrote and directed ‘Pencils’. From the very beginning, Naqaa really took the initiative; presenting her script before anyone else, and following it up with constant emails to me (like any good Film Producer, she really believed in her product, and made sure we knew about it!). We embarked on several weeks of re-writes, where I pushed her to refine and strengthen her story. Once she had got the script as tight as possible, Naqaa spent a week in pre-production, which included finding a suitable classroom to shoot in (many thanks to Othman Ben Affan Independent Primary School and creating her team.

Luckily for Naqaa, her two brothers, Mohammad and Zaid, are the two best young actors in Qatar, and they launched into rehearsals with total commitment. Camera duties were taken on by Reem Talal and Hanan Mohammed from Qatar University, who also proved themselves to be technically gifted and focused. The shoot went perfectly, and everyone was delighted by the results. This was the first One Minute film to be shot on the Canon 5D Mk 2 camera, which everyone at DFI absolutely loves, but were afraid might be too complicated for use by first time filmmakers. I actually found the opposite to be true: the 5D is such an intuitive camera, I could probably teach anyone to use it in 30 minutes! The results make anything you shoot look instantly like real film, due partly to the size of the camera’s processor chip and the optics of the Canon lenses, which gives much more appealing, cinematic depth-of-field.

Over at the Community College of Qatar, the boys pitched half a dozen One Minute scripts, but Lauren and I were reduced to fits of laughter by the natural-born humour of Qatari student Yousif Ahmad Sabri: truly one of the funniest men I’ve met in my life. His script, ‘Molokiaphobia’, was sparked by a random suggestion by Lauren that he write something about the eponymous Egyptian foodstuff molokia. From his initial pitch right through to writing the script and shooting, Yousif’s vision never changed: one man, one foodstuff, one phobia. Simple, ridiculous, and very amusing. Directing duties were handled by Abdulla Al Ali, who is also a born filmmaker. I can’t wait to hear what people think of their whacky One Minute Film, and I’m very excited to see what they do next. Yousif in particular could be a massive comedy star in Qatar – he’s the kind of guy that walks into a room and has you laughing with him after 30 seconds.

If you live in Qatar and filmmaking is something you’ve always wanted to try, email: Education@dohafilminstitute.com and let us know you’re out there. We’ll get right back to you and invite you to come and begin your career!