Sensorial Filmmaking Training

What is it about ?

Sensorial filmmaking is a set of bodily techniques and sensorial approaches of filmmaking that increases the comfort, efficiency and creativity of the operator and the camera operator – professional or beginner – on shoulder or handheld shoots. It transform the cinematographer and his equipment in a true filmic entity in the line of cinema direct approach.

Sensorial Filmmaking techniques is also a way to learn or rediscover the basics of cinematographic language through a fun and participatory method while stimulating productivity, exchange and interpersonal contacts at the heart of the practice.

“Developed at the very beginning of synchronous cinema by renowned filmmakers such as Jean Rouch and Michel Brault, the technique is inspired by yoga, mime and dance and allows the operator to reproduce all the movements of film grammar in a shoulder or handheld shooting situation without any additional accessories.”

What is the aim ?

The purpose of Sensorial Filmmaking is to harmonize the body and the mind with the work of the camera operator and to involve it in the narrative creativity of the shot. It allows to take perfect fixed shots and long sequence shots with ease and without any other accessories than the camera.

The training method ?

The learning is based on the mastery of relaxation techniques, postures and specific body movements that allow you to be one with the camera and the filmed scene.

The training emphasizes experience as a starting point for learning. It alternates practical exercises, moments of viewing, sharing ideas and analysis in order to connect the method to the expression of a personal point of view.

Through the constant exchange of roles within the group and the direct application of what you have learned in the form of filmed theatre or micro-shooting in reality, you develop an instinctive ability to interact and stage reality on the spot.

“During the workshop, I discovered a body grammar that is essential for anyone who wants to learn about “direct cinema”, who wants to make personal films and think about storytelling from the shooting stage. This work on the movements of the handheld camera makes us wonderfully free and available. The sharing dimension that this implies with the filmed people, this immersion work, also provokes a shaping of the gaze that allows us to find an organic and very intimate way of “making cinema”. Gilles, trainee director, Films in Bretagne 2018

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