The Keene State College Film Department hosted a guest speaker, Cauley Powell from Florentine Films, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, in the Drenan Auditorium of Parker Hall.
The film department invited Powell as one of a series of three speaker events with Florentine Film, with the series leading off with Ken Burns’ “fireside chat” on Sept. 9 Florentine Films is a world renowned group of film documentarians consisting of Ken Burns, Buddy Squires, Roger Sherman and Larry Hott. The documentarians work independently now; however, more information about the group and links to their individual websites can be found at “www.florentinefilms.com.” Some of Florentine’s productions are: “The Roosevelts,” “Mark Twain,” “The American Buffalo” and “Jackie Robinson.”
According to Film Department Chair Jo Dery, the purpose of Powell’s presentation was to speak on the pre-production process of a film and her work professionally as a producer with Florentine Films. She stressed the importance of thorough research and planning of the film to make production go smoothly, while sharing personal experiences with the students. This is also Powell’s first time visiting the campus.
Powell accepted her offer to come speak as a way to better connect with folks that are being educated by these films stating, “My own work has involved a lot of that [education] already. To have the opportunity to more directly connect to students is pretty cool.”
Zachary Johnson, a first-year film major who is focusing on film production, found the talk “very insightful.”
Avery Adams, a first-year film major who is considering cinematography, was very excited about the event. She came hoping to meet more people and to learn more about the production side of film as it is not her “strong suit”
Adams said, “I really enjoyed it [the talk]. I felt like it flew by, I took a lot of notes but I wish I could take more. I wasn’t really expecting to get everything that I did.”
Dery said she has invited an editor at Florentine Films and Keene State College alumna Lynne Carrión to speak about post-production film work on Oct. 15, as the last speaker in the series.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
