Christopher Wooten
I found a super 16mm camera in the back of a cinematography magazine and all of a sudden I could make moving pictures. They weren't great but it was great making them!
Of course the technology changed and making films became more and more accessible. No matter what I was doing I tried to carry a camera everywhere.
In 2017 I started the MFA Cinema program at SFSU with the intention of getting better at making my own films and achieving a level of mastery that would allow me to teach the craft of filmmaking to others. SFSU, like the city it's in, maintains a socially aware perspective that informs the content and practices of filmmaking.
I was able to stretch into forms, styles and studies I would likely not have found on my own. Documentary, experimental and animated films found their way into my camera, culminating in a richer collaborative experience informing more unique expression and observation.
My SFSU cohort was small but driven. They were all key in creating opportunities to tell better stories.
Year one produced two short films I'm still very proud of. Bite Me, Please started out as a short class exercise that ended up making it into film finals. The second film, Waiting, was my first animated film and one that I made largely alone because there were no animators in the graduate program. Waiting made it into a couple festivals and is continuing to find it's way around.
The second year pushed my boundaries a bit more on my own and projects. I spent two summers in Japan shooting interviews and b-roll, and developed a live action/animation hybrid collaboration. Between masterclasses and theory courses I got my hands on and head into more affective filmmaking. Exploring sound design and immersive 360 video forced me to think out of my limited visual box.
The documentary, Mindful Sound: Japan explores thoughts and memories of sound in Japan in an effort to not only understand what sounds are important to the Japanese people but to find experiences and values that align with our own in a culture that seems so different on the surface.
My hope is to carry this concept further and explore not just sound but other sensory experiences in other cultures that can serve as a cross cultural appreciation of the world we live in.
