Maybe there's a lesson here. Big-time producers are having a difficult time getting their movies made, but at the Southern Mystique Film Camp, held at Petersburg's New Millennium Studios from Aug. 2 to 8, young people between ages 14 and 24 take a short-film concept from idea to final cut in a week.
"As part of their application process, they submit a storyboard with no less than 10 and no more than 15 panels," explains Kay Ingram, director of the Central Virginia Film Institute.
For nine years, the film adepts have come to New Millennium on a Sunday to see what locations they can use. On Monday, they tell each other about the films they want to make. Then they pitch the camp staff, including New Millennium head Ken Roy and studio co-founder Daphne Maxwell Reid.
By Saturday, family and friends come to watch the finished products, and participants take away a DVD with their movie and a "behind-the-scenes" documentary about the week.
The Virginia Film Office sponsors the program in part, helping to keep the tuition at a reasonable $595.
For more information, call 957-4211 or visit cvafilm.org , where you can view 2008's three films by following the YouTube link.
