East Bay Media Center
Community SubscriberTeen Media Camps and Training
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.Archived Q&A and Reviews
Nov 2011
Re: Film making class for teens near Berkeley
My son did a 3 week film camp at the East Bay Media Center in downtown Berkeley last summer, and loved it. I don't know if they have classes during the schoolyear, but you should definitely check them out. a
My son has gotten a lot from The Media Center in Berkeley.In their summer program/camp he's been part of teams making films, and one of their films was screened at the Berkeley Film Festival. Kathy
March 2011
Re: Classes at Berkeley Community Media TV station?
For those of you looking for a film making experience for your teens, I highly recommend the 3 week summer program at East Bay Media in downtown Berkeley. The folks who run the place (Paul and Mel) are truly wonderful, and kids get a very rich experience in learning to make films! Google ''Make TV'' or East Bay Media and you'll learn about their summer program. My son did their summer program for a # of years, from middle school through high school and is becoming a film maker as a result! deb
April 2008
Re: East Bay Media Center summer camp
East Bay Media Center's summer camp has been wonderful for our 17 yo son. He started going 4 years ago and has been every year. Paul and Mel are supportive, kind and know the business very well. They are able to encourage kids to explore their own ideas as well as give clear guidance for technical aspects of film and video. They really talk to the kids and the kind of respect they show the campers is what they ask from the kids also. Overall, it's a well run and fun camp. chiliconmom
Jan 2006
Re: Filmmaking or tv production schools
The East Bay Media Center has a 3 week summer camp in television/video production. My son has attended for the last 2 years and loves it so much that we now have to plan his summer around it. The teachers are wonderful, attentive and very knowledgable. You can get more info at: http://www.eastbaymediacenter.com/summer%20media%20camp.shtml They don't have the 2006 dates listed yet but should very soon.
2000
BCM is Berkeley Community Media, or free public access tv Channel 25 on the cable system. We are housed at BHS and have air space for your video information, announcements, etc. If you have a video tape ready, we can broadcast it now. If you want to learn how to do better videos, have a program, learn aspects that will help your school and your organization communicate better, we can help you. There are classes. instructors, many opportunities. The schedule is printed in the Berkeley Voice and we have a monthly newsletter. We are always trying to get the word out about our existence and have Berkeley people find us to be useful. Luanne R.
My daughter attended the East Bay Media Summer Teen Filmmaking Program several years ago. She's passionate about film, self-taught in many filmmaking applications, and plans to apply to college as a film major. She's attended a few different summer film camps and classes over the years, and in no way can we recommend this one.
We were under the impression that the kids would have access to film equipment for this camp -- cameras, microphones, computers, etc. -- but the camp didn't have enough for the campers to share, and what they had was very outdated. Our daughter ended up bringing equipment from home, including a family laptop so she could edit her project. A simple "bring your own equipment" in the camp literature would have helped. None of this was communicated in advance.
We were given a list of topics and skills that would be taught during this film camp, but according to our daughter, many were not. She said that much of the day was unstructured, and campers generally sat around watching YouTube. The day went from 10am-2pm, which included an hour of unsupervised lunch break. She waited for instruction in editing (her favorite thing) which never happened. She went into this camp eager to learn new skills, but was so disillusioned by this experience that we almost couldn't convince her to try a different film program the following summer.
We chose this program after reading glowing reviews in BPN, which still baffle me. We would have been wiser to save our money and drop our kid in downtown Berkeley for several hours a day to make a movie with her friends and her own equipment. That's basically what she did that summer, except we paid for it.
In hindsight I should have realized that this camp's outdated website reflects the state of its program. For an organization that claims to be a media center, it doesn't seem to have embraced any kind of modern media for its own use.