Next generation of filmmakers training at Georgia summer camp

Script to Screen Summer Camps at Trilith

The camps are hosted by Trilith Institute and expose middle and high schoolers to key creative aspects of filmmaking, including animation, screenwriting, and post-production.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - When asked about typical summer camp activities, you’d probably list things like swimming, archery, and roasting marshmallows around a fire.

But at a series of camps happening right now at North America’s largest purpose-built film studio, the next generation of great filmmakers is busy writing, storyboarding, directing, and editing.

This morning on Good Day Atlanta, we returned to Fayetteville’s Trilith Studios to meet with the creative young minds enrolled in this year’s Script to Screen Summer Camps. Hosted by Trilith Institute — which is the nonprofit education and workforce development arm of the studio — the camps expose middle and high schoolers to key creative aspects of filmmaking, including animation, screenwriting, and post-production.

During a visit to Trilith Studios last year, we spoke to Trilith Institute president & CEO Jeffrey Stepakoff about the goal of the summer camps.

"We started up the Georgia Film Academy a few years ago, in 2015, and made sure that we had enough crew to work on these productions," said Stepakoff. "Now, here at the Trilith Institute, we’re making sure that we have storytellers: writers, filmmakers, content creators."

Stepakoff says developing young talent here in Georgia and giving them opportunities to hone their skills is vital to sustaining the state's local filmmaking ecosystem.

"We do not have to send our students, our neighbors, our returning vets, our kids to California anymore," he said.

For more information on the Script to Screen Summer Camps, click here. And click the video player in this article to check out our morning hanging out with the up-and-coming film and television creatives gaining this invaluable experience.