Film school for the truly busy

They’ve got the lights and the camera, but it’s all about the action at the Tinseltown Digital Video Film School, a hands-on, seat-of-your-pants video class that teaches students how to film, light, microphone, edit, title and score a short movie in one day. Class size is restricted to six students, who work as a team, going out in the field to collect raw footage, then return to class to learn how to turn it into a movie.

“The only way you learn is by doing,” said Sheeraz Hasan, Tinseltown’s chief executive. “We say, ‘Here’s a camera. Here’s what you’ve got to do.’ ”

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. In the field, students are, unbeknownst to them, put in a variety of “Oh no, what now?” situations.

Filming both outdoors

and in, they are set up to experience unexpected difficulties, from tricky sound and lighting problems to technical emergencies.

“We’ll never make it perfect,” Hasan said. “If we did, they wouldn’t build muscle.”

Tinseltown Digital Video Film School, 3000 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica; Nov. 23; $199; (310) 247-0950 or www.tinseltownonline.com/digital.

-- Susan Carpenter