News
Date Posted: 06/04/2007
Sean C. Covel and Chris Wyatt, producers of the international hit Napoleon Dynamite, return to MCAD for a second summer to deliver their workshop "Making Your Own Dynamite: Producing Independent Film," starting June 18.
The Los Angeles-based production team will deliver a five-night course detailing the process of creating an independent film and preparing it for international distribution. Discounted tuition is available for MCAD alumni and members of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Get more details and register online. (Note: Current MCAD students must register through the Records Office, not online. Please e-mail records@mcad.edu or call (612) 874-3727.)
Covel and Wyatt will bring their Napoleon Dynamite experience to the table as they demystify the process of acquiring rights and developing screenplays; provide a how-to guide to securing investors and budgeting and scheduling projects; and discuss the producer's role in pre-production, production and post-production. The team will also go over the business of marketing films, showing at festivals and closing deals with distributors.
The class also will study the creation of a soon-to-be-released indie film acquired at a festival, from reading the screenplay to attending a special preview screening just before the film's international release. Last year's case study film was the Academy Award-winner Little Miss Sunshine.
Covel and Wyatt have been prolific forces in independent film since graduating from the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California in 2002. With documentaries and TV spots under their respective belts, Covel and Wyatt's produced their first feature film, Napoleon Dynamite. It was in dramatic competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it sold to Fox Searchlight and MTV Films. Released in June 2004, it has become one of the most successful independent films of all time.
The duo has since produced three more films: Think Tank (Maitland Primrose Group), The 12 Dogs of Christmas (Universal) and Beneath (Paramount Classics/MTV Films). They are in preparation to shoot two features this year: Song Lines, which is shooting on location in Melbourne, Australia; and Dodge, which is shooting on location in Austin, Texas.
