Crystal Cruises to Teach Movie-Making

Crystal Cruises has teamed up with one of the world's best film making school, the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, and came up with a one-of-a-kind initiative to teach film making to on-board passengers.

Passengers will learn all the tools and techniques of making a film from pre-production to the final cut. Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, and George Lucas are among the many other film and media makers who have studied at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

Crystal Symphony, the five-hour, "Digital Filmmaking: The iPad iMovie Video Course" will be led by USC film professors, alumni and other film industry experts specially trained by curriculum creators Kerry Millerick and Dina Sterr.

"USC is one of the best film schools in the world," Crystal's vice president of entertainment Bret Bullock told reporters. "We're thrilled to bring guests a curriculum of this caliber to expand our Creative Learning Institute and teach vacationers even more new skills that they can take home with them."

Guests will use their own iPads to shoot one of five documentary-style genres while on board: Interview, Event, Commercial, Man on the Street or How-to. They will also learn how to edit the footage and add music, graphics, voiceover and effects.

According to an official press release, participants will learn the importance of filmmaking theory in production considering the video's purpose, intended audience, camera angle and shot composition and then how to create a trailer and digitally share their masterpiece with an "audience" of loved ones via social media.

"We are always delighted to have the opportunity to share some of our creative skills and our love of cinema and media with others," USC School of Cinematic Arts' Dean Elizabeth M. Daley said to reporters. "Crystal Cruises provides a special way to reach a very interesting and exciting group, and we are pleased that members of our faculty will be invited on board to provide lectures and workshops to their guests."

Crystal Cruises will introduce the course to their luxury cruises worldwide while the Digital Filmmaking course will expand to Crystal Serenity in Jan. 2013.