Are your video productions stuck in a rut? After all your hard work and days of production, do your stories seem flat, lifeless and lack meaning? If you are comfortable with the technology but are looking for the workshop that will help you uncover, capture and edit a compelling narrative arc, then look no further.
With a coach-to-student ratio average of 1:4, the Mountain Workshops Video Storytelling Workshop can teach you how to bring the story back into storytelling. You will establish a close relationship with your subject, get up early and stay out late, stretch yourself creatively beyond your previous limits and ultimately have a career and life-changing experience.
Mountain is all about building relationships and using meaningful moments to tell a story. If you want to reach a new level in your documentary work, your coaches – some of the best visual professionals in the nation – will give you a motivating push in the right direction.
To complement your days and nights of shooting, editing and collaborative production, each evening there are inspiring presentations by the coaches from all forms of visual journalism. Any downtime you may find will be spent soaking up the knowledge of your passionate coaches and maybe catching a little sleep.
"There’s this energy you experience here that you don’t get while working professionally or in school. There’s something different about the Mountain. It’s a total non-stop sprint to the end and you think you’re not going to make it, but you do."
Liz Baylen, The New York Times | Video Storytelling Coach
Each October, a group of visual journalists set up shop in a different community in Kentucky to document life and culture in a way that is rarely attempted. Raw and live, it’s all about the people and their stories, not the institutions. It’s called the Mountain Workshops, and dozens of students and professionals from around the country swoop in for a week every year to garner new skills and fresh inspiration.
It’s a crash course in visual journalism.
Participants can choose from one of five options for the week. Photojournalism, the original workshop at Mountain, has always been a big hit, but Video Storytelling is increasingly in demand. If you wish to increase your knowledge in other visual skills, the Mountain Workshops can deliver. Picture Editing pushes a traditional skill set of image selection and book design into the digital age.
Three workshops held in one location, in one week, with a constant flow of new ideas and one-on-one guidance by the top professionals in their fields, all add up to an intense five days of high-octane education in visual communication and storytelling.
You are required to provide your own lodging and dinning arrangements during the Workshops. Because of the remote location of the Mountain, there is limited housing options available, so we recommend that you reserve your room as soon as possible.
Our headquarters, Rough River Dam Resort State Park has a limited number of lodges available for workshop participants. To reserve a lodge room, contact the resort directly by calling (270) 257-2311 and indicate that you are a PARTICIPANT for the 2022 Mountain. You cannot book these rooms online; the resort has blocked off the entire resort for our use. (If you try to book online it will only indicate the resort is sold out, phone reservations only)
If you are into rustic camping, the Rough River Dam Resort State Park is offering tent-camping opportunities along their airport runway for $10 a night. You will be able to make use of the pilot’s lounge and shower facilities.
On Highway 79 near the State Park entrance is St. Clair Motor Lodge, a recently remodeled hotel.
In Leitchfield, about 18 miles from our headquarters, the Hatfield Inn has approximately 30 rooms.
There are many AirBNB and VRBO options available. Search "Falls of Rough".
Once you have been accepted AND paid to attend the workshop of your choosing, you will be invited by your registration email to join a PRIVATE Facebook group for all the 2022 participants. It is in this social space that many of our workshop attendees coordinate hotel and optional transportation arrangements.
This area of the state is a popular destination location. This time of year attracts a large amount of hunting and fishing enthusiasts and rooms can sellout quickly. It is important that you reserve your room as soon as possible (we suggest as early as July) to guarantee you have housing close to our headquarters. We do not offer refunds due to lack of nearby available housing.
The nearest airports are Louisville (SDF), a 74-mile drive or Nashville (BNA), a 127-mile drive. We have noticed drastically different rates depending on where you are coming from, so be sure to shop around for the best deals.
You will need to have a vehicle for the workshop and there are car rental places at the airports.
If you are in the Picture Editing workshop you may be able to share a car rental with others in that workshop to commute from nearby hotels, restaurants, and ground transportation from the airport to the headquarters and back. The participants in the picture editing do not travel for their assignments but will need to provide their own transportation for all other activities. If you are in Picture Editing and you book a room at the resort, you will not need transportation during the week, everything is within walking distance.
Keep in mind that the video and photo storytelling workshops will require working at various locations each day and it is mandatory to have your own car during the week.
The headquarter location at The Lodge at Rough River has a dining hall, Grayson Landing, and will be offering buffet style as well as menu options for all our participants at their published rates. They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
There are several other local locations for dining while attending the Mountain.
Lake House Restaurant
14033 Falls of Rough Road
Falls of Rough, Ky.
phone: 270-257-2020
Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
Open Thurs-Sun
Little Daves
9536 KY-259
McDaniels, Ky.
phone: 270-902-4400
Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
Porgies
406 S. Highway 79
McDaniels, Ky.
phone: 270.257.3021
Hot Dog and Soda Shop
Tom & Al’s
8637 S. Highway 259
McDaniels, Ky.
phone: 270.257.3050
Rough River Dam Resort State Park
450 Ic-1003, Falls of Rough, KY 40119