--- title: Cameraplay tags: Workshop, Queer, Authenticity description: Information about the Camerplay workshops --- ![](https://i.imgur.com/zAE9M3X.jpg) [Click here to sign up to our Newsletter](https://tinyletter.com/cameraplay) # BEING SEEN - Cameraplay Workshop Being intimate and showing your authentic self in front of a videocamera! Sounds impossible, no? Welcome, join our workshop and discover your playful side! No camera experience needed. Open to all. Bring a videocamera if you can (no smartphones). 20.5.2023 12:00 - 18:00 Location: Helsinki TBC 🏳️‍🌈🐙💦🍑📹🔞 Filming sensual and intimate scenes with a camera can often feel like a paradox. It can be really tricky to be comfortable when we are mostly paying attention on getting some nice shots. We will show you a simple trick that will open up a world of possibilities, and we will help you to find out what you need to feel comfortable and reclaim your playful side. This workshop focuses on getting you out of your planning minds and into your bodies, where the connections with your partners become more important than the camera. And being relaxed and feeling safe while filming and being filmed equals more beautiful and more authentic scenes. You will learn how to move beyond the fixed separation of "behind / in-front" of the camera, and we show you an easy way to treat the camera like any other tool for play like ropes or floggers for example. ## What happens in the workshop? The workshop has two parts: we will start by learning the basics of Cameraplay with a few couple exercises, and then split into groups for the second part, where we’ll have a short play session to apply what we learned. Each of us will be in front and behind the camera at some point during the workshop. ## For whom is the workshop? This workshop is open for anyone interested in exploring this topic together with other participants. It doesn’t matter if you have never used a camera before or if you are a professional photographer/cinematographer: you will definitely learn something new. If using a camera for filming intimate things sounds utterly terrifying to you or maybe it is something that you might find exciting, you are welcome to explore those emotions in a safe and caring environment. ## Will I need to bring something, is there a dress code, how do I prepare? * Any video (or photo) camera that you have and want to play with. Make sure you leave nothing precious on the memory card, you’re going to delete everything that’s on it during the workshop 🙂 Smartphones are not allowed. * Any tools or things that you enjoy playing with, like ropes, floggers... * Bring also additional things like toys, props, weird things, costumes, fabrics, flowers or other objects you find in nature for playplay. * Comfortable clothes. ## Is there nudity in the workshop? No full nudity, but being topless is ok… This workshop is held in English. ## Workshop Facilitator **Synes Elischka** filmmaker & media artist based in Finland doing artistic research on their Embodiment Theory of Immersion, a perspective that helps with coming up with new ways of engaging audiences imagination and playfulness, while also adventuring around queer erotica with [pupucollective](https://instagram.com/pupu_collective/) and [querq ry](https://www.instagram.com/querq_helsinki/). ## Contact info & Newsletter Please get in touch with me at synes.elischka@gmail.com if you have any questions. [Click here to sign up to our Newsletter](https://tinyletter.com/cameraplay) ## Feedback from participants [Feedback form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRhqRWVzop6f-Dg0VbC4XsyAazK3AfV-GgKA0SrbNxHpSh6A/viewform) "*I really enjoyed Cameraplay. I learned some tricks how to feel less nervous in front of camera. Also it was very fun and creative. I think the workshop changed my relationship to cameras and social settings around them to more aware, playful and relaxed.*" "*Like I mentioned I have had a problematic relationship with shooting during sessions and I still do but I think the workshop started this really good process in me. [...] I feel that in the sex positive scene especially in internet where everyone wants to be visible and show their ideas the outcome very often overcomes the process and many are after the validation of masses=likers (instagram). In Shibari scene where visual pleasure is a big deal, people are talking of photoshoot sessions and real sessions as separate things. I think the balance between being present in the process of shooting and aiming for certain outcome are important. I can see the methods u used as new artistic ways of finding odd and exiting connections between people and also creative ways of being and not acting in front of the camera (person) or becoming a machine with the camera. [...] I really like how this workshop made the dynamic act of shooting really visible and physical. I love how you see the possibilities of camera play. I think it can also be part of reinventing new era of porn and new rituals of sessioning and erotic communication. [...] How could I ever learn out of this relationship with my camera I if I never gently and wisely started to explore it! Thank you*" “*The workshop was very eye opening for me. I learned a lot about camera work, about myself and about my relationship to other people in a creative environment. I really loved the safe and inspiring atmosphere you created. Also very important: I feel like I was seen and validated as myself. Definitely would do it again!*”