October is more than a few months away and so horror/sci-fi-fantasy independent film festival "It Came From Lake Michigan" is in hibernation. To tide the public over before "The Return" 2007, however, festival director Wayne Cligman has launched monthly film workshops.

Cligman says that he created the workshops as a forum for filmmakers in Wisconsin and the Midwest. It's a place where skills can be shared and people can network.

"It's a great way for us to build awareness for It Came From Lake Michigan Film Festival 'The Return' 2007," he says. "At the same time we will be providing practical and useful techniques for filmmakers, and others involved in the industry."

The first of 10 planned workshops, which will be held monthly up until the ICFLM "The Return," will take place Jan. 13 at North American Camera, 338 N. Milwaukee St. Suite 307, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There are five speakers scheduled for this workshop: Hank Carlson of Autumn Night Studios will talk about special effects makeup, Rusty Nails will talk about his current film project about George A. Romero, ICFLM Award Winner Kelly Marcott will talk about camera techniques, Official ICFLM Spokesmodel Sofia Smirnova will talk about her involvement with the festival and North American Camera's Bob Donnelly will talk about high definition cameras.

The speakers are being brought in to educate and help those involved in film to

Most of these speakers are locally based, but ICFLM plans on getting speakers from all over the country, including Hollywood professionals.

Cligman says that the workshops are directed primarily at filmmakers. "This is for filmmakers of all levels from the beginner developing his first film in the backyard to members of the Directors Guild of America."

However, he says that the public could find some of the speakers interesting, possibly inspiring enough to create their own films.

"Members of the public could find the 'How To' interesting and perhaps motivating (them) to make there own film," Cligman says. "Some of the topics like make-up or new camera technology could certainly be useful to the common person. Knowledge of certain techniques could be used on a school project for instance, or helping your company do it's own educational video."

People can learned anything from film basics to CGI.

"The main focus for these workshops will always be filmmakers and those involved with film," Cligman says. "However, there will always be interesting topics that can certainly be used by the general public."

But the main idea of the workshops it to bring to light the fact that there are plenty of budding filmmakers right here in Wisconsin, not just living it up in Hollywood.

"Wisconsin is filled with filmmakers and we want more folks to try their hand at filmmaking," Cligman says.