Gemma Clark, who made Trapped with us last year as part of the www!, a Firstlight funded project run with Futureversity, has gone on to run her own filmmaking workshop! You remember her name as she recently won the Advisors Choice award for best docudrama at the 45th annual Co-op Film Festival in Bradford this year.
She very kindly wrote a little piece for us about her experiences as a workshop facilitator.
"I had two groups of five or six year 10's that I had to mentor and film an advert with. I went in on Tuesday to meet my groups and talk about their ideas; developing their ideas, change anything that wasn't achievable, establish locations, work out if any props and costumes needed and decide who was acting in it. They had a few different ideas for the adverts so I quickly established which one was most achievable and focused on that making sure they were still happy with it and got to make a lot of the decisions about it.The next day was the filming and editing day. I had an hour and a half with each group to get all the footage as well as setting up and finding locations so the time scale was pretty tight but got it all done on time - without forgetting any shots. In the afternoon I had to edit both adverts and I had 2 hours to edit each one. After i had done the first edit the girls came in to view them and offer any suggestions but both groups really liked theirs so didn't want anything changed. Most of the girls had acted in the adverts too so they were really excited to see themselves on the screen.The girls were great to work with. I didn't find it hard to handle the groups and they were all really respectful towards me. When we were filming they would go off track sometimes so I just had to keep them motivated and keep it going as quickly as possible. During the first day some of them seemed a bit uninterested but when we actually got to the filming most of the girls were really enthusiastic and wanting to get involved. There were quite a few other film makers helping other groups with their adverts and at the end of the day one of my groups said that they were really glad they got put with me - so i must of done something right!"It is so brilliant to see young people who have worked with us as participants to go on and teach filmmaking themselves. We wish Gemma Clark the best of luck with her future filmmaking!
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