We held our first presentation at Pimlico Academy during I Space at 10.30am to an audience of 2 students. We were all very nervous, as this was our very first presentation of our campaign but we were really happy that we had a group to share our film with.
During the presentation everyone was really quiet and listened to what we had to say. We were really happy that we were able to engage our audience.
After our presentation there were lots of questions that we had to answer, which was really great because it meant that everyone was really interested in our campaign.
Each one of our team worked with a small discussion group of students to discuss how our film was made and gang violence issues. It was really interesting to hear what other students at our school thought.
One girl said, "I think it would be better to tell someone if I was in that situation instead of keeping it to myself."
Our Ambition Films group decided that for our next presentation we need more slides on our PowerPoint presentation.
Our next presentation will be to the whole school at Pimlico Academy on 28 November 2012. We are all really excited and nervous as this will be the biggest crowd that we have presented our campaign to so far. We hope that this will share our message wider and get others to share our campaign with their friends.
Pimlico Academy, Peabody and Poached Creative have all come together to work on a new 'Staying Safe' film campaign. The film will be created during weekly sessions, where at least eight young people will learn how to run a successful campaign. Made up of 13-19 year olds, the sessions aim to help all participants gain new skills and have a positive effect on other young people. You can follow our weekly progress through our blogs.
Showing posts with label young people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young people. Show all posts
Monday, 19 November 2012
Our First Presentation - 9/11/12
Labels:
ambition films,
campaign,
film,
gang volience,
peer pressure,
pimlico academy,
presentation,
workshop,
young people
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Session 12 - Planning Our First Workshop - 17/10/12
New faces:
We welcomed two new faces to the group - William - who found out about our campaign through Mr Harris and Kent - who found out about the group through Nadia. We are all really happy new have new students to help us take our campaign to the next stage...school assemblies.
Who's going to say what?:
We discussed who wants to say each part of our presentation.
INTRODUCTIONS TO GROUP MEMBERS AND THE CAMPAIGN - Thomas
HOW WE FORMED - Nadia and Kent
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT? - Djed
STATS AND INTRODUCTION TO THE FILM - William
WHY GANG VIOLENCE? - Michael
QUESTIONS - Malachi
Writing down what we want to say:
We all worked on our parts and wrote down what we wanted to say as part of the presentation.
PowerPoint presentation and music:
We all put together a short PowerPoint presentation to show some visuals during our presentation. Nicholas also suggested that we use some music that he created during the period of time that our audience are sitting down ready for the presentation.
Finally we had a run through of our presentation so that we all understood when we needed to say our parts. Our first presentation will be on Friday 9 November during I Space at Pimlico Academy. We are really excited and nervous for our first public appearance. Who knows? we may become celebrities!
We welcomed two new faces to the group - William - who found out about our campaign through Mr Harris and Kent - who found out about the group through Nadia. We are all really happy new have new students to help us take our campaign to the next stage...school assemblies.
Who's going to say what?:
We discussed who wants to say each part of our presentation.
INTRODUCTIONS TO GROUP MEMBERS AND THE CAMPAIGN - Thomas
HOW WE FORMED - Nadia and Kent
WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT? - Djed
STATS AND INTRODUCTION TO THE FILM - William
WHY GANG VIOLENCE? - Michael
QUESTIONS - Malachi
Writing down what we want to say:
We all worked on our parts and wrote down what we wanted to say as part of the presentation.
PowerPoint presentation and music:
We all put together a short PowerPoint presentation to show some visuals during our presentation. Nicholas also suggested that we use some music that he created during the period of time that our audience are sitting down ready for the presentation.
Finally we had a run through of our presentation so that we all understood when we needed to say our parts. Our first presentation will be on Friday 9 November during I Space at Pimlico Academy. We are really excited and nervous for our first public appearance. Who knows? we may become celebrities!
Labels:
campaign,
pimlico academy,
short film,
workshop planning,
young people
Monday, 8 October 2012
Session 11 - Feedback On Promotional Materials and Preparing To Take Our Campaign Into Schools - 2/10/12
Update:
We all gathered together and welcomed everyone back after our break. We had a quick update to see where everyone is and what they have been up too.
- Djed has been active on Twitter - we discussed teaming him up with Malachi so that we can keep the tweeting on track.
- Thomas has been finding the Facebook group annoying as he feels a page would be better - that way people can just like the page than having to add as a friend.
- Thomas has been busy finishing the draft script.
Introducing a designer:
Designer Nadia was introduced to the group and showed us three designs for promotional materials - postcards, logo and t-shirt designs. We discussed what we liked and what we wanted to change.
T-shirts:
- Can we have our names on the t-shirts?
The group fed back that they wanted the t-shirts to have their names on them. We all agreed that it would make the t-shirts look busy but that the idea of a name badge to wear anywhere would be a good compromise.
- I really like the t-shirt design - it is clear and appeals to young people
Logo:
- I like graffiti so the logo is cool for young people
- I love the design because it is modern and eye catching
- It suits the genre of the film really well
Postcard:
- I like everything about it
- It's a good idea and it appeals to young people
- I would put Malachi's face instead of mine on it
Poster idea:
We discussed that we liked the idea of having a poster that we could send over to schools to put up to promote our film and campaign coming to their school.
- A2
- landscape
- Still use the image of Michael from the film as it is a really strong image
- Use some of the copy off of the postcard
- Add get involved and details
- Blank box at the bottom that other schools can write the date, time and place when the campaign will be coming to their school
What schools do we want to take our campaign too?
- Pimlico Academy - anti-bullying week in November (TBC)
- Greycoats
- QK
- St Thomas Moore
We need to contact the schools and ask if we can have a minimum of 30 minutes to run our workshop in their schools.
Peabody paperwork:
Andrew from Peabody came in to discuss a few things with us.
- We filled in evaluation forms
- Discussed an option of accreditation for our campaign
Accreditation:
We finished up the session by discussing the opportunity of being able to gain a qualification from all of the work we have done as part of our campaign.
The dates when we will do this are TBC but the following members of the group are interested:
- Malachi
- Djed
- Thomas
- Michael Ajao
Labels:
ambition films,
campaign,
film,
it stops with us,
pimlico academy,
promotional materials,
session 11,
young people
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Session 10 - Film Feedback and Setting Up The Social Networking - 18/7/12
Feeding back on our film
We started off the session by watching our film - we were all very excited to see it! We watched it through a few times and gave our feedback. There were a few minor changes and some name spelling changes but overall everyone agreed that it looked brilliant!
Preparing speeches for our first presentation
We discussed and made noted of what we wanted to say in the presentation that we will be doing at the school. Sadly since the session our original plan to show our film in assembly didn't happen because there wasn't enough time. We will be doing our first presentation in September after the summer holidays so we will be able to show the film then. We decided that we wanted just three speakers to do a presentation after the film is shown but we will all be introduced any way.
- Thomas - Introduction
- Djed - What is our campaign about?
- Paul - Finishing and questions
Setting up our social networking
We set up our Twitter account (@Ambitionfilms) - which Lanta and Djed will be in charge of, Facebook - which Thomas and Nadia will be in charge of, a Gmail email account - which we will all take responsibility for along with our YouTube Channel.
We finished the session really excited and can't wait to show our film in assemblies!
We started off the session by watching our film - we were all very excited to see it! We watched it through a few times and gave our feedback. There were a few minor changes and some name spelling changes but overall everyone agreed that it looked brilliant!
Preparing speeches for our first presentation
We discussed and made noted of what we wanted to say in the presentation that we will be doing at the school. Sadly since the session our original plan to show our film in assembly didn't happen because there wasn't enough time. We will be doing our first presentation in September after the summer holidays so we will be able to show the film then. We decided that we wanted just three speakers to do a presentation after the film is shown but we will all be introduced any way.
- Thomas - Introduction
- Djed - What is our campaign about?
- Paul - Finishing and questions
Setting up our social networking
We set up our Twitter account (@Ambitionfilms) - which Lanta and Djed will be in charge of, Facebook - which Thomas and Nadia will be in charge of, a Gmail email account - which we will all take responsibility for along with our YouTube Channel.
We finished the session really excited and can't wait to show our film in assemblies!
Labels:
campaign,
social networking,
staying safe,
young people
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Filming day - 14/7/12
We all met at 9.30am and got prepared with make-up and the clothes we needed ready to film. It was a really exciting day as all of our words were being made into reality. The make-up artist did a really awesome job of scars on the members of the group playing gang members! We even got a tester of a really gross looking fake cut, it looked amazing!
Everyone had their roles on and off screen and filming went to plan, minus the rain - which made it harder to film the outdoor scenes straight away. It stopped raining after a few hours so we were able to get all of our whole film shot. It was a lot of fun and very tiring but it was well worth it for our film and campaign.
Thomas, Djed, Lanta and Nadia worked on a behind the scenes video and here is the result of it:
Everyone had their roles on and off screen and filming went to plan, minus the rain - which made it harder to film the outdoor scenes straight away. It stopped raining after a few hours so we were able to get all of our whole film shot. It was a lot of fun and very tiring but it was well worth it for our film and campaign.
Thomas, Djed, Lanta and Nadia worked on a behind the scenes video and here is the result of it:
Labels:
campaign,
filming day,
pimlico academy,
young people
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Session 9 - Rehearsals - 11/7/12
We have been rehearsing for the past three weeks with a professional actress Eilidh, who helped us to get into character and Patrick who will play the role of dad, helped us to understand where to stand and feel what our characters would really feel in the situations in the script.
In our final rehearsal we worked together with Patrick and Eilidh to choreograph our fight scene.
In our final rehearsal we worked together with Patrick and Eilidh to choreograph our fight scene.
Labels:
campaign,
final rehearsal,
pimlico academy,
session 9,
young people
Monday, 25 June 2012
Session 8 - Confirming Roles, Script Content And Practicing Lines - 20/6/23
We started off the session looking at the storyboard to remind ourselves of the shots that we want to use in our short film.
We discussed whether everyone was happy with the script and everyone agreed that they liked it but they wanted to change the ending.
We finalised roles and re-arranged a date for filming as most people couldn't do the original date proposed. We have now all agreed that we will be filming for the whole day on Saturday 14 July 2012.
The roles are as follows:
Cast:
Tyler: Nicholas (Malachi stand in)
Paul: Michael
Mum: Actress
Dad: Actor
Gang leader: Paul
Gang member 1: Malachi
Gang member 2: Michael A A
Extras/other gang members/passer by: Nadia, Djed, Tom, Lanta, Karl
Crew:
Director: Tristan
Assistant director: Karl
Art director: Tom
Camera Assistant: Nadia, Nicholas, Michael A A
Edit assistant: Malachi
We had a run through of all of the scenes and practice lines. We made a few minor amendments to the script as we wanted the ending to be slightly different. We filmed the scenes whilst everyone was practising.
We finished up the session by going through our expenditure rationale forms for filming and promoting our campaign and filled in feedback forms.
We discussed whether everyone was happy with the script and everyone agreed that they liked it but they wanted to change the ending.
We finalised roles and re-arranged a date for filming as most people couldn't do the original date proposed. We have now all agreed that we will be filming for the whole day on Saturday 14 July 2012.
The roles are as follows:
Cast:
Tyler: Nicholas (Malachi stand in)
Paul: Michael
Mum: Actress
Dad: Actor
Gang leader: Paul
Gang member 1: Malachi
Gang member 2: Michael A A
Extras/other gang members/passer by: Nadia, Djed, Tom, Lanta, Karl
Crew:
Director: Tristan
Assistant director: Karl
Art director: Tom
Camera Assistant: Nadia, Nicholas, Michael A A
Edit assistant: Malachi
We had a run through of all of the scenes and practice lines. We made a few minor amendments to the script as we wanted the ending to be slightly different. We filmed the scenes whilst everyone was practising.
We finished up the session by going through our expenditure rationale forms for filming and promoting our campaign and filled in feedback forms.
Labels:
campaign,
peabody,
peer pressure,
pimlico academy,
session 8,
short film,
young people
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Session 7 - Finishing Our Storyboard And Doing A Location Recce - 30/5/12
Going over roles:
We started off the session by going over everyone's roles and allocating characters for everyone to play.
Cast:
Tyler - Nicolas
Paul - Malachi/Paul/Michael
Mum - we will be getting an actress in
Dad - we will be getting an actor in
Gang leader - Karl/Paul
Gang member 2 - Micheal A.A
Gang member 3 - Lanta/Malachi
Girl (stabbing victim) - Nadia
Other gang members/extras - Nadia/Djed
Crew:
Director - Tristan/Karl
Assistant Director - Tom
Art Director - Tom/Lanta
Camera Assistant - Nadia/Nicolas/Micheal AA
Sound - We will be getting a sound man to do this
Edit Assistant - Malachi
Filming:
We looked at our schedules as there are a lot of exams going on over the next few weeks to see when everyone is available to film.
Filming dates:
- Thursday 21 June 2012 - 2.45pm - 7.00pm
- Sunday 24 June 2012 - We will film on this day too if we need to.
Storyboard:
Tom finished drawing the storyboard and it looks really great.
Paperwork:
We discussed and filled in an expenditure rationale form for our filming. This explained what we will need and how much it will cost.
Location recce:
For the final part of the session we went out to the locations that we will be filming at to do a location recce. We filmed the locations.
We started off the session by going over everyone's roles and allocating characters for everyone to play.
Cast:
Tyler - Nicolas
Paul - Malachi/Paul/Michael
Mum - we will be getting an actress in
Dad - we will be getting an actor in
Gang leader - Karl/Paul
Gang member 2 - Micheal A.A
Gang member 3 - Lanta/Malachi
Girl (stabbing victim) - Nadia
Other gang members/extras - Nadia/Djed
Crew:
Director - Tristan/Karl
Assistant Director - Tom
Art Director - Tom/Lanta
Camera Assistant - Nadia/Nicolas/Micheal AA
Sound - We will be getting a sound man to do this
Edit Assistant - Malachi
Filming:
We looked at our schedules as there are a lot of exams going on over the next few weeks to see when everyone is available to film.
Filming dates:
- Thursday 21 June 2012 - 2.45pm - 7.00pm
- Sunday 24 June 2012 - We will film on this day too if we need to.
Storyboard:
Tom finished drawing the storyboard and it looks really great.
Paperwork:
We discussed and filled in an expenditure rationale form for our filming. This explained what we will need and how much it will cost.
Location recce:
For the final part of the session we went out to the locations that we will be filming at to do a location recce. We filmed the locations.
Labels:
campaign,
peabody,
pimlico academy,
session 7,
short film,
staying safe,
young people
Monday, 28 May 2012
Session 6 - New Sessions - Finishing Pre-Production And Creating A Shot List - 23/5/12
We started off the session by having a look at the finished script and everyone agreed that it is really good and that we are all happy with it.
Actors and locations:
We all discussed who's house that we could use for the mum and dad bathroom/kitchen scene and Djed is going to ask his mum and take some location shots to show us all in the next session. We have all agreed that rather than using teachers to play the mum and dad that it will be better and more accessible to bring actors in to play them instead.
What is a storyboard?
We looked at examples of different storyboards including a scene from Toy Story. This was to help us to understand why a storyboard is important and that it helps to give a visual idea of what we want our shots for our film to look like and what impression we want them to give.
Creating a shot list:
We read through the script, all reading out a part each and the scene directions and discussed one scene at a time and how we want it to look. We created a shot list out of our discussions and agreed on what shots we want to use.
Forms and paperwork:
For our campaign there is lots of paperwork involved so we had to fill some in to be able to make our campaign happen.
We discussed the following for the purpose of funding and support:
What is our campaign about?
- Speak out and stand up for what you believe in
- Consequences happen if you keep quiet and don't help a friend who is under pressure to join a gang
- Our slogan is - It stops with us!
What are our plans for the future?
- A launch party
- Talk at an event/festival and show our film
- Brochures for funders for future films through our group and production company, Ambition Films
- Go to talk in school assemblies with a police officer (build a partnership with them) about the dangers of getting caught up with a gang and show our film
- A website for our production company and campaign and put our film on it
- Expand our brand
- Get Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter
- Hold a day event to promote our campaign to schools and run lots of activities
We finished up the session on a positive note and excited that we will soon be shooting our film and making our campaign come to life.
Actors and locations:
What is a storyboard?
We looked at examples of different storyboards including a scene from Toy Story. This was to help us to understand why a storyboard is important and that it helps to give a visual idea of what we want our shots for our film to look like and what impression we want them to give.
Creating a shot list:
Forms and paperwork:
For our campaign there is lots of paperwork involved so we had to fill some in to be able to make our campaign happen.
We discussed the following for the purpose of funding and support:
What is our campaign about?
- Speak out and stand up for what you believe in
- Consequences happen if you keep quiet and don't help a friend who is under pressure to join a gang
- Our slogan is - It stops with us!
What are our plans for the future?
- A launch party
- Talk at an event/festival and show our film
- Brochures for funders for future films through our group and production company, Ambition Films
- Go to talk in school assemblies with a police officer (build a partnership with them) about the dangers of getting caught up with a gang and show our film
- A website for our production company and campaign and put our film on it
- Expand our brand
- Get Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter
- Hold a day event to promote our campaign to schools and run lots of activities
We finished up the session on a positive note and excited that we will soon be shooting our film and making our campaign come to life.
Labels:
campaign,
peabody,
pimlico academy,
pre-production,
session 6,
storyboard,
young people
Monday, 21 May 2012
Session 5 - Feedback On The Script And Improvising Final Dialogue - 16/5/12
Icebreaker:
We started the session off with an icebreaker. The icebreaker that we took part in was 'which one's a lie?'. We all had to say one lie about ourselves and one fact. The other members of the group had to guess which one was true and which one was a lie.
Miss Richards, a teacher at Pimlico Academy has agreed to take on the role of the mum in our film. This is really good news as we really need an adult to play this role.
Discussing script changes:
We read through the script, each of us reading a role. Then we discussed what we wanted to change. We agreed that we wanted to keep the storyline and scenes the same and we wanted to change the dialogue to make it even street and slang than it already was.
We agreed that we want our film to be called 'It stops with us!' which is also our message.
Role-playing dialogue:
We split into two groups to role-play dialogue for the three scenes that we felt needed it. We acted out the roles and acted the way we usually would respond. The people who weren't acting filmed our progress. We made notes of the dialogue that we had role-played.
Feeding back:
Both groups role-played their dialogue to each other and everyone agreed that there was nothing that needed changing in our new dialogue. We filmed the role-plays.
We finished up the session by filling in feedback forms and were all really excited that our film progress is going really well.
We started the session off with an icebreaker. The icebreaker that we took part in was 'which one's a lie?'. We all had to say one lie about ourselves and one fact. The other members of the group had to guess which one was true and which one was a lie.
Miss Richards, a teacher at Pimlico Academy has agreed to take on the role of the mum in our film. This is really good news as we really need an adult to play this role.
Discussing script changes:
We read through the script, each of us reading a role. Then we discussed what we wanted to change. We agreed that we wanted to keep the storyline and scenes the same and we wanted to change the dialogue to make it even street and slang than it already was.
We agreed that we want our film to be called 'It stops with us!' which is also our message.
Role-playing dialogue:
We split into two groups to role-play dialogue for the three scenes that we felt needed it. We acted out the roles and acted the way we usually would respond. The people who weren't acting filmed our progress. We made notes of the dialogue that we had role-played.
Feeding back:
Both groups role-played their dialogue to each other and everyone agreed that there was nothing that needed changing in our new dialogue. We filmed the role-plays.
We finished up the session by filling in feedback forms and were all really excited that our film progress is going really well.
Labels:
campaign,
pimlico academy,
session 5,
young people
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Session 4 - Adjusting The Script, Allocating Roles and Improvisation - 9/5/12
Icebreaker
To kick things off we all did an ice-breaker. We had a few new faces so we decided to go around the circle and get everyone to say their name and favourite TV show.
Reading through the script
We all read a part in the script and discussed what we wanted to change about it and how we wanted to end our film.
- Add a fight scene
- See the knife - gang close in - then he's on the floor (closing shot) - followed by an interview
- POV (point of view) shot - everything goes blurry - blackout - you hear voices talking (this is our idea to end our film)
We discussed some dialogue that we wanted to change.
Line of production
We stood in our line of production to see how far we had got in our film process. We agreed that we were coming to the end of the script stage.
Ideas > script > writer > producer > camera person > sound person > director/assistant director
^
This is the stage that we are at
Improvisation for dialogue
We did some improvisation for a few scenes so that we could pick out some natural dialogue for our film.
Roles and locations
We discussed roles that everyone wanted to do:
- Nadia - Supporting actor/co-director
- Nicholas - Main actor/camera
- Karl - Main actor/camera
- Malachi - Main actor/co-director
- Sedigi - Supporting actor
- Thomas - Co-director/art director
Locations that we will use are:
- Student's house
- School (Pimlico)
- Street
- Bathroom at student's house
We finished up the session with paperwork and agreeing on the things that we are going to need for our campaign.
To kick things off we all did an ice-breaker. We had a few new faces so we decided to go around the circle and get everyone to say their name and favourite TV show.
Reading through the script
We all read a part in the script and discussed what we wanted to change about it and how we wanted to end our film.
- Add a fight scene
- See the knife - gang close in - then he's on the floor (closing shot) - followed by an interview
- POV (point of view) shot - everything goes blurry - blackout - you hear voices talking (this is our idea to end our film)
We discussed some dialogue that we wanted to change.
Line of production
We stood in our line of production to see how far we had got in our film process. We agreed that we were coming to the end of the script stage.
Ideas > script > writer > producer > camera person > sound person > director/assistant director
^
This is the stage that we are at
Improvisation for dialogue
We did some improvisation for a few scenes so that we could pick out some natural dialogue for our film.
Roles and locations
We discussed roles that everyone wanted to do:
- Nadia - Supporting actor/co-director
- Nicholas - Main actor/camera
- Karl - Main actor/camera
- Malachi - Main actor/co-director
- Sedigi - Supporting actor
- Thomas - Co-director/art director
Locations that we will use are:
- Student's house
- School (Pimlico)
- Street
- Bathroom at student's house
We finished up the session with paperwork and agreeing on the things that we are going to need for our campaign.
Labels:
campaign,
peabody,
pimlico academy,
session 4,
short film,
young people
Friday, 11 May 2012
Session 3 - Working With A Screen Writer To Write Our Script - 2/5/12
We started off the session with a name game. Everybody said their name and their favourite film. We all had really great taste in films.
Introducing a script writer:
We were introduced to Tom who is a screen and script writer. He told us a bit about what his job entaled and answered any questions that we had for him.
Where have you written plays for?
The Arcola Theatre
How much money do you get?
Not much for theatre but there is much more money in writing for television.
Introducing our story to Tom:
We broke down our storyline for Tom. It is the story of a boy and his friend, the boy is under peer pressure to join a gang and his friend wants to help so seeks advice from his parents. Will he or won't he? Our message is: it stops with us!
We discussed our feelings on gang culture:
- It's wrong
- Parents need to think twice before they let their kids out
What does a script look like?:
We looked at a script from a scene in Spiderman and read through it. This was to give us an idea of what everything meant and how it all worked.
We then watched the clip that the script was from and everyone agreed that it was really clever and that they had changed some of the dialogue. Scripts are to give everyone direction and act like a blue print. Sometimes improvising means that you get some brilliant dialogue.
A script describes what the scene will look like and sets it all up.
Improvising dialogue:
For the final part of the session we did some improvisation for our first scene. This was so that we could get some dialogue for our script.
Introducing a script writer:
We were introduced to Tom who is a screen and script writer. He told us a bit about what his job entaled and answered any questions that we had for him.
Where have you written plays for?
The Arcola Theatre
How much money do you get?
Not much for theatre but there is much more money in writing for television.
Introducing our story to Tom:
We broke down our storyline for Tom. It is the story of a boy and his friend, the boy is under peer pressure to join a gang and his friend wants to help so seeks advice from his parents. Will he or won't he? Our message is: it stops with us!
We discussed our feelings on gang culture:
- It's wrong
- Parents need to think twice before they let their kids out
What does a script look like?:
We looked at a script from a scene in Spiderman and read through it. This was to give us an idea of what everything meant and how it all worked.
We then watched the clip that the script was from and everyone agreed that it was really clever and that they had changed some of the dialogue. Scripts are to give everyone direction and act like a blue print. Sometimes improvising means that you get some brilliant dialogue.
A script describes what the scene will look like and sets it all up.
Improvising dialogue:
For the final part of the session we did some improvisation for our first scene. This was so that we could get some dialogue for our script.
Labels:
campaign,
peabody,
script writing,
session 3,
young people
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Session 2 - Restart Sessions - Starting Work On The Script And Allocating Roles - 25/4/12
We started off the session by welcoming another two new members to the group.

Recap on the last session:
- Focus on two friends in different scenarios
- Came up with loads of ideas
- Watched videos of other campaigns
Stages of creating a film:
We discussed the different stages of creating a film.
- Pre-production (storyboards, ideas, scripting, allocating roles, actors, etc)
- Production (the pysical creation of the film)
- Post-production (the edit)
Proposal paperwork:
We discussed the proposal form which is needed for the funding for the project. This helped us to straighten out specific elements of our campaign.
How does a film set work?
We did a really fun activity to demonstrate how a film set works and who's who.
Each one of us represented each of the elements of creating a film and stood in a line to see what stage we were currently at :
Ideas > script > writer > producer > camera person > sound person > director/assistant director
^
This is the stage that we are at
Then we acted out different roles to see how a film set would work during filming:
Roles:
Everybody wants to be in the film as actors and Djed wants to be the director.
Discussing the script:
The story is about peer pressure, bullying and decisions that a young boy faces to join a gang.
It will be two seperate stories being told at the same time:
- Shot identically
- Split screen
- Message - It stops with us
The story is about a young boy (Max) who's friend (Billy) is being bullied and contemplating joining a gang. Max speaks to his mum/dad about the situation but will it be to late to help Billy?
- The gang wants Billy to be a runner of cash (£1000)
We worked on putting a rough script together as we have a script writer coming into our next session to help us write it properly.
Feedback:
We filled in feedback forms and the session came to an end.
Recap on the last session:
- Focus on two friends in different scenarios
- Came up with loads of ideas
- Watched videos of other campaigns
Stages of creating a film:
We discussed the different stages of creating a film.
- Production (the pysical creation of the film)
- Post-production (the edit)
Proposal paperwork:
We discussed the proposal form which is needed for the funding for the project. This helped us to straighten out specific elements of our campaign.
How does a film set work?
We did a really fun activity to demonstrate how a film set works and who's who.
Each one of us represented each of the elements of creating a film and stood in a line to see what stage we were currently at :
Ideas > script > writer > producer > camera person > sound person > director/assistant director
^
This is the stage that we are at
Then we acted out different roles to see how a film set would work during filming:
Roles:
Everybody wants to be in the film as actors and Djed wants to be the director.
Discussing the script:
The story is about peer pressure, bullying and decisions that a young boy faces to join a gang.
It will be two seperate stories being told at the same time:
- Shot identically
- Split screen
- Message - It stops with us
The story is about a young boy (Max) who's friend (Billy) is being bullied and contemplating joining a gang. Max speaks to his mum/dad about the situation but will it be to late to help Billy?
- The gang wants Billy to be a runner of cash (£1000)
We worked on putting a rough script together as we have a script writer coming into our next session to help us write it properly.
Feedback:
We filled in feedback forms and the session came to an end.
Labels:
campaign,
film,
peabody,
pimlico academy,
session 3 restart session,
young people
Friday, 27 April 2012
Session 1 - Restart Sessions - Introduction To Campaigning And Ideas Generation - 18/4/12
We kicked off the session by watching three examples of other films/campaigns for the benefit of all of the new starters.We all discussed the audience, the message and our likes and dislikes for each video/campaign.
Choose a different ending:
Audience: 13-19 year olds
Message: Don't carry a knife as it has consequences
Likes and dislikes:
- It's like a deterance
- The song at the end didn't work as it didn't make sense
- The sexy girls are a contradiction
- It looked like an amateur film
- It would be better longer
- It's stereotypical - young people will always get stop and searched
- Liked the choices - they are like your conscience
- It makes you think
- They could have made it more realistic - not everyone knows everyone in their area or are part of a gang
- The part where his friend offers him the knife is unrealistic as it would never just happen that way
Teen talent takes over 10 Downing Street:
Audience: Government, teenagers, curriculum leaders of the area and anyone with space
Message:Young people need their own space to be creative
Likes and dislikes:
- The free running puts you off
- It changes youth stereotyping
- The message is clear - we need space
- It means something being filmed at 10 Downing Street
- Liked the setting and talent - they both make it fun and serious at the same time
- It gets people's attention
- There's lots of stuff out there similar to it for young people - so it's not memorable
Beat the bully:
Audience: Secondary school age
Message:Don't just struggle, help someone if they are getting bullied or report it
Likes and dislikes:
- It's a little unrealistic with the phone bit - the name of the bully came up when she text (you wouldn't have a bully's name stored in your phone)
- Liked the setting
- The fight was realistic - in schools there is always a swarm of people
- It's hard to feel sorry for the boy
- The teacher bit is unrealistic as nobody usually finds out
- It needs something extra to give the viewer more empathy - it needed a starting point
- We would set in more on social networking websites
Storyboards and shot list:
We discussed that we need to come up with the script before we do storyboarding, but this is something that we will have to do.
The shot list that we want to use for our film is:
- Wide shot
- Mid shot
- Close-up
Ideas:
We all came up with three ideas that we wanted to make our film about and fed them back to the rest of the group.
Scene ideas:
We worked on discussing some scene ideas:
We want to have two scenarios:
1. A gang culture scenario
2. An in school bullying scenario
- The storyline will focus on the friend of two boys.One of the boys is getting bullied and the other is contemplating joining a gang.
Comments:
Campaigning:
- You have to have something that you want to change.
- We are the next generation of olders so let's change this now
Bullying:
- Don't take things into your own hands
- Situations escalate from in school and carry on outside of school
- Somebody always takes it too far
Our Message:
It stops with us!
We finished up the session by starting the proposal form and filling in feedback forms.
Choose a different ending:
Audience: 13-19 year olds
Message: Don't carry a knife as it has consequences
Likes and dislikes:
- It's like a deterance
- The song at the end didn't work as it didn't make sense
- The sexy girls are a contradiction
- It looked like an amateur film
- It would be better longer
- It's stereotypical - young people will always get stop and searched
- Liked the choices - they are like your conscience
- It makes you think
- They could have made it more realistic - not everyone knows everyone in their area or are part of a gang
- The part where his friend offers him the knife is unrealistic as it would never just happen that way
Teen talent takes over 10 Downing Street:
Audience: Government, teenagers, curriculum leaders of the area and anyone with space
Message:Young people need their own space to be creative
Likes and dislikes:
- It changes youth stereotyping
- The message is clear - we need space
- It means something being filmed at 10 Downing Street
- Liked the setting and talent - they both make it fun and serious at the same time
- It gets people's attention
- There's lots of stuff out there similar to it for young people - so it's not memorable
Beat the bully:
Audience: Secondary school age
Message:Don't just struggle, help someone if they are getting bullied or report it
Likes and dislikes:
- It's a little unrealistic with the phone bit - the name of the bully came up when she text (you wouldn't have a bully's name stored in your phone)
- Liked the setting
- The fight was realistic - in schools there is always a swarm of people
- It's hard to feel sorry for the boy
- The teacher bit is unrealistic as nobody usually finds out
- It needs something extra to give the viewer more empathy - it needed a starting point
- We would set in more on social networking websites
Storyboards and shot list:
We discussed that we need to come up with the script before we do storyboarding, but this is something that we will have to do.
The shot list that we want to use for our film is:
- Wide shot
- Mid shot
- Close-up
Ideas:
We all came up with three ideas that we wanted to make our film about and fed them back to the rest of the group.
Scene ideas:
We worked on discussing some scene ideas:
We want to have two scenarios:
1. A gang culture scenario
2. An in school bullying scenario
- The storyline will focus on the friend of two boys.One of the boys is getting bullied and the other is contemplating joining a gang.
Comments:
Campaigning:
- You have to have something that you want to change.
- We are the next generation of olders so let's change this now
Bullying:
- Don't take things into your own hands
- Situations escalate from in school and carry on outside of school
- Somebody always takes it too far
Our Message:
It stops with us!
We finished up the session by starting the proposal form and filling in feedback forms.
Labels:
campaign,
pimlico academy,
session 2 restart,
short film,
young people
Monday, 23 April 2012
Introductory Session - Restart Sessions - Bringing New People Into The Group - 11/4/12
This session we were all really happy to be back and on track with our film. There were some new people that came to sign up for our sessions to help make our campaign brilliant.
Filling everyone in on our previous progress:
Djed filled all of the new people in on what we had done so far on our film.
Role preference:
Karl and Michael are keen to be behind the camera and everyone else is happy to be either in front of or behind the camera.
Ideas:
We all came up with some suggestions as to how and where we can share our film:
- Posters around the school (on the big screens)
- Show it in assemblies
- We can put it on the school's online page - frog or ispace - the school's idevelopment space.
We all agreed that we are keen to take our film into other schools once it is finished.
Some fresh ideas that we we all discussed to make the film about are:
- Cyber bullying
- Bullying in school (too cliché)
- Estate/bullying outside schools - continues
- Gangs - going into unknown territories
- Stereotypes - immigration bullying
- The way people dress
- Homosexuality
- Obesity
- Anorexic - more the way people look
What is a campaign?
We all discussed other campaigns that we know and that a campaign's main purpose is to make a change.
- Amnesty - a peace campaign
- Make poverty history
Our Campaign:
We want to make a change by making a short film. We want our audience to be 12-16 year olds. We want young people to come to our campaign, think for a while or signpost them on.
How can we make our campaign appeal?
- Refer our film to other films to make it more relevant - i.e. the Daminola Taylor case.
Where do we want to see our campaign?
- Bus stops where young people wait
- School assemblies
- School lessons
- Facebook/YouTube
- Screens around school
Evaluation:
We filled in our feedback forms and look forward to next week's session where we can get started on our campaign.
Filling everyone in on our previous progress:
Djed filled all of the new people in on what we had done so far on our film.
Role preference:
Karl and Michael are keen to be behind the camera and everyone else is happy to be either in front of or behind the camera.
Ideas:
We all came up with some suggestions as to how and where we can share our film:
- Posters around the school (on the big screens)
- Show it in assemblies
- We can put it on the school's online page - frog or ispace - the school's idevelopment space.
We all agreed that we are keen to take our film into other schools once it is finished.
Some fresh ideas that we we all discussed to make the film about are:
- Cyber bullying
- Bullying in school (too cliché)
- Estate/bullying outside schools - continues
- Gangs - going into unknown territories
- Stereotypes - immigration bullying
- The way people dress
- Homosexuality
- Obesity
- Anorexic - more the way people look
What is a campaign?
We all discussed other campaigns that we know and that a campaign's main purpose is to make a change.
- Amnesty - a peace campaign
- Make poverty history
Our Campaign:
We want to make a change by making a short film. We want our audience to be 12-16 year olds. We want young people to come to our campaign, think for a while or signpost them on.
How can we make our campaign appeal?
- Refer our film to other films to make it more relevant - i.e. the Daminola Taylor case.
Where do we want to see our campaign?
- Bus stops where young people wait
- School assemblies
- School lessons
- Facebook/YouTube
- Screens around school
Evaluation:
We filled in our feedback forms and look forward to next week's session where we can get started on our campaign.
Labels:
campaign,
new session 1,
pimlico academy,
young people
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Session 4 - Improvising Scenes and Finalising Roles
Looking at shots in a film sequence:
We started the session off by watching a video of the basic camera shots that are used in sequence in a television show or film. After learning about the different shots in our previous sessions we had to shout out what shot was being used in each scene when it came up. We discussed what shots that we thought we wanted to use in our film and why they all worked well.
The main shots that we want to use in our film are:
- Wide shot - This is to set the scene.
- Mid shot - This is to show who else is in the scene.
- Close up shot - This is to show emotion.
We all felt that these were all effective enough to only need the three shots in our film.
Scene improvisation:
After this we worked on improvising our school corridor scene and got everyone not in the scene to film it. This was useful as we were able to get some dialogue for our script from this.
We then watched the scene back that we had filmed and discussed which of the shots we could use and which ones were not good enough to use.
What does everyone already know?
We discussed what we all knew already about film. We already knew a bit about shots as we had showed them in previous sessions.
We talked about the different shots and what they did for a piece, e.g. a close-up can portray emotion and is good for someone talking and makes it easier to see somebody’s face.
Finalising the roles:
We finalised the roles with everyone present and agreed that we would take it in turns to do the filming. Thomas will be in most scenes as he is the main character but he expressed that he wanted to help with the filming on the parts that he won’t be in.
We all agreed that we wanted Tristan to do the script as it will be quicker and that we will all go over it together to give feedback.
Our storyline:
The film will tell the story of a young boy who is getting bullied at school. It will start at the end with a beaten and bruised boy walking home from school sad. It will show the boy getting bullied at school on numerous occasions and his friends see it all but don't say anything. The the film will rewind and start with the boy really happy walking down the road on his way home. The school day will go the same as far as the table tennis bullying scene, where his friend tells a teacher about the boy getting bullied.
Our message is: It's ok to help a friend.
Evaluations:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
Update:
We have decided that because there is not enough of us coming to the sessions to create the film, that we will be putting our campaign on hold. The sessions will restart once we have got some more young people to join.
We started the session off by watching a video of the basic camera shots that are used in sequence in a television show or film. After learning about the different shots in our previous sessions we had to shout out what shot was being used in each scene when it came up. We discussed what shots that we thought we wanted to use in our film and why they all worked well.
The main shots that we want to use in our film are:
- Wide shot - This is to set the scene.
- Mid shot - This is to show who else is in the scene.
- Close up shot - This is to show emotion.
We all felt that these were all effective enough to only need the three shots in our film.
Scene improvisation:
After this we worked on improvising our school corridor scene and got everyone not in the scene to film it. This was useful as we were able to get some dialogue for our script from this.
We then watched the scene back that we had filmed and discussed which of the shots we could use and which ones were not good enough to use.
What does everyone already know?
We discussed what we all knew already about film. We already knew a bit about shots as we had showed them in previous sessions.
We talked about the different shots and what they did for a piece, e.g. a close-up can portray emotion and is good for someone talking and makes it easier to see somebody’s face.
Finalising the roles:
We finalised the roles with everyone present and agreed that we would take it in turns to do the filming. Thomas will be in most scenes as he is the main character but he expressed that he wanted to help with the filming on the parts that he won’t be in.
We all agreed that we wanted Tristan to do the script as it will be quicker and that we will all go over it together to give feedback.
Our storyline:
The film will tell the story of a young boy who is getting bullied at school. It will start at the end with a beaten and bruised boy walking home from school sad. It will show the boy getting bullied at school on numerous occasions and his friends see it all but don't say anything. The the film will rewind and start with the boy really happy walking down the road on his way home. The school day will go the same as far as the table tennis bullying scene, where his friend tells a teacher about the boy getting bullied.
Our message is: It's ok to help a friend.
Evaluations:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
Update:
We have decided that because there is not enough of us coming to the sessions to create the film, that we will be putting our campaign on hold. The sessions will restart once we have got some more young people to join.
Labels:
campaign,
pimlico academy,
session 4,
short film,
young people
Session 3 - Finalising Locations, Improvising Scenes and Finishing Our Proposal
Ice-breaker
We started off the session with an ice-breaker - stop, go, jump and clap. It was really fun but really made us use our brain.
Paperwork:
We all discussed and completed our proposal form and went over what props we are going to need for our film.
Updating absent members of our group:
We went over what we all worked on in our previous session for Djed who was absent. This was so that he was kept up to date with where we were up to.
How a film set works:
We role-played the set-up of a film set so that the young people could see where everyone needs to be,
what they need to say and what they need to do on the day of filming.
Locations:
We discussed the location recce and chose the best places that will work for our film.
We then went around the school to visit and film the different locations to give us an idea of what shots will work where.
Improvising scenes:
We did some improvisation of our table tennis scene, where the bully picks on the victim whilst he plays table tennis. Everyone who was not involved in the scene, filmed it so that we could get an idea of what it would look like on the screen.
Homework:
We were all set some homework, which was to research the schools anti-bullying policy and some statistics on bullying.
Evaluating:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
We started off the session with an ice-breaker - stop, go, jump and clap. It was really fun but really made us use our brain.
Paperwork:
We all discussed and completed our proposal form and went over what props we are going to need for our film.
Updating absent members of our group:
We went over what we all worked on in our previous session for Djed who was absent. This was so that he was kept up to date with where we were up to.
How a film set works:
We role-played the set-up of a film set so that the young people could see where everyone needs to be,
what they need to say and what they need to do on the day of filming.
Locations:
We discussed the location recce and chose the best places that will work for our film.
We then went around the school to visit and film the different locations to give us an idea of what shots will work where.
Improvising scenes:
We did some improvisation of our table tennis scene, where the bully picks on the victim whilst he plays table tennis. Everyone who was not involved in the scene, filmed it so that we could get an idea of what it would look like on the screen.
Homework:
We were all set some homework, which was to research the schools anti-bullying policy and some statistics on bullying.
Evaluating:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
Labels:
campaign,
pimlico academy,
session 3,
short film,
young people
Session 2 - Planning Our Campaign
Ice-breaker
We started the session with an icebreaker to get the group thinking and on their feet. For the ice-breaker we all had to put a piece of paper on our heads and draw around it, then pass it on to the next person to add eyes, then the next for the nose and so on until we all had a complete face. On the drawing we ended up with we had to write our name on it and then tell everyone about how the picture represents us an individuals.
Group activity - brain storming
We split into two groups, to discuss our ideas for locations for our film and build up a storyline.
We brain stormed our ideas for locations and we came up with a wide selection of locations of where we might want to film within our school.
Some of the locations that we came up with were:
- The playground
- In a classroom
- Near the outdoor ping pong tables
- The corridors in the school
- At the school gates
- The alley way near the school
Once we had completed our location brain storming, we worked on developing one of the ideas that we had come up with for our storyline. This was so that we had one main idea for our final film.
Presenting our ideas:
Both of our groups presented their ideas to each other. One of the groups filmed the other group, using flip cameras whilst the other group shared their ideas. This was so that they had a record of our ideas on film and so that we could practice different shots.
Once both of our groups had discussed our ideas, as a whole group we reviewed and discussed them. We took aspects of each storyline and merged them together to make a really great story for the film. We decided on our main message and on which locations would be best for our storyline. We then decided on who wanted to do which role in the film.
Interview skills:
We practiced a few interview skills by working in pairs to film and interview each other about our experiences of bullying. This was a really interesting activity as we got to practice shooting video using different shots.
We all decided that it will be more convenient for us all to meet after school on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays.
Evaluating:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
We started the session with an icebreaker to get the group thinking and on their feet. For the ice-breaker we all had to put a piece of paper on our heads and draw around it, then pass it on to the next person to add eyes, then the next for the nose and so on until we all had a complete face. On the drawing we ended up with we had to write our name on it and then tell everyone about how the picture represents us an individuals.
Group activity - brain storming
We split into two groups, to discuss our ideas for locations for our film and build up a storyline.
We brain stormed our ideas for locations and we came up with a wide selection of locations of where we might want to film within our school.
Some of the locations that we came up with were:
- The playground
- In a classroom
- Near the outdoor ping pong tables
- The corridors in the school
- At the school gates
- The alley way near the school
Once we had completed our location brain storming, we worked on developing one of the ideas that we had come up with for our storyline. This was so that we had one main idea for our final film.
Presenting our ideas:
Both of our groups presented their ideas to each other. One of the groups filmed the other group, using flip cameras whilst the other group shared their ideas. This was so that they had a record of our ideas on film and so that we could practice different shots.
Once both of our groups had discussed our ideas, as a whole group we reviewed and discussed them. We took aspects of each storyline and merged them together to make a really great story for the film. We decided on our main message and on which locations would be best for our storyline. We then decided on who wanted to do which role in the film.
Interview skills:
We practiced a few interview skills by working in pairs to film and interview each other about our experiences of bullying. This was a really interesting activity as we got to practice shooting video using different shots.
We all decided that it will be more convenient for us all to meet after school on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays.
Evaluating:
We finished the session by getting the group to fill in evaluation forms.
Session 1 - Introduction To Campaigning and Communications
UpdateWe had an introductory session the previous week to this session. During that session we discussed some ideas about what sort of campaign that we wanted to do. We decided that we wanted to create a short film.
Introductions
As this was officially our first session we started off with introductions.
Ice-breaker
We did an ice-breaker which was a ball throwing game, which we had to say our name and then throw the ball to someone else and then say their name. This was a really good way to remember everybody's names.
Looking at other films/campaigns
We looked at an example of another film/campaign which is similar to what we want to do . We discussed; Who the audience was, what the message was, what was good about it and what was bad about it.

Beat the Bully short film
Choose a different ending
Teen talent takes over 10 Downing St
Planning our campaign (form filling)
We discussed different elements of our campaign and what we need to decide before we can create our short film.
Who is it for?
- Young people at secondary school.
What is the message?
- Don't bully others, it's ok to ask for help.
Why is it important?
- To help raise awareness of bullying and help to prevent it from happening.
What would you want people to DO about it?
- To tell someone if they are getting bullied and if someone sees somebody getting bullied to get them to tell somebody.
Our basic storyline:
One student is sat eating their lunch in the school corridor. A group of friends walk from one direction and a group of bullies from another, then a stand off begins.
We started our proposal form.
Evaluation
We finished up the session by filling in our evaluation forms.
Labels:
campaign,
introduction to campaigning and communications,
pimlico academy,
Session 1,
short film,
young people
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