Course Outline:

Over the three day half term camp, the young movie makers will work to produce their own adventure style movie production.

Monday – Day 1:

On the first day, the young crews will explore different filmmaking techniques fundamental to the action-adventure genre. They’ll look at inspirations from films such as Indiana Jones, Castaway and Jumanji and explore how to recreate some of the dramatic effects. We’ll work on some key filmmaking skills, including shot types and sizes, as well as how to build sequences.

They’ll grow familiar with the different roles around the film set – from Director to Camera Operator and Clapperloader – and practise taking on each of the responsibilities. They will also start developing ideas for their own productions.

Tuesday – Day 2:

On the second day, the movie makers will spend the morning finalising their stories and working on pre-production tasks. They will cast the film and work on scripts for the different scenes. They will also work to develop a storyboard (a visual plan for the film and its shots) and choose their filming locations, their props and costumes.

In the afternoon, filmmakers will begin shooting through their storyboards and collect the footage for their film. They’ll work together as a ‘professional’ film crew, with everyone taking on crew responsibilities for each of the different shots. Everyone rotates around the film set, so that each child taking part experiences the different departments and crew roles.

Each child also has their own acting role to perform (unless they opt out of acting), working in front of the camera as the crew shoot their scenes.

Wednesday – Day 3:

On the final day, the movie makers continue to film their scenes and produce all the footage for their productions. After lunch, the children prepare a short presentation for parents, who join us for the last segment of the day.

In the presentation, the children introduce their work and share their favourite highlights from the footage, along with insights from behind the scenes. They also share their favourite techniques with you in a demonstration – this is always a lovely part of the workshop, as it enables them to become leaders and to share some of their learning with parents too.

After the workshop, our team edit together a complete version of the film, which we send along to you afterwards. The films can be added to the children’s portfolios – where they can be used to represent continued learning or become part of school/scholarship applications etc – and we also enter the films into our Sparks Awards annual prize-giving event.