Young Film Academy, Bringing the UK Film Industry to Britain’s schools.
From Michael Gandy @ Young Film Academy
Young Film Academy (YFA) is not your usual filmmaking teaching provider. YFA founders James Walker and Ed Boase are teaching young filmmakers and making waves in the professional film world too, with their award-winning film production company, Magma Pictures - sister company to Young Film Academy.
The Young Film Academy (YFA) is the UK’s leading educational filmmaking provider for schools in both the secondary and state sectors. Young Film Academy is a unique teaching organisation - directly linked to the UK film industry. Recently YFA have been working with the film industry’s education body, Film Education, getting the winners of the Young Film Critic of the Year Award (held at a star studded ceremony at BAFTA) behind the camera in their schools.
Every year Young Film Academy helps over 5000 young people in more than 50 schools produce their first digital films. Their unique and hugely popular practical filmmaking programme, The One Day Film School (www.onedayfilmschool.co.uk), is opening student and teachers’ eyes alike to the possibilities of digital filmmaking within schools and the curriculum. Young Film Academys’ mission is simple: to get young people making films. The future of the British film industry depends on it.
The One Day Film School offers a dynamic day of hands-on filmmaking for up to 100 students. Run by industry professionals, the day includes workshops on Screenwriting, Camerawork and even Fight Choreography. The One Day Film School culminates in students working in teams to produce their own mini-films - all in time for a Film Festival and awards ceremony, complete with an Oscar for Best Film.
Young Film Academy is the exclusive workshop provider to many of the UK’s leading Arts Organisations, including the Guardian Hay Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the London Children's Film Festival held at the Barbican, London, Europe’s largest arts centre.
For smaller schools, or for small groups of students studying film-related subjects, YFA also offers a Rough Cut Workshop for up to 25 students. The Rough Cut Workshop offers a dynamic programme of hands-on workshops with our award-winning trainers, but the day has been designed for smaller groups at a lower cost (£650+VAT).
In all the schools YFA have visited they have found that their practical filmmaking workshops provide great benefit as non-curricular activity days, post-exam activities, practical accompaniment to IB diplomas or Film or Media Studies courses - or simply as an original team-building programme. The One Day Film School teaches the importance of teamwork in a enjoyable practical way. The students are treated as film professionals and respond as such. The course improves confidence and acts as a creative outlet for difficult children and children suffering from dyslexia.
“The day is absolutely excellent. It is rare to find experts who can command the attention and respect of all involved so quickly. A real learning experience with a superb balance of theory and practice.”
Eve Belkin
(Henrietta Barnet School)
"The Academy provided my sons with an excellent week of education and fun. Their short film really surprised us all with it's excellent artistic and technical merit. Clearly their imaginations have been sparked. Thank you and thank you!"
Richard Pierson, Editor
(Quantum of Solace, The Bourne Supremacy)
"If you are looking for an all absorbing, inspiring day which will open your pupils' eyes to the world of film production, you need look no further.
Headmaster Mike Buchanan
(Ashford School)
Your courses are excellent for young people. They get a taste of the craft of filmmaking, in all departments, and I was astonished by the speed at which they learned!"
Jim Clark, Editor
(The Killing Fields, Memphis Belle, The World is Not Enough)