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First Light Movies judges from ‘The Secret of Moonacre’

‘The Secret of Moonacre’ is a magical film based on the book ‘The Little White Horse’ by Elizabeth Goudge. Out today the film stars Dakota Blue Richards and Juliet Stevenson, both of whom have judged the nominated entries for the upcoming Activison First Light Movies Awards. Find out more about the Awards and watch the nominated films here.

Top tips for young filmmakers

10 tips for young filmmakers from Irish filmmaker and critic Donal Foreman, check them out!

BBC Blast and BFI Future Film Festival

Taking place from 13th – 15th February the Future Film Festival will be made up of screenings, workshops, debates and an awards ceremony for 13-25 year olds.  And it’s all FREE!

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First Light Movies film wins Award

‘Running Free ‘ made by pupils from St Albans School and Flycather Films in Wales has won an award for the Best film in the age category 14-25 at the Zoom Young People’s Film Awards 2009, well done guys!

‘Running Free’ is a fast paced documentary that follows a group of lads from Pontypool as they travel to London’s Southbank to catapult themselves over walls, railings and the Nelson Column lions!

There’s lots on at the Glasgow Youth Film Festival

Check out the screenings and creative workshops for young people taking place 8-21 February 2009 – many are free!

Headspace are looking for young people’s programme ideas

Channel 4 and Childline are giving young people the chance to show the world what’s in their heads in the form of  online TV programes. From the ideas submitted 10 young people will be invited to Ch4 HQ where they will meet writers and producers and begin to turn their ideas into programmes.

Activision First Light Movies Awards 2009: The Nominees

This week, First Light Movies announced the nominations for this year’s Activision First Light Movies Awards 2009, which will take place at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London on Tuesday 17 March 2009 at 2pm. The Awards will be hosted by T4’s Miquita Oliver and Rick Edwards and this year’s ceremony will be bigger and better than ever…  

 A short list of three nominated films was drawn up using an industry panel and youth jury and the winning films are being selected as we speak by a group of celebrity judges which will include: Daniel Craig, Joseph Fiennes, Josh Hartnett, Orlando Bloom, Kate Beckinsale, Emilia Fox, Sienna Miller, Marc Forster, David Harewood, Freddie Highmore, Juliet Stevenson, Dakota Blue Richards, Nicholas Hoult, Ben Miller and many many more! 

The 2009 Activision First Light Movies Award Nominees are:

 Best Drama sponsored by Time Warner

 One Week Later

PVA MediaLab, Bridport

Last Chance, Final Rep 

Glasgow Media Access Centre, Glasgow

Ware U At?  

Newport City Council Arts Development, Newport , Wales

Best Animation sponsored by Activision 

 A Day in the Life of Eddie 

The Young Carers Project, Brighton

The Island    

Stockton Borough Council, Stockton On Tees

Jimmy Saves The Olympics         

National Media Museum, Bradford

Best Screenplay sponsored by Eon productions

Not Cricket   

Stockton Borough Council, Stockton On Tees

Round and Round 

The Video College, London

Life on the Edge     

Newport City Council Arts Development, Newport , Wales

Best Fantasy Adventure sponsored by Sony 

Eochu’s Lake           

Antrim Borough Council, Antrim, Northern Ireland

The Magic Rockpool          

Arts About Manchester, Manchester

Doodle Disaster      

Anim8s, Fife

Best Thriller sponsored by Mizu

Past Caring Part 1

elearning@Luton, Luton

Rite of Passage

Ideal Films Ltd, Swindon

Pinnacle Man          

Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Liverpool

Best Horror sponsored by the UK Film Council

Molly Moplegs         

Stockton Borough Council, Stockton On Tees

Do Not Enter

Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland

The Ragdoll Girl      

The Nerve Centre, Derry, Northern Ireland

Best Film by Over 13s sponsored by HBO 

Buried Above Ground        

Eek Films, Liverpool

W.I.L.D          

Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Liverpool

This Was Forever    

Polkadotsonraindrops, London

Best Film by Under 12s sponsored by Odeon   

What’s in Store

Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

Skool Daze

Cinetig, Cardiff

Animated Hove       

Carousel, Brighton

Well done to all the nominees!

Encouraging new talent: Channel 4’s Inspiration Week

Channel 4’s Inspiration Week takes place in the Easter holidays (6-9 April 2009) at their London headquarters. Working with BAFTA, The Guardian, Pinewood Studios, Mediabox and Skillset, Inspriation Week aims to give young people an all-round view of the media industry and guidance on how they can strengthen their career prospects.

There are 160 places available and Channel 4 are looking to schools and organisations to nominate young people to take part. If you are interested, in the first instance both an organisation and the young people it represents must apply to attend an Open Day.

There doesn’t seem to be any info on this on the Channel 4 wesbite so if you want to find out more or request an application pack contact wrl@channel4.co.uk

Good Luck! Closing date for Open Day applications 19 January 2009.

Click here to read our live blog of First Light Movies’ ’Where does all the talent go?’ panel discussion

Film Street and BBC news

The Film Street (First Light Movies’ filmmaking website for under 12s) team are looking forward to April!

The Media Archive for Central England have come on board to support our animation competition for children and schools, Animate IT ‘09: To cut a long story short. The competition closes 3 April 2009 and the winning entries will now be preserved for future generations to study and enjoy in the archive. Read more here.

We have some great new trailers / clips on Film Street including ‘Monsters vs Aliens’ which is due to come out in cinemas next April. Check it out, it will make you smile!

The BBC want to hear from young people

How well do the BBC cater for young audiences? How well do BBC Three, Radio 1 and 1Xtra, serve younger people. Tell the BBC what you think before 16 December here: http://www.bbcyoursay.co.uk/intro

Children in trouble – Support Barnardo’s campaign

Vermin. Animals. Ferral.

This is shocking but real dialogue used by adults to describe children in the UK today. Our society is demonising young people and the positive contributions that they are making in their communities is going largely unnoticed.

First Light Movies gives young people a chance to make films that reflect the diversity of their lives. We promote their stories and opinions so they can be self defined rather than defined by other people. Over 12,000 young people have taken part in FLM projects where they have worked as a team, learned new skills and celebrated and raised the profiles of their communities.

FLM is backing the Barnardo’s Children in trouble campaign to stop the demonisation of children and young people. We believe in children and believe that attitudes towards young people need to change.

Click here to watch the Barnardo’s Children in trouble film and pledge your support to the campaign.

Bits and blogs 1

FLM young filmmakers at Camera Zizanio festival in Greece

Two films made by young people in the North East have been shortlisted for screening at Camera Zizanio film festival in Greece. Eight-year-old Niamh Watkinson and ten-year-old Alex Atkinson were part of the crew that made ‘Double Trouble’ and they are travelling to Greece to document the festival. You can see their vlogs on the Jack Drum Arts blog.

Reel Bites Workshops from Northern Film and Media

Northern Film & Media are running pleased a series of workshops and networking events aimed at the film and new media industry in the North East. Reel Bites is an opportunity to hear from key industry speakers and develop new skills and ideas. Sessions include how to use moblogging to promote your films, using social networking sites to exhibit your movies, what Current TV look for in short docs, and the future of cinema. Find out more at: http://www.northernmedia.org/?mod=news&pageid=38&id=406

Mass Animation on Facebook

Mass Animation is new facebook application has been launched to allow budding animators to contribute CG animated scenes to five-minute shorts, some of which could one day make the leap into feature films. Currently you can make your contribution to ‘Live Music’ a storyline created by Yair Landau former Digital Chief at Sony Pictures.

If you liked this post why not watch ‘The Princess and the Pendant’ made by Hartside Primary School, with support from Jack Drum Arts.

You can watch more First Light Movies films here

Where does all the talent go?

Click Here

The link above will open a replay of the live blog of Where does all the talent go?  This event took place on Monday 24th November and brought together aspiring young filmmakers, training organisations and representatives from Bafta, Channel 4, the Moving Image Training Association, regional screen agencies and the National Film and TV School.

Speakers on the panel were:

Marc Boothe – Chair and Director, B3 Media & Board Member of First Light Movies

Janine Marmot – Director of Film, Skillset

Barry Ryan – Head of Production, Warp X

Hanna Price – HR and Development Advisor, Framestore

Clive Jones – Chair of Skillset and Mediabox

The discussion explores how barriers to developing careers in the film industry can be broken down. Please do read the live blog and add your comments. Thanks!

Scriptwriting courses and books

The Script Factory are running a series of practical one-day workshops designed to help writers, developers and producers grapple with the specific story demands of their chosen genre. The season kicked of yesterday at BFI South Bank with an exhilarating journey into the world of the Thriller. Led by Angeli MacFarlane the course was packed with advice, analysis and practical tools for writer’s tackling the Thriller genre.

There are a few places left on the remaining genre days, check out the training pages on The Script Factory website for further details.

One gem of advice that I’ll be seeking out is filmmaking legend Alexander MacKendrick’s (dir. The Ladykillers – 1955, The Sweet Smell of Success – 1957) book On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of Filmmaking, essential reading for any budding filmmaker!

Thanks Paul – FLM Script Genius

First Light Movies on WordPress!

First Light Movies inspires young people to use filmmaking to tell their stories their way, to reflect the diversity of their lives.

In this blog we want to reach out to aspiring young filmmakers and all of the people and organisations that can faciliate new British filmmaking talent.

If you have an interest in securing the future of the British Film Industry and in nurturing new talent and new ideas then we hope that the discussions on this blog will be of interest to you. Enjoy!

If you liked this post, why not watch ‘What is First Light Movies’

Karen (Bringing filmmaking to the kids - www.filmstreet.co.uk)