Training & Education | Blueprint: Film Foundation

Employment Courses

Blueprint began delivering employment focused courses over five years ago, and we have continually fine-tuned our practice over the years to achieve the best outcomes for our participants. Over the past two years we have been developing a robust employment programme and developing and delivering our courses for disadvantaged young people across Tower Hamlets and Hackney.

These courses offer young people a chance to experience a real-working environment, giving them a level of responsibility they would not obtain on a training course. By participating, young people gain and develop skills to support them both in the classroom and into the world of employment. Our focus is to develop skills that are useful tools as they take on the employment market, such as creative thinking, presentation, leadership and resilience. All of these are skills are carefully nurtured through an exciting filmmaking process and all our participants have the opportunity to gain Arts Award accreditation.

We very excited to announce that we have just secured three years worth of funding from Reaching Communities to continue our Employment Programme. This money will allow us to continue our work with young people in Tower Hamlets and Hackney and also support them into further training and employment opportunities.

If you are interested in finding out more about our employment courses please contact laura@blueprintfilmfoundation.co.uk

Genesis Community Foundation Project

The Genesis Housing Association have an ongoing regeneration and development programme in North London, aiding the growth of the Woodberry Down area. As a part of this wider project, Blueprint: Film Foundation were provided with the funding to bring a free 9-week course of filmmaking workshops to unemployed young residents in Woodberry Down.

Over the course of the nine weeks, the candidates learnt basic sound, lighting and camera techniques, as well as script development, storyboarding and finally, editing. Each group made their own short film that they will be able to keep for their portfolios and each candidate gained a valuable Arts Award for their CV. To bring the project to a close, all groups got together with their friends, family and members of the local community at a screening of all the films.

The screening provided a great opportunity for the students to get feedback on their work and discuss what they learnt over the duration of the course.

Magna Carta Radio Plays

2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. Lincoln holds one of only four copies of the document, and Blueprint: Film Foundation, with it's roots in Lincolnshire has worked on a variety of creative cultural projects to help the city celebrate and reflect upon this historic milestone.

In the Magna Carta Radio Play project, Darren Bolton was commissioned to write a series of radio plays to be showcased at the Festival 800 Poets Laureate Landscape Event. Each play was based upon the experiences of migrant communities.

In preparation for the project, Darren worked alongside the Boston Lithuanian community, listening to their history, their experiences of travelling to the UK, stories of their home countries and their hopes for the future. Darren wrote three plays based on what he learnt from the communities, linking in the themes of the Magna Carta and even inspired one member of the group to write her own play.

Blueprint: Film Foundation then took to the studio to record all four plays. Once again we collaborated with the Boston Lithuanian community, giving them the opportunity to act in the radio plays. The plays were then edited together by David Brook and Mikaela Smith, ready to be aired for a wide audience at the Magna Carta Poets Laureate Lincolnshire Landscape project alongside an excellent programme of creative projects designed to explore the themes of freedom of speech, human rights and democracy.

Film in a Week – Talent Quest

University of Lincoln Workshops

Blueprint: Film Foundation ran a series of workshops at the University of Lincoln to train students in various feature film making skills.

The workshops were as follows:

DIRECTING ACTORS - Darren Bolton
Coming from an acting and theatre background, Darren has always put the relationship with the actors as the most important aspect of the work. Using professional actors, this workshop looked at this relationship, methods of work, what is expected of the director and practical opportunities to develop skills.

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT WITH ACTORS - Darren Bolton & Emily Bignell
In this session students worked with writer/director Darren Bolton and Producer Emily Bignell to investigate practical ways of developing script in a studio environment. This included a range improvisation techniques and how to utilise the skills of professional actors for character and dialogue development.

EDITING FEATURE FILMS - David Brook
In this practical editing workshop students were tasked with some editing challenges, working in small teams to edit together short sequences to a deadline. The difference the editor can make to a scene was discussed towards the end of the session as everybody’s work was compared and critiqued.

PRODUCING FEATURE FILMS - Emily Bignell
In this session, students worked with professional producer Emily Bignell who has over 10 years experience of film production and arts project management. The session investigated key aspects of producing; including script breakdowns and scheduling, managing budgets, selecting and managing crew and cast, essential paperwork and documentation.

Quote: Graham Wilsoncroft - University Student “Really enjoyed the film workshops of the last 2 weeks, a real eye-opener! Thanks to Blueprint: Film for all their awesomeness!”

12 3