First Light Movies

Funding Body/Client: First Light/The National Lottery/BFI

Goals: The empowerment and engagement of young people in the design, delivery and evaluation of film education activity, enabling them to create their own film and digital media content and tell their own stories in their own voice

Blueprint: Film Foundation ran several First Light Movies projects around Lincolnshire and the surrounding counties. These involved working with young people to give them the skills and encouragement to produce their own short films.

We ran projects with a diverse mixture of groups, from a group of younger children who were part of the Salvation Army youth club to a group of hard to reach teenagers in a deprived area of Lincoln. The different groups brought a variety of ideas and inspiration too, so the films ranged from an experimental anthology film to a zombie horror short and everything in between.

As well as teaching children and young people the skills required to make their own film, the groups all benefitted from working closely as a team on something creative and of a high professional standard. We always held premiere screenings of the films, which were a great way to make the groups proud of what they'd achieved and to share their success with friends and family as well as the greater community.

A number of the film projects were run in collaboration with Shooting Fish Theatre Company, including 'Broken Sleep', which won Best Drama at the First Light Movie Awards.

Quotes: Roger Golby - Director of 'Hustle', BBC "a brilliant short film, really mature, inventive, atmospheric and scary"

A Sawyer, Salvation Army “the film was excellent, fantastic, exceeded expectations”

Domestic Abuse Films

Funding Body/Client: NE Lincolnshire Council & NE Lincolnshire Women's Aid

Goals: To increase public awareness of the difficulties faced by the children of victims of domestic violence and to provide a creative outlet for these children and young people.

We worked alongside staff and users of a women's aid shelter in NE Lincolnshire to create two films which highlighted the issues faced with children whose parents (or indeed themselves) have experienced domestic abuse.

Although systems are in place to support victims of domestic violence, little is done to help the children and young people who are psychologically scarred and have to cope with the difficulties of relocating at short notice often in high secrecy.

One film was a documentary which gave the children and young people a voice by hiding their identities through specialist lighting and voice manipulation. We also included their artwork and poetry to let them express themselves creatively in the film.

The other film was a hard-hitting drama devised by the children and young people which told a story of domestic violence from the perspective of the children of those involved.

Olympic Film Nation Shorts

Funding Body/Client: Film Nation Shorts/Olympic Lottery/First Light/Panasonic

Goals: To celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London 2012 through creative expression amongst children and young people

Film Nation Shorts was an initiative set up by First Light and the Olympic Lottery to get children and young people creating their own films celebrating the values of the Olympics.

We helped young people produce four different short films, in a range of styles. One was a fantastical fiction film, another a stop motion animation (which was nominated for a Film Nation award), another a short documentary and the final one was an experimental music video which used clips and sounds of sports to create a rhythmic piece of music. The latter can be viewed below:

Walking Shadow

Funding Body/Client: Middlefield School of Technology & The Lincolnshire School Improvement Service

Goals: To teach filmmaking and interpersonal skills through helping pupils devise and produce their own film

Working alongside Shooting Fish Theatre Company, we ran film and drama workshops to help a group of students at Middlefield School of Technology produce their own short film. Fans of the Horror genre, the pupils created a dark and moody film which was so good it won two awards (including Best Production) at the LAFTA's (a film award ceremony for Lincolnshire young people).

You can view the film below:

Fuzzy Logic

Funding Body/Client: Clee Youth Centre

Goals: To develop creativity and teamwork abilities within young people

Workshop leaders from Blueprint: Film Foundation worked with young people at a youth centre in Grimsby to help them devise and produce their own short film for a local film festival. The title of the festival was 'fuzzy logic', so the group came up with their own unique take on the title in the creative, surreal short film they produced.