Past work (2008- 2006)

Overview of 2008, (our year 11)
This year we helped 850 young people and 300 adults make films, we ran 65 adult training courses and screened 180 films to an audience of 2800 at LIAF. However we have seen our activities reduced as funding for adult learning has fallen, although we invested heavily in subsidising this area we have stopped offering free courses to adults.

Main activities

  • Second and final year of MediaBox – films
  • Second and final year of “V”
  • Third and final year of BBC Children in Need project – films
  • First light studio award – films
  • Adult evening classes
  • London International Animation Festival – site
  • Vocational film training
  • Action figures

Headline figures

  • 10 Primary animation workshops – 8 day residencies
  • 8 Special school animation workshops – 8 days residencies
  • 4 Secondary animation workshops – 8 days residencies
  • 9 Islington holiday clubs — 4 days
  • 5 Youth music clubs – 4 days
  • 4 clubs for The Cartoon Museum – 3 days
  • 2 curriculum support projects for NEET students
  • Tate Modern’s summer course
  • 42 youth volunteers aged 19-25 helping other young people to make films
  • 60 young animators 16-19 working on master classes, individual films and bursaries

Other projects

  • Youth bank — Tower hamlets animation project
  • Dads n Lads — Saturday project making computer games
  • AST dance film — Feltham special school
  • Foyer 15 — video project working with NEET young people
  • 14-19 diploma in Creative and Media – running 8-week pilot
  • McKinsey — corporate training
  • Camden DVD — producing 4 films and 15 language DVD to introduce education sector to refugees
  • DVD production for MITA
  • Academy Edgware – animation project over 2 months

Media Box
Funded by First Light and it’s partners with a budget of £80,000. We engaged 60 people aged 16-19 and offered short taster film production, from this group we took 15 young people onto master class stage and helped them with a  medium length production and finally offered 8 individual film bursaries. At each stage we based the next step on discussions with young people. We had 65% BME, 65% female and 12% disability. The project helped us understand how to work with a wide range of interest and aspirations and how to help and support these young people to reach their goals. See films

“V”
This was a two-year youth led project working with 80 volunteers aged 19-25, it had a budget of £89,000. We wanted to target BME groups and people who do not usually volunteer. In the end we had 118 participants and 72% were from BME groups. 82% came from disadvantaged areas, 60% were female and 15% had a disability. The project was based on running a media based event, (film competition, TV broadcast, live event) that was designed and run by the group, the young people then recruited more young people and helped with their training.

BBC Children in Need
This project is aimed at working with special schools. We worked with a class at a time and visited on average for 8 days. The young people made their own stories, created the artwork, animated their characters and recorded their sound

1st Light studio Award
We worked with four primary schools to make four short animated films based on fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, German folklorists from the 19th Century. The schools were Clapham Manor, Mowlem, Rockmount and St Johns Roman Catholic School. The ideas for the films came out of workshops we held with the children. Prior to the workshops the teachers had worked on fairy tales and the process of animation. During the workshops the children were shown work by other young people and had an inspiration session to help them come up with unique and personal stories, each one then created their own storyboard. The class then voted for the favourite and then there was a session where the class brain stormed to improve and add to the chosen story. See films

Adult evening courses
Although the funding has been reducing we managed to run courses for over 300 adults in over 65 courses ranging from professional editing to beginners introduction to video, the majority of these were run in our centre but we also ran courses for other people. We had a retention rate of 85% and a customer satisfaction rate of 90%.

The London International Animation Festival LIAF
This festival goes from strength to strength, with over 2200 entries and a screening program ofover 180 films this makes it the largest screening of independent animation in the UK.

Vocational Training
We ran a 15-week video training course funded by the LDA.The project was to help people into work in this sector. We worked with 20 filmmakers and 90% have gone onto employment or additional training.

Action Figures
A year-long project that took place from October 2007 – October 2008. It was managed by the Royal Borough of Kensington, Chelsea Arts Service and facilitated by the Film and Video Workshop. The project aimed to get local young people excited by the Olympic and Paralympic Games and inspired to get involved in arts and leisure activities across the borough. The project  commenced with a series of ‘Drawn to Sports’ sketching tours to sports venues in the borough. The drawings were then scanned and passed to an animator and software programmer to be turned into animated models which formed part of a spectacular interactive art installation at Kensington Town Hall on September 17th 2008 to mark the handover of the torch from Beijing Paralympics to London and the start of the Cultural Olympiad. The Drawings were projected several meters high onto the Town Hall and surrounding buildings and were able to sprint, pole vault, and swim across the sides of the buildings transforming the Town Hall into an Olympic arena populated with drawn crowds, projected onto the buildings, cheering as the projected athletes perform amazing feats!
Young people also had the chance to work with the animator to create their own 2D animated characters to feature in the crowd for the event.

Selection of  Year 10 projects (2007):

  • Tate Modern — Summer schools for Raw Canvas.
  • Camden Council —  “Learning in Camden DVD” 15 language interactive DVD for refugees accessing Camden’s education services.
  • 45 media courses helping over 600 adults improve their skills. This resulted in over 50 OCN accreditations.
  • ExpTV –Volunteer program that broadcasts independent video makers work on sky and at public screenings.
  • Central Foundation School — Installation and running of 40 Macs and server plus year long media residency
  • Skillset – 14-19 pilot working with 20 animation employers, 7 schools and 258 young people
  • Animation workshops in 25 special, 6 primary and 4 secondary schools (7 days each)
  • Partners funding from first light “Bright Lights” working with 60 young animators over two years
  • London International Animation Festival and The Wood Green International Film Festival
  • Technicians for the Billboard Project; a multi school media project based on a converted shipping container
  • National Portrait Gallery —  a series of animation workshops in 11 schools and at the gallery
  • MediaBox project working with 65 young animators undertaking taster workshops, master classes, group and individual films
  • Youth Volunteering project working with 80 young people to help other young film makers train and create new work
  • Websites for Brecknock primary and National Animation Centre
  • DVD productions for City of London Adult Learning and Healthy eating project,
  • Islington Council main promotional film for their public offices
  • Women into Media project NVQ based media training project

Selection of year 9 projects (2006):

  • Tate Modern — Summer schools for Raw Canvas.
  • Haringey Council —  “Welcome to Haringey DVD” 15 language interactive DVD for refugees accessing councils services.
  • Camden & Islington Health Action Zone — 8 language health awareness DVD and Breast health DVD.
  • Creative Partnerships East — Animation, video, music and flash projects for Grafton Primary, Animation project for Newington Green Primary and Islington Green Secondary.
  • Creative Partnerships North — One minute wonder video project and production of DVD.
  • Animania — Series of 8 day workshops for 15 schools across 4 boroughs with cinema screenings.
  • Film Council First Light — “Bright Lights” large scale animation project for dedicated young animators.
  • Get Reel — Year 2 of large scale LDA funded project working with year 10 students to produce videos for corporate clients.
  • Make TV — Islington Regeneration Project training local people to make videos with high production values and budget.
  • Web sites — for Grafton Primary, Hungerford Primary, EXPTV and Dorcus.
  • ExpTV –Volunteer program that broadcasts independent video makers work on sky and at public screenings.
  • Kent Prisons — HMP Swaleside, HMP Stanford Hill, HMP Maidstone and YOI Rochester: accredited workshops with inmates production of two induction videos.
  • Ben Uri Gallery — Created DVD and ran series of workshops to support exhibition of David Bomberg’s “Racehorse”.
  • British Council –Animation and video projects for young people.
  • Camden CLC — Ran series of animation workshops for 8 Camden schools.
  • Wandsworth CLC — Series of workshops for 5 Wandsworth schools.
  • BBC Children in Need — Series of animation workshops in special schools.

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