Community
IFT partners with The Hampton Project
The IFT's latest film-making venture has seen it team up with The Hampton Project, an educational charity based in South London, which works with young people who have been excluded from mainstream education and who have committed a criminal offence or are felt to be at risk of doing so. Course participants produced two short films, one of which you can see here, which were screened to an invited audience at the Apollo Piccadilly on 8 July 2011. The project received support from the Coutts Charitable Trust and the Music Sales Charitable Trust. More on The Hampton Project
Film School in a Box
Film School in a Box (FSIB) was set up by The Independent Film Trust and the Raindance organisation in order to support disadvantaged, homeless or refugee kids to communicate through film-making. Each of these organisations has been involved with a number of charitable projects, working with community centres and schools. One 2008 course which worked particularly well was a two-day screenwriting, film-making and editing intensive, in conjunction with Royal Holloway, one of the four largest multi-faculty colleges of the University of London. More
Previous Projects
In the summer of 2002, Raindance organised a number of film-making events in selected London schools through its Raindance Kids Workshop. More
In January 2010, the IFT and Raindance started the Vision Shorts eight-week film-training course in collaboration with Portugal Prints. The latter is part of Westminster Mind, the charity which enables people affected by mental ill health to lead fulfilling and productive lives by providing services in the community and by working with carers, family members, health and social care professionals and employers. The course involved about 10 individuals aged 18 to 65. Vision Shorts has since featured in The Guardian. Read the full article here! You can also find a gallery of photos from the eventual screening of the completed films at the Apollo cinema here.
The response to the course was enormous.
"The workshop yesterday was again amazing" said Jill Bryan, project worker at Portugal Prints. "We are staggered by how much people are getting out of the sessions. And Elliot's ability to hold the group spellbound is phenomenal. Marta and Ad, our managers here, say that they have never known a group of people here to be so focused on a project. So thank you all for agreeing to work with us and support it."
"Some of our clients find it very difficult to get involved in this sort of work," added Marta Badia, manager of Portugal Prints. "And yet they have been telling me how much they are enjoying this. You have a real knack to get people involved and for them to feel good about what they achieve. It has been a real treat to work with you, with so much enthusiasm, understanding, patience and support. Our workers here are enjoying this opportunity very much and I know it is because of the way you have led the work (together with Jill of course)."
"Thank you because I know how much more than could have been expected you and your team have done for us."
More information on Film School In A Box community project models
In June 2010 the IFT ran a two-day course for nine students in the 14-16-year age-group in partnership with Wandsworth City Learning Centre.
In July 2010 it organised a similar course in partnership with Stoke Newington School in Hackney.
"The course was well structured and resourced with professional and insightful leadership of the two tutors," said Sean Moore, head of media. "All of the students were enthusiastic and engaged throughout and clearly impressed with the films they produced."
"The range of skills from scripting, storyboarding, shooting and editing was well managed and highly beneficial to their educational development," he added. "The tutors also helped them to create original musical scores for their films and improved the creativity of their editing choices."
The films will go on to be exhibited in the school and the students on the course will be used as experts to share the techniques learnt.
