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British Film Institute Academy
Honor in Austen 2 sent this report:
Over the past three months several of us have been lucky enough to gain a space on the BFI Film Academy working with a group of 20 other aspiring filmmakers selected from Kent to take part in the short film-making course. The process started in October after each of us found out we had successfully gained a space on this course. From then on, we had sessions every Saturday based at Screen South in Folkestone working together and receiving talks from industry professionals from assistant directors to sound mixers. We each got to learn about the distinct areas of film and how to gain a career in the industry.
In November, aspiring writers submitted a draft of a screenplay. From here we chose our favourite two which would be brought to life. Josie in Colvin 2 was talented enough to have her script chosen! We were then divided into two groups, and all collectively worked towards creating these films.
We chose our roles and were all put to work on Josie’s film, something we were very thankful for. I worked on camera whilst Josie and Eleanor in Frank 2 pursued other jobs. Working on camera was something I was very excited for as always had a love for photography. I was able to gain skills working with professional lighting kits as well as camera. Preparation of shot list and storyboards was key so I knew what I needed to shoot and when. On shoot day it was key that I made sure the lighting worked well with the director creating their vision. Overall, this experience allowed me to achieve skills I didn’t realise I was capable of.
Josie in Colvin 2 gave this account of the sessions:
At the end of the first session everyone shared their own ideas that they had for the films. I explained my idea about ‘The Waitress’ and others took an interest towards it and liked the idea, so I developed it into a first draft for a script. When the script was chosen to be made into one of the films, the next part of the process as my role as the writer for the film was adapt and improve the script (many times!). I received lots of feedback from my leaders and peers about changes and I learnt a lot about the format and structure of how a script should look and read. Overall being a writer was a great role to take on and I hope to continue writing more scripts for films.
During the production process during the shoot day, my role as 1st AD was definitely an experience! For the pre-production I planned the timings and events for cast and crew members for the shoot. This involved a lot of planning and organising as the 1st AD must consider all possible cases that may occur and come up with solutions of how to resolve them. On the shoot day I worked closely with our director and had the main control over the crew when filming. It was a very heavy role to take on but I would consider being a 1st AD again in the future.
Eleanor in Frank 2 shared her thoughts of the academy:
After the application process, I was allocated the role of Script Supervisor on The Waitress. In summary the script supervisor works alongside the Director, Writer and Cinematographer and Production Designer to make sure the continuity of the film is seamless. They also pay close attention to the Directors opinion and comments on each take, making note of any takes that are unusable due to continuity issues.
Being the script supervisor on a real film set was an amazing experience, I had never done anything like this before, so I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity. Throughout the shoot, I spent most of my time behind the camera, tracking the continuity of everything visible in frame between every set up, take and scene. For example I had to be alert to any changes of the script, the actors costume and make-up or any changes to the set. As mentioned above, communication is key when being the script supervisor, so I made sure to immediately share any concerns I had to the appropriate person to reduce the chance of any issues in post-production.
Despite being organised and educated on my role, there were still some stressful moments but this was expected as we all had never done something like this before, it was completely new and we were constantly all learning. In conclusion, being part of the BFI programme has helped me develop my leadership and communication skills which will be invaluable to any career path I intend to follow. Without a doubt, it has been an unforgettable experience, and I will always be thankful to those who encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone to apply and to those that supported me the past 5 months.
