Week 1: Day one - 17th September - Open the Box!  

Special Effects Make up: Run by Squarepeg, each participating class will be provided with a box filled with materials to create fake, gruesome cuts and injuries of their own whilst following along live to instructions. This will provide you with the inspiration to develop your own stories over the rest of the course.        

Homework: Start thinking about ideas for your own film.  

Week 1: Day two - 19th September – What’s the Big Idea?  

Introduction: This session looks to introduce and put together all the key ideas needed to build a story and create your own film. We will develop characters, costumes and locations. To complete the session, we will create a storyboard to help ensure your ideas have a strong beginning, middle and end.       

Homework: Finalise your ideas and storyboard and write your own script. Know what your characters want to say before you pick up your camera.  

Week 2: Day three - 24th September - Bringing your Story into Focus  

Camera and Sound: Learn how to make the best use of your camera to show off your story. Also understand how to engage your audience through sound.                                                                                                      

Homework: Start to build up a collection of foley sounds either by recording your own or finding them online via the websites provided.  

Week 2: Day four - 26th September – A Whole New World  

Set and VFX: We will be teaching you to think about the locations in which you are filming and how you can add certain things to those locations to improve how your sets look on film. We will also take this to the next level by looking at how to use Green Screen to potentially turn your classroom into a tropical island or an alien planet.                                                                                                                                  

Homework: Think about the items you need to dress your set to make it suitable for your film or consider where you will be able to find the images you will need for your backdrops.  

Week 3: Day five -  1st October– The Big Bang!  

Special Effects: Let us take you on a tour of the Real SFX workshop, we will explore how you can make things go up in smoke – safely! We will look at how the professionals do it and then explore how you can have a go yourselves using everyday items in your own school.                                                                                                                            

Homework: You should now be in a position to start filming your own project and your special effects should be the finishing touches.  

Week 3: Day six -  3rd October– Making the Cut!  

Editing: For the final live session, we will be looking at how editing is important to ensure your story is as exciting/thrilling/engaging as you originally hoped. We will be providing example footage for you to edit yourselves and teach you tips and tricks for putting your footage together.  How can editing change the way you look at films and how stunts are performed?

We will also explore how music can affect how people see your film as well as how it can help you to edit your project.                                                                   

Homework: Complete your film