Young Film Makers in the Spotlight at National Awards
Aspiring film-makers from Wolverhampton will be treading down the red carpet after being nominated for a national award.
First Light Movies have announced that Mediacove Productions’ “Our Wall – 3 shorts”, a series of films exploring the barriers young people face in Wolverhampton, has been shortlisted for the First Light Movie Awards 2010.
Mediacove Productions Manager Elke Theissl said: “We are thrilled to have been nominated for this award and it is an honour to be the only nominees to represent the West Midlands at the award ceremony.
“The Mediacove Productions team has worked hard and it’s great that all who took part in it have received recognition for their part.”
The three mini movies, which were created by pupils from Green Park School, the Orchard Centre and Multi Agency Project (MAP) in All Saints and Blakenhall, have been nominated in the Best Mediabox Innovation category at the awards, which aim to celebrate the best films made by young people in 2010. There were over 50 young people involved in this project.
Their work will now be judged by a group of celebrity judges which will include Academy Award Winner Sam Mendes, Shameless Star Maxine Peake and Simon Bird, from E4’s The Inbetweeners.
The youngsters produced the films with the help of professional media producers at Mediacove Productions, a creative production arm of the City of Wolverhampton College, as part of their “Our Wall” project last year.
Young people from across the city worked with creative professionals, writing scripts, acting, filming, recording voice-overs and editing footage to create films.
Training Facilitator Lucy Smith said: “Working on this project really opened my eyes to the amazing talents of young people here in Wolverhampton.”Sixth form students at Green Park School produced This is Me, an uplifting film looking at what it is like to live with autism.
The Orchard Centre’s Breaking Down Barriers aimed to challenge people’s views of young people.
Meanwhile teenagers from the MAP worked on a short film tackling the issue of gun and knife crime in the city.
The films were shown on an interactive wall, installed in the city centre in March 2009.
Producer Jenny Evans said: “We’ll be taking a group of young people to London and they are really excited about treading the red carpet and possibly even seeing some celebrities at the awards ceremony.”
Winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony hosted by BBC’s Dick and Dom at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, on 2 March.