Work Experience Week Produces North Devon Surf Film

A North Devon teenager has produced a captivating short film about local surf forecaster Trev "Toes" Lumley during his work experience week at North Devon Moving Image (NDMI). 

Fifteen year old Tom Taylor, who is a student at Pilton Community College in Barnstaple, says "When I saw the work experience blog on the North Devon Moving Image website I knew that this was the right place to go. Film making is a career I want to go into when I'm older so this was the perfect opportunity to see what it involves and what it takes to do film making."

"I chose to make a film about the North Devon surfer and owner of Eyeball Surfcheck Trevor Lumley. Surfing is a much loved sport locally as much as it is around the world so I felt it would be interesting to make a film about it."

Tom shot his film at Putsborough Beach where Eyeball Surfcheck have one of their webcams.  In the film Trev describes his passion for surfing "It's like a really strong drug, it's like being addicted to something that you just can't let go."  He also talks about the dilemmas he sometimes has with the surf reporting which brings surfers from far and wide to catch North Devon's waves, saying "I feel like Dr Frankenstein sometimes, like I've created a monster."

Amanda McCormack, Creative Director of North Devon Moving Image enjoys working with enthusiastic students like Tom  "Outreach and skills sharing is a big part of what we do here at NDMI.  It is really rewarding enabling young people to achieve their dreams.  Tom really threw himself into the project and showed a lot of creativity and quick thinking which is essential in documentary film making.  He even co-produced the music which has turned out to be a really key element in this film's success."

"This was a real experience of the community film making business for Tom. As well as researching and producing his own film, Tom found out what it is like to run a small business and juggle time and money to maximise output." 

Amanda thanked North Devon Councillors Brian Moores, Colin Payne and Chris Turner who are all supporting the NDMI Outreach programmes with funding from their community grants this year "Without these generous contributions we would struggle to offer opportunities like this to North Devon's next generation of documentary film makers."

Tom summed up his week at NDMI "Working at North Devon Moving Image has been brilliant. I have had a real insight into what film making is about."

Tom's film is now part of the North Devon Moving Image collection and available to watch on the NDMI websitehttp://www.northdevonmovingimage.org.uk/ and Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpBF315n8us

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