Pilton Community College students, Harriet Larter and Katia Ramirez, joined us last week for their Year 10 work experience placements.  The keen young film makers took on a project to produce a film promoting North Devon Council's 'Team Up to Clean Up' campaign.

As well as producing this short promotional film Harriet and Katia video blogged (vlogged) their whole week!

We were really impressed by the students' hard work and creativity and hope to work with them both again soon.

You can watch their film below and their 'vlogs' on the Work Experience Blog page.

North Devon Moving Image was delighted to welcome four keen young film makers for a week's work experience last week. Four year 10 students from Great Torrington School and Holsworthy Community College joined us to make a start on our promotional film for North Devon Theatres Trust.

The students helped out with the pre-production of the short film which will highlight the Trust's charitable status and carried out interviews at the Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple.  We got to road test our fabulous new broadcast quality camcorder which we recently bought with help from the Barum Bridge Trust and a Devon County Council Locality Budget contribution from Cllr Dezart.

You can read more about what the students got up to on their Work Experience Blog.

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

Many thanks to NDMI's first work experience student Ewan Somerville who joined us from Pilton Community College for the week.  

Ewan had planned a film he wanted to make about the Chivenor Search and Rescue service in North Devon.  Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour, the MOD denied us permission to record interviews.  So ... we moved to Plan B and (after keeping our appointment with Chivenor as a research visit) we made a short film about The Voice radio station.

Ewan says of his week with us "NDMI made me feel very comfortable and consequently I confidently fitted in by the end of the first day and enjoyed the week a lot more because of it. As well as ensuring I was confident and supporting me, NDMI allowed me to work very independently so the experience was heightened. Work experience at NDMI took me around North Devon and I met so many great people in just 5 days. The variation of things we did was great. I loved how NDMI didn't just pre-plan it all and follow a 'schedule' all the time, they went freestyle and took things as they came. This ensured great experience in the industry. "

Click here to read Ewan's work experience blog or take a look at the short video review (below) that Ewan made.

Following on from some positive feedback and great press coverage of our Clovelly Donkeys pilot film we are full steam ahead with plans for community workshops, film making and education for 2014 and beyond.

1. We are delighted to be able to offer work experience to a student from Pilton Community College in Barnstaple for work experience.  We have a very enthusiastic student who has come up with a great idea for a short film for North Devon Moving Image (NDMI).  During the week he is with us he will research, write, shoot and produce a short film.  As well as production skills the student will be learning about promoting their work to the public.
2. Following a meeting with Torrington Cavaliers this week we are excited to let you know that we will be working closely with the well known local fundraisers to make a film about their next giant bonfire.  Although this extravagant charity event will not take place until the summer of 2015, the building is due to start soon and NDMI will be there to chart its progress.
3. We are also really pleased to announce that we will be collaborating with North Devon artist Jo Bushell on the When I Was Your Age project for NDMI.  This innovative intergenerational visual art and movement project is in the planning but we will let you have more news when all is confirmed.
4. At 150 years old this year, the Royal North Devon Golf Club in Northam is the oldest links golf course in the country and (once the weather clears up!) we will be meeting the oldest and youngest members to create a celebratory film.

We have plenty more up our sleeve too including the all important funding bids to bring these exciting projects to fruition.

One area we are keen to get going as soon as possible is delivering some documentary film making education in North Devon.  We are currently looking for partners who can help us deliver film making workshops for children and adults in community or education settings.  If you are interested in this please do get in touch.