I led the BFI Academy for Barking and Dagenham in 2023 - a huge privilege and a brilliant experience. BFI Academy is a flagship short course funded by the British Film Institute, and provides film training for twenty 16-19 year olds, culminating in producing their own short film. With the addition of a new film studio in Dagenham, this London borough is ripe for the training and development of film craft professionals.

My responsibilities included planning and scheduling sessions to cover story and script writing, shooting with the Canon C3 Mk i, sound recording, lighting, camera movement including using dolly tracks and shoulder rigs, directing, set protocols, pre-production including shot-listing, call sheets and scheduling, health and safety, copyright, working with actors, post-production including edit, grade, sound design, poster design, film festival strategy and planning a screening. The participants needed to produce two short films of up to ten minutes in two groups, taking plenty of initiative between the sessions to organise their shoots.

A big part of my job was to present employment, education and funding opportunities, as well as other schemes delivered by BFI, to the participants, assisting them with their next steps. Although most of them were A Level students, a good number were finishing up film courses at college; self-employed; or unemployed.

I found it fascinating to watch the filmmakers take on this challenge, and the ingenuity they displayed in solving the myriad issues that come up when planning and shooting a film. Key learning for them was around coordinating a group of ten crew members and managing communication and workload; communicating effectively and clearly with actors; and managing budgets and receipts. They also had to work towards their NCFE qualification in Preparing to Work in the Film Industry (Level 2), which I taught alongside the course.

Key learning for me was the balance between allowing the students creative freedom - as well as the space to try and fail - and steering them towards certain choices that might deliver better effects.

The feedback that I and my co-facilitator received was overwhelmingly positive, with some of the students remarking that for the first time they felt like they were being spoken to as adults and not children, and that they had learned as much during this course as they had in a year of traditional schooling. I was very pleased to hear of the experience they’d had - and I hope they stay in touch and continue to make films together, as two of the participants already have.