Film Workshop

Another great day.

Another thing I started up this year was a filmmaking club. After a hesitant start it is going along quite nicely, with Bob's help. Just recently I managed to secure funding from ATP Huntly to enable the club to get some decent equipment and pay for some training. Yesterday the guys from the Aberdeenshire media unit came along to deliver a workshop on documentary filmmaking techniques.

Unfortunately for me due to class commitments i couldn't attend much of the workshop but I got down at regular intervals to see what was going on. And once again the pupils of TGS impressed me. They were taking all these new skills on board working really hard and, most importantly producing something they could see, namely a wee film about the life of George MacDonald when he lived in Huntly.

They got to go out and film on location. They filmed weird dreamy sequences, voiceovers, pick ups backgrounds etc. They also produced the script themselves. They also arranged with the Bishop no less to film inside the church.

I'd very much like to thank the students for taking part so whole-heartedly and also Robin, Paul and Gary from the Media Unit for their patience and expertise.

The challenge for us now is to get the last 10% filmed and edit the film and broadcast it to the wider world.

To my mind activities such as this are essential in schools as they give students experience of real, practical productive skills  and they  also show how some of the stuff they think is boring in the classroom transfers into more interesting relevant activities.