‘Buzzing Kids ’:the progression of young people in film and new media

Young people in Cornwall have - thanks to a series of partnership projects between South West Screen, Creative Partnerships and a wide range of professional creative practitioners and agencies – recently been o­n an exciting adventure through film, video and new media.

Following a group of six specific students, progression through a sequence of inspirational projects (including the d-SK8 skate-boarding, music and digital media projects, ByteSize film project and Screenbeats music video project) has had a profound effect o­n the young people involved and literally left them ‘buzzing ’. Not o­nly that but the work itself is quickly gaining a highly appreciative audience at events such as Bristol ’s Brief Encounters 2004, dshed.net and the 2004 Cornwall Film Festival, as well as the Halloween Short Film Festival at the ICA in January 2005.

Elaine Fenton, reporting o­n the six students who acted as peer mentors for the Screenbeats initiative said, “It has been clearly evidenced that the project has raised the aspirations of each mentor. Each young person has articulated a desire to either continue learning, or to start preparing a pathway towards a career in the industry ”

But how can we sustain interest and involvement and assist with real career development beyond the life of these projects? This is a burning question for the South West in light of the success of such initiatives.

There is much debate being had around possible mechanisms to support further development and there is clearly a great deal of interest in the issue. Key questions are how this can realistically be agreed upon, framed, funded and delivered. o­ne thing is becoming very clear: that working in partnership will be the key to success, in order to maximise the scope, responsiveness and remit of
such a scheme to address these issues.

Creative Partnerships Digital Media Development Manager, Cass Dennis, whose post is also supported by South West Screen, says: “These young people are potentially a key part of the future of the creative industries in the South West, and we need to find ways of providing the support needed, of offering them exciting prospects in their chosen fields, in the region rather than out of it.” She adds:: “The energy has been generated, and the interest is really there. If allowed to flourish, the creativity shown by these young people and many others indicates a tremendously positive future.”

Creative Partnerships ’ Area Creative Director for Cornwall and Plymouth Lindsey Hall, says, “Statistics recently released show that for students entering secondary school this year, 60% of the jobs they will be doing in their adult lives have not yet been invented – we simply cannot imagine what
those jobs will be. We need to work together to maximise every opportunity in order to give young people the best springboard we possibly can.” For the creative industries, cultural organisations, schools, HE and FE, that is our challenge. The stories from these young people demonstrate the
need for this continuing support.

Here is o­ne such story.

Vote Film!

15-year-old Jack Williams describes his journey through a series of film-making and film-related partnership projects over the past 18 months

My name is Jack Williams, I am at Redruth School in Cornwall and I wrote the script for ‘Vote SK8. It was for a series of 90 second films that we were making and I had a fantastic time shooting it. Everyone else who took part all had an equally good time as they were all involved with the films in some way, be it filming, acting or writing them.

We filmed ‘Vote SK8 ’ o­n location at Treliske Hospital, but for the most part we filmed it at Mount Hawke Skate Park, so a big thank you to them. The original idea for ‘Vote SK8 ’ was to make a film about skateboarding culture and how it was viewed by the public as an occupation of vandals and troublemakers. We needed to show the public that this wasn ’t what skateboarding was about and what better way to do it than have it endorsed by the Prime Minister? Thus came about the finished film, showing Tony Blair, fresh out of a 40-year coma, realising the importance of youth culture in his bid to get re-elected. He arrives at the local Skate Park and quickly gets to know the local skateboarders and even tries it for himself!

We started these projects about a year and a half ago with d-SK8, a live show of skateboarding, DJ ing and VJ-ing. This was our first introduction to film, using cameras to capture little bits of filler and skateboarding. We moved o­n from this to make a series of short films (part 2 of the
d-SK8 project), all based o­n o­ne skateboarder who unwittingly helped people as he went along. Those were great fun to make and act in, and turned out to be very popular! After this we started work o­n ‘Vote SK8 ’ (for the ‘Bytesize ’ film project), continuing the skateboarding theme.

Most recently, we have been making music videos at Camborne School (as part of the ‘Screenbeats ’ project) that were entered into the Cornwall Film Festival along with ‘Vote SK8 ’. It is really rewarding to see your work o­n the big screen at last, after so much work has gone into getting it finished. Everyone involved in this project has said how much they ’ve enjoyed working o­n it and how much they ’ve learnt. No o­ne left without having taken something from it.

It has been a really good experience working with the creative practitioners. We worked with many professionals o­n the project, from film makers to musicians. I learnt a lot about work in the media sector and how many different jobs there are. I now watch films in a different light, looking at how shots would be done, why they use the angles they do and so o­n. It has opened up an entire new world of career opportunities, whether it be acting, behind the camera or directing others, I have tried it all.

So a big thank you to all those that were involved in running these projects and exposing me to the world of film!

D-sk8, Bytesize and Screenbeats are all projects developed through the collaboration between Creative Partnerships and South West Screen, working in partnership with CYMAZ, Cornwall Film,Youth Sport Trust,Youth Music, Culture South West and others.