On Friday 20th September, Young Film Academy brought their one day film school to Tormead for our ‘Growing Together’ day for Year 9. We learnt all about camera angles and shot types, as well as how to fake a punch using camera angles and some interesting ‘acting’. It was very funny to watch some of our friends’ awkwardly timed reactions after they realised they were being filmed.

We were shown how to use wide, medium, and close up shots to create different feelings for a scene. We had one example film, starring one of the pupils, about being stranded in the desert from a plane crash and finding an unexpectedly poisoned drink. There were lots of laughs when watching that one back.

We were given the theme ‘theft’ for our attempted three shot practice films. Lots of people went for a kidnapping scene, but we quickly realised it was hard to portray a good story in only three shots, especially when you can’t move the camera.

Having completed our practice run, we then had to choose a theme from the five most commonly used plot lines, and create a story from that in only 10 shots, again without moving the camera.  There was a rush to the props cupboard as many people wanted to find water pistols to use as a fake gun, even in the romance films! We had an hour to shoot our movies and then we got together for a watch party to view our short films. Oscars were awarded for the best overall movie, the best individual performance and greatest technical achievement.

It was a really fun day and definitely brought our groups together as there were a lot of stressful last minute changes, laughs, and cringes. We enjoyed the day massively, especially because we got a non-uniform day for it.

El, Year 9