I was really pleased to have been asked by Kent Wildlife Trust to design a short series of workshops to encourage people wholly new to film making to make a short piece about nature and green spaces in the town: a Lottery funded project which was part of Painting the Town Green initiative. So I designed the 3 session course and delivered the first run, further runs planned for the summer will be delivered by a Kent based filmmaker.
The emphasis of the workshops was on storytelling. We looked at some short nature films and had a discussion about what worked, how they were structured etc, and then set about mailing our own with the most simple of technology – compact cameras and free editing software. The plan was to inspire people enough to make their own films without the need for flash kit – ideally creating a team of video journalists and activists for the project. Needless to say a grand to total of 9 hours was quite limiting, and we had to work with the location, and weather, on the doorstep, but I think we were all pleased with the results. I wish KWT the very best with continuing the project.
Reel Planet 