Well, it had to happen; some shameless self promotion!
For years now I have been teaching young people how to make movies, with large amounts of success, if I do say so myself. It has been a constant learning journey, and one that quickly made me realise, this was my calling.
This is not to say I have not enjoyed the teaching for others to date, and for sure the experience has been enormously beneficial, not just in terms of a regular income, but in honing my skills on a continual basis, and I hope it has been equally enjoyable for those in my classes.
Just now I am one of three performing arts tutors with an organisation in Edinburgh, that young students age 6 to 18 experience three disciplines with; Comedy and Drama, Musical Theatre, and of course, Film & TV, and it is enormous fun.
But I have known for the past two years that this is something I should do for myself. I have a big vision for the future, of what a dedicated film academy for young people should be like, how it should grow, and what future opportunities it should give them.
Enter The Film Academy Edinburgh.
We're about to launch with three summer schools in July and August, and all being well will follow on the success of this with a dedicated, weekly term-time after-school academy, all for ages 9 to 18. I decided from experience to have the minimum age set at 9 years old, as I find the younger age group doesn't quite work for filmmaking.
In the future we will launch a brand new international film festival, which will be unique in that the students will run the entire venture. There will also be an opportunity for parents to take part when we launch adult classes, and even big companies can benefit, with our new team building days in development. If that were not enough, by the end of the year we're going to hold free film screenings, once a month, for all our students and parents.
There is a frightening amount of work still to be done, with the past month taken up by building a website, which launched this past week, and something which a friend of mine has been absolutely key to its success, and to use her words, awesomeness! Other friends too have pitched in, spreading the word and helping with feedback on all manner of things.
Then there's my academy team; a BAFTA award winning screenwriter; an actress that was in Star Wars, and an award winning editor. Oh, and me of course!
And if you want to know more, by all means, make contact.
During the process of creating the website and designing a poster, it became clear that we needed photographs and a video. But of course we haven't started the academy yet, so we didn't have anything to use. That led to organising a bespoke shoot for photos and a promo film, which was in itself an exciting event, and made everything seem so much more real.
It feels exciting, but daunting at the same time. Self doubt creeps in at every turn, especially when things go wrong, and the stress levels rise, which all takes place in the background. I'm hoping it looks calm on the surface while the storm is raging below.
My film work for other organisations will continue for now. I very much hope though that within a year I will be full time with The Film Academy Edinburgh.
Time will tell if it's going to be a box office smash.
No comments:
Post a Comment