As part of my work for Hot Chocolate Trust this year I was contracted to deliver a residential weekend away with the young people from the project.

We decided to do a film making weekend, offering the young people a chance to make their own film from scratch, including writing a script, casting, acting, resourcing costumes and props, and of course filming, directing and acting in the film itself during the weekend.

In the month leading up to the weekend I ran weekly workshops tackling various skills and techniques, preparing the first time filmmakers for the experience ahead.

On the 31st of May 2013 we took 14 young people to the beautiful (and very haunted) Glen Tilt Forest Lodge. After hours of dirt track and windy roads we finally got there and began our 48 hour marathon to shoot the entire film.

I was very keen to ensure the process was entirely owned by the young people, and so they devised the script, characters, costumes and music themselves and took responsibility for all the camera work, sound recording, lighting and directing. We even had resident hair and makeup designers, artistic directors, clapper loaders and a stunt driver!

This was a huge undertaking for all involved and resulted in a 13-minute film and 12-minute making of documentary that were screened at the Odeon Cinema on the 31st of July 2013.

I am hoping to get the film sent off to festivals and competitions as the young directors really deserve the recognition. One of them has even gone on to study film and television production at college and it totally loving it!

You can watch the trailer here, copies of the DVD are available for a donation, just drop me an email if you are interested.