IN A basement deep beneath City Screen, a young man pins a terrified girl against a dark wall. He leans in close and snarls into her face, spitting out a string of expletives and finishing up with: “What’s your problem?”

The girl shrinks back and the two glare at each other. There is a moment’s silence. “Great,” Paul Banks then calls out. “That was brilliant. Take a ten-minute break.”

The tension in the Basement Bar instantly drains away. The two teenage actors, plus other young people working the lights and camera equipment, break up, chattering and laughing.

This is all part of a council-funded project to film eight short scenes about issues affecting young people’s lives.

These include alcohol, relationships, domestic violence and the unintended consequences of getting drunk at parties.

The 16-year-old who plays a DJ in one scene admits the film project has helped him think through some of the issues, such as the effect of alcohol and the consequences of unsafe sex.

“I already know the sort of things that go on,” he says. “But this gives me more recognition about what happens, or what could happen.”

The teenagers have all been meeting in the City Screen basement on Monday nights to take part in a film project – The Basement Multi-media Youth Project – run jointly by children’s services and the council’s Young People’s Service.

All teenagers go through a phase where they do things they later regret, or where they have trouble forming relationships or fitting in.

“The idea of this project is to enable them to explore these issues in a safe environment,” said Basement Project coordinator Stef Bricklebank.

The eight scenes being filmed cover everything from a violent boyfriend to getting drunk in a nightclub, then not remembering the following morning whether you slept with someone.

The teenagers have been involved throughout in writing and preparing the scripts. “We have guided them in terms of the themes for the scenes, but the content of the scenes has been made up by themselves,” said Stef.

That is hugely important, according to Shed Seven guitarist Paul Banks, who now runs his own media production company, Digifish, and who was brought in to direct the film. “They have ownership of the work that they have done, and they feel very proud of it.”

One 15-year-old, who plays a girl threatened by her violent boyfriend, agrees the film project has been good. She has made friends, for a start. “We didn’t know each other before, and we’re all quite close now. There’s a good vibe.”

But more than that, the project has made her think about some of the issues. “It’s about things like what happens if you get too drunk, what might you have done that you don’t remember?”

Another 15-year-old believes the project has helped change her for the better. “I’ve learned to control my behaviour a bit more,” she said. “It’s made me realise that I don’t have to be a pain in the arse all my life. Which I have been sometimes!”

A 14-year-old agreed. The project had boosted her confidence and taught her useful stuff about making films, such as how to work behind a camera, she said. But it has also helped to change her.

“Me and my mum used to always argue before I came here. Typical mother and daughter stuff, like about my room, and going out. I have a better relationship with my family now.”

• The Basement Project film will be screened at City Screen in July.


Shed Seven guitarist Paul Banks never meant to be a pop star.

“Right back when I was 13 at school, I didn’t put down pop star when I was asked what I wanted to do, I put down cameraman.”

He never lost that dream, not even at the height of the Sheds’ success. He was the band member who couldn’t help interfering during the video shoots.

“I was always annoying the director,” he said. “I always thought I could do it better.” Not surprising, then, that he will be making the video for the Sheds’ comeback download single this year.

Watching him work with teenagers on the Basement Project, however, it is clear where his heart really lies.

He loved working with homeless Arc Light residents to film the video of their rap single Life On The Streets. And he clearly enjoys working with the Basement teenagers, too.

He has not regrets about his pop star lifestyle. “For ten years I lived a life that was great, but purely materialistic. I’m not knocking it, it was ace. But after ten years of that, you think… now what do I do?”

So after he left the Sheds in 2000, he started making videos and films, first with Future Prospects, then broadening out.

He set up his company, Digifish – www.digifish.co.uk – in 2006. He makes corporate videos, including a series for Business Link Yorkshire, but also works with charities, community groups and schools.

He finds that work particularly rewarding. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he says. “I grew up in a three-bed house in Huntington with my family, and went to Huntington School.”

But after living the high life with the Sheds, he loves the idea of giving something back. He still works with Arc Light, and the enthusiasm of the residents there is inspiring. “Each week I go back and there is this barrage of ideas.”

And as for the teenagers on the Basement Project… “If just one of them goes away with an interest in film, that’s a real outcome.”