A NEW movie-making school is launching in York this term to let children aged seven to 14 learn how to create their own films.

Baz Jones, York Walls festival artistic director, held a workshop in August as part of the festival, where 19 young people made three short films.

After the workshop’s success, he is launching a term-time, 11-week filmmaking course for sevento 14 year olds on Thursday evenings at Millthorpe School from 5-7:15pm, starting on September 23.

 Baz said: “The idea is that all people across the age range get introduced to camera, sound and lighting equipment – there are games and activities that help them learn concepts around film genres, create characters and dynamic storylines, and write their own scripts.

“Some of the young people love being in front of the camera, so we have sessions about screen acting, which is different from stage acting, which many of them already have experience of. There’s also time to make their own sound effects, soundtrack and trailer!”

The course will be complete with all the film set paraphernalia of clapper boards, megaphones, and light reflectors, with 4K cameras and a variety of microphones and lighting kits, and finishes with a parent and guardian screening of their films on December 9.

“It was fantastic to see how the young people at the Summer Workshop made new friends, and gained confidence, the courses are a lot of fun as well as exciting ‘guerrilla film-making’, and it’s much more focussed on learning-by-doing rather than passive film theory.”

The course costs £330 with a two-week taster option for £30.

To enrol for this term visit: dramacubeproductions.co.uk/movie-makers/york/. Next term starts in January.