A two-day workshop providing a unique insight into a film festival for young-people aged 16 - 26 and skills development in creating Vlogs and critically responding to film festival events.
Summary
Film festivals present a range of film content for audiences that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to see and open up a world of film and media for keen festival goers, as well as offering networking opportunities and unique experiences. For the uninitiated however, film festivals can seem like an impenetrable mystery that is somewhat exclusive and hard to access.
MyFlatpack gives young people across the UK the opportunity and the support to not only attend Flatpack Film Festival but to be part of the festival by participating in a Vlogging workshop that encourages them to attend a range of events they would not otherwise go to.
Project aims
Target Group: Young people Aged 16 - 24 from a diversity of backgrounds
Number of participants: 20 - 30
Hub regions represented: 6 - 9
For the Young Participants:rngaining experience of a film festival - feeling of being on the inside / included
increased confidence in navigating a festival and in responding in a critical way to events / experiences
expanded networks / new friends and industry contacts
increased skills in vlogging and social media content sharing
Headlines
33 young people aged 16 - 24 recruited to participate in the workshop
Young people from a diversity of backgrounds and all nine regional film hubs taking part
Involvement of 12 organisations across the Nations and regions working with young people
Positive partnership with Flatpack Film Festival providing access to events and sharing the young people's content online
Positive outcome for young participants including vlogging skills, increased confidence at networking and attending and understanding film festivals, new contacts
Films
The young participants attended a range of events at Flatpack Film Festival including:
Delusions, Rare Visions Shakespeare on Film, Republic + Snails, Body of Songs, Love & Peace, Cat vs Dogs, The Boy & the Beast, The Last Laugh, The Ambiguity of David Thomas Broughton
Key partnerships
Flatpack Film Festival provided the environment / events to support the workshop. RIFE magazine / Watershed engagement team ran and facilitated the workshop.
BFI Film Audience Network promoted the opportunity to organisations working with young people.
The following organisations supported young people to attend the workshop:
BFI Film Academy: Hereford, Shropshire, Birmingham & London,
City Eye,
Edinburgh Film Festival,
Into Film: Northern Ireland & Central East,
Leeds Young Film,
Media Active,
Rural Media Company,
Signal Film and Media,
Takeover NI,
The Roses, Tewkesbury,
Watershed, Bristol and
Zoom Cymru.
Budget in brief
Total cost of activity = £6,045
This was funded by Film Hub South West & West Midlands.
The workshop was free for participants and travel and accommodation costs were also covered through (additional) bursaries from the relevant Film Hubs.
Total bursary support = £2,102
What worked
Promoting this opportunity through the BFI Film Audience Network resulted in positive engagement with organisations working with young people in all Hub regions
The workshop provided a brilliant opportunity for the participants to meet with other young people from all across the UK who were interested in the same things, resulting in a really positive and diverse group, 71% of whom said they made new friends and contacts as a result of taking part.
Asking the young people to make vlogs of their experience of festival events provided a way in to the festival for the young people and 100% stated they felt more confident to attend film festivals in the future as a result of MyFlatpack.
Inviting the Festival Director to come and speak to the young people about the Festival and highlights in the programme provided useful insights into what a festival is and how to approach them - try something new, make discoveries, pace yourself!
The workshops and weekend were run and facilitated by young professionals who have come to their position through differing routes, which provided the participants with insights into some of the potential professions within the film & media sector they may not have known about before and pathways to getting there.
What has been difficult
Managing logistics for enabling the young participants to attend film festival events was challenging. We want there to be choice for the young people, but also need to book events in advance.
Managing a large group of young people means there was limited time for individual working - we had to put them into groups.
What you would do differently if you did it again
It would have been better for the young people to each have the opportunity to create a vlog for themselves from start to finish and gain experience in writing, filming, editing and getting up and promoting online
We would promote this opportunity earlier and get the young participants to sign up for what events they want to in advance and fit the workshops around these activities.
More facilitated sessions for the young people to enable more formal networking and skills development.
Awareness / Attitudes
Diversity
Follow-Up Activity
We ran this workshop again in 2017 at Flatpack Film Festival in partnership with the BFI Film Audience Network. 28 young people participated in the workshop, including Media Active BFI Film Academy, ranging in age from 16 – 26. The participants came from a diversity of backgrounds (30.4% BAME) and from all across the UK with at least one young person coming from each of the Hub regions, apart from London.
In response to feedback, the workshop was more hands on this year with the young people having more of an opportunity to film and edit their own vlogs with support from professional YouTubers. Into Film provided a review writing workshop and the Flatpack Festival team provided insights into working for a film festival as well as top tips for enjoying a range of events at the Festival.
See an evaluation film from the workshop here.
Knowledge & Experience
85.7% of the participants rated their experience as excellent or good
As a result of participating in MyFlatpack weekend:
100% of the surveyed participants said they felt more confident to attend film festivals in the future
100% said they felt more confident at working as part of a team
93% said they felt more confident at Vlogging
86% said they felt more confident at networking
92% experienced something new and different
71% made new contacts and friends
79% gained in confidence overall
61% developed their digital media skills
- How to create the perfect vlog: vlogging secrets at Flatpack Film Festival
- Watch a montage of the young people who took part in MyFlatpack 2016
What audiences said
"Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, I felt everyone was included and there was a mature, yet fun atmosphere. I felt the leaders of the event organised it so that it was made sure no one was excluded or on their own, but did so subtly so as not to make anyone feel awkward, which I thought was really nice and clever."
"MyFlatpack dispelled my disillusionment with recent vlogging culture as a "brand" or "primary career venture" as it seems to be for a lot of people, but having Jon and Sham (lovely, down-to-earth, enthusiastic beings) it has motivated me to make things even if its just for my own benefit/entertainment, and if anyone else derives something from it too, even better!"
"It was really welcoming and great to approach the festival with other people part of My Flatpack workshop, instead of navigating it alone."
"A really exciting opportunity to experience a festival with equally passionate people in a new city which we had the freedom to explore through the varied and diverse events of the Flatpack Festival."
"Everyone involved with MyFlatpack, the other participants, Vloggers, and event organisers were all very approachable and tailored the weekend to us and our experience of the film festival (as well as the benefits from the workshop) as much as possible."
"Really cool and interesting events, met lots of lovely people who were all interested in the same things as me. I also learned a lot, about film and networking as a whole."
"A great experience that has made me consider traveling to other film festivals"
"Incredibly Interesting and Enjoyable. would do it again in a heartbeat."
"My overall feeling after attending MyFlatpack was one of sheer happiness. I loved being able to meet new people with similar interests to me and be able to make new friends and contacts. I felt I grew in confidence from talking to lots of different people and learnt interesting information about vlogging and tips to make a good vlog."
"Great to meet like minded people, and talk about the festival."
