What our clients have said:

It was a fantastic day and the pupils really enjoyed working with the software and equipment. Being able to promote creativity in science leads to progression in a difficult subject.

The high quality of expertise was apparent, and the whole course was enjoyable. Being able to get hands on with the equipment and programmes was brilliant too.

Having the skills to quickly and efficiently make video content that will look professional and do the job required is going to be really helpful for my work. Thank you!

I wanted to say a big thank you for the course.  It was great fun and surprisingly easy to apply what I learned to my own business. It's making a huge difference already!

The students worked together in dynamic teams to research; it really helped them engage with the subject matter. They showed true pride in the quality of their work.

Thanks for a brilliant day. A really well though-out course and just what I needed.

I would recommend Bristol Film Academy, definitely.  I got way more from the course than I expected.

I am so glad I got in touch with the team from Bristol Film Academy. From the first phone conversation their passion and creativity was apparent.

The students were buzzing after the double lesson with Bristol Film Academy.  They all fed off the trainer's enthusiasm and are now looking forward to making their films.

"I had the opportunity to work with Matt Thurling of Bristol Film Academy in 2009 and 2010. He approached Cotham School and offered his services to help us make a short film about science. I spoke in year 9 assembly and asked for volunteers who would like to do something in science that went beyond the classroom. I received about 10 volunteers and these were wittled down to a core of 5.

Matt met with us all and said we had the chance to make a film about any science topic we wanted and suggested we discuss it and get back to him. Over the next few days the students said they wanted to do something about bringing extinct species back to life. It was completely their idea and Matt liked it! The students then had to storyboard and script the idea - this was difficult for them and they were not used to focussing on their own projects. Matt was very clear - "get this right or you won't continue with the film".

The following week the boys presented their storyboard and the excitement began to build from there. We could really do this, make a film that would be funny and interesting and people might want to see it.

Over the next few months, we all worked with Matt to make the film a reality. He gave us the equipment and the expertise to get the film made. In fact, he took us through every aspect of the work, cameras, sound and even editing and music.

The science ideas evolved into looking at mammoths in particular, a symbol we would carry to the National Science and Engineering awards. The students had to work hard out of lessons and out of school, they were not always sure of the outcome but they persevered. Gradually the film took shape and just as this happened a beautifully preserved baby mammoth was found. The media were suddenly all over us and we were in the paper and on the radio before we knew what had hit us. We were then short listed for the Watershed European young peoples short film award 'Electric December'. Following this, it was suggested we enter a National science competition which culminated in us having a stand at the Big Bang fair in Manchester.

The students are now moving into sixth form and all are continuing with science courses. They refer back to the Mammoth Idea as a turning point for them in their lives. It gave them an opportunity to work on their own creative ideas and be a lot more grown up than they were used to. They also learnt administrative and management skills, as well as media savvy.

The work Cotham School did with Shootme.com is also long lasting as the film is remembered and passed down to other students. Furthermore the film is used to teach 21st Century B1 you and your genes topic. Finally on a personal note the mammoth film gave me hope in education when my postivity was waning. I realised that students have the ideas and drive to go beyond class teaching and that science is alive and well in the youth of Britain. We could not have done the project without Matt and would not have even considered competing on such a grand scale, so thank you."

I was particularly pleased to hear our trainer's personal account of his career, showing a great depth of experience in a fascinating industry.

"We were looking to run a cross curricular day for Year 8 pupils focused around an anti-slavery campaign.  We wanted pupils to have the opportunity to work with varied creative practitioners and one of the teams of people that we were keen to work with were Bristol Film Academy. Matt Thurling came and met with a few of the staff at school to plan the day’s filming, in addition to working out how the post production day would take shape.

The day of filming went really smoothly, with students having the opportunity to interview other students, staff and experts.  They were given the opportunity to shape the film in the direction that they wanted, which resulted in a variety of short films focused on anti-slavery each bringing a slightly different slant to the issues surrounding this.

When seeing the students working with the team from Bristol Film Academy I was impressed at how engaged all the pupils were, regardless of the tasks that they were completing: this was a credit to how the team from Shootme.com had pitched the work to the students.  Even on the more technically detailed post-production day pupils were highly focused on the task in hand for a number of hours.

The work that Cirencester Deer Park School has done with Bristol Film Academy is also long lasting as the film is remembered and passed down to other students. It is being used not only to explore the current issues surrounding slavery today but also used to promote the application of Building Learning Power too.  The students involved were delighted to see their work ‘come to life’ and their ideas become a reality.  Other students in the school have responded very well to the DVD that they produced and are more engaged with some of the content as a result of having it presented to them from their peers.  

Working with the team from Bristol Film Academy has been brilliant.  I was amazed at their versatility when working with the students and shaping their ideas.  We were so pleased with how this project developed that we have booked Shootme.com to work with Modern Foreign Languages in the coming months too!”