London based company Chocolate films held a screening of the short film they had made with St Basils young residents, at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham on 8th December 2011. The screening was attended by St Basils staff and young people and representatives from Birmingham based First Light who funded the project, after Chocolate Films and St Basils submitted a joint application.
Chocolate Films ran a week long programme with St Basils young people back in September, which included a variety of workshops around script writing and shot types with opportunities to try out different techniques for themselves and incorporate their own ideas, before finally collaborating to write, film and produce their own short film.
The final film described as a black comedy and entitled “Your Future Home” is a parody of an Estate Agent showing someone around their new home which was not all it seems!
A St Basils spokeperson said: "It's a very clever film, the acting of the young people involved is excellent and the story line is funny but it has a serious message as well. The young people involved should be very proud of their achievement. We would like to thank Chocolate Films and First light for their involvement in this project".
One of the young people who both acted in and drafted much of the storyline for the film said: "It's only for a 3 minute film so I knew the storyline had to be simple. Other people were coming up with ideas but for feature length films! I really enjoyed the whole process from the script writing to the actual filming... we had lots of discussions around how to interpret what had been written into film and what's possible and not possible, yeah, filming is hard! It's been great though; I never thought I'd see myself on the big screen!
First Light Films said: "Your Future Home is a very accomplished film. Well done to everyone involved".
Richard Campbell from St Basils who instigated the project said:
"After an initial workshop with First Light and Chocolate Films which our young people really enjoyed, myself and my colleague Martin Plant led on this, set some dates to make it happen and opened it up to all young people across St Basils Supported Accommodation schemes. It was an amazing experience and very creative for our young people. We are looking to continue this after Christmas as there is funding left for one more workshop, giving our young people another opportunity to take part".
Added December 2011
