Neil Crombie of Seneca Productions is to head up a new London based course – Change One Thing – which is aimed at introducing school children to documentary film-making.

The 10 week course will give 17 North London students – aged 14-15 – the chance to learn various documentary making techniques including interviewing, development and exposition as well as a series of mentoring sessions with documentary directors and producers. By the end of the course they will each produce a mini documentary on the subject of “one thing they would like to change.”

This is the second course to come out of London based mentoring initiative Film’s Cool, which was founded by Lost Tribe Productions CEO Hugh Spurling and teacher/author Oliver Rosen, with the aim of bringing movie-making into schools.

The first project, which ran in September 2011, gave a group of A-Level students the chance to produce and edit their own trailers and print-based campaigns, and to pitch their projects to industry experts and compete for work experience placements.

The trailers were premiered to industry professionals in January at Channel 4, including Film4’s new head of digital Anna Higgs, with seven awards being handed out at the event.

The latest scheme will begin at the end of February, with the end projects due to be screened at various venuesand festivals in the summer.  

Having shared practice at the New Voice’s in Media conference at the BFI on Feb 4, Spurling and Rosen launched Change One Thing and Film’s Cool’s first online festival at the BFI Future Film Festival over the weekend. For more info click here