On July 9th 2012 we invited 6 schools to join us at our Film Competition finalist event. This year we experienced more entries then ever before at an incredibly high standard! The themes leant themselves to some really creative films. The primary category theme was “The internet can make your life easier, let me show you!” and the secondary category theme was “I’m a technophobe get me out of here! Can you teach a technophobe the wonders of the internet?”
It was a fantastic day all round, in an absolutely brilliant location. On the Monday morning schools from Yorkshire, Swansea, Devon, Cheshire and West Midlands made their way to the BFI on the Southbank. They were welcomed by the lovely Childnet Team with goodie bags full of sweets, popcorn and kindly donated gifts (the Facebook sunglasses, Puffles and Moshi Monster Magazines went down very well!!).
We had some fantastic industry guests who appeared to have just as much fun as the schools, chatting to the young people and giving them an insight into their favourite services. Whilst all this fun was going on, downstairs our Judges; Paul from Vodafone, David from the BBFC and Jo from the BFI were having to make some very tough decisions…
At 12:00 everyone made their way into the theatre to view the fantastic films, the excitement was bubbling as the first school saw their film title on the BBFC classification card just like the Hollywood blockbuster films! After 6 brilliant films and 6 hilarious question and answer sessions the time for the awards had arrived.
The Primary School category was up first, all of the films were excellent, the judges commented on the creativity, advanced editing skills and their impressive ability to interpret the theme. The following schools were awarded:
1st
Marwood School (Barnstaple, Devon) “Granny Smith’s Bus Trouble”
2nd
Kellbank C of E Primary School (Marsham, N Yorkshire) “Keep in Touch”
3rd
Wheelock Primary School (Cheshire) “The internet can make life easy, let me show you!”
The Secondary School category proved just as hard a decision as the Primary. The judges had been impressed with the different approaches the 3 schools had used ranging from drama to animation. One of our judges commented that the standard in the secondary category was higher than he had seen in previous competitions. Lots of cheering and even an acceptance speech saw the following schools awarded:
1st
Sandbach High School (Cheshire) “Connecting the world”
2nd
Bishopston Comprehensive School (Swansea) “Welcome to the internet”
3rd
The Coseley School (West Midlands) “Nug and the Net”
After being interviewed, photographed and fed our budding film makers headed back home after what one teacher described as “a day that the children and I will remember!”
The Childnet Team would like to say a huge thank you to Vodafone for their support with this project, to the BBFC, BFI and The Life Channel for everything they have done for this year’s competition. Finally we would like to say the biggest thank you to all the schools that entered this year, your films were incredible and you all made it very tough to judge.
You will be able to view the winning films at www.childnet.com shortly. Also don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for news on the Film Competition 2013!
