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It's all happening in the South West!

First Light Movies at the Encounters Short Film Festival

First Light Movies are hosting an inspirational session for young budding filmmakers at this year's Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol. The event features a question and answer session with Geoff Taylor who made a FLM film, 'My Grandma' (see below) when he was 18 and has now gone on to make two more films to much acclaim. Gotta be worth checking out!

48 hour filmmaking challenge in Exeter

As part of the Two Short Nights Film Festival, the Exeter Phoenix Arts and Media are challenging budding filmmakers to produce a 5 minute film in 48 hours. What can you do with 48 hours, a handful of mates and a budget big enough to keep you fuelled with coffee for a weekend?

Watch My Grandma made by Geoff Taylor and Devon filmmakers Smith and Watson


My Grandma from First Light Movies on Vimeo.

Bits and blogs (Nov 7)

Ctrl.Shift.Delete Filmmaking Competition

Ctrl.Shift.Delete are looking for young filmmakers aged between 16-25 to make a film that will provoke action in the following areas - HIV and Stigma, Gender and Power and War and Peace. They'll give you £4000 and partner you with star directors and musicians.....

Vote for the winners of the Guardian First Film Award

The Guardian have drawn up a shortlist of ten films and they want you to vote for the film which represented the best directing debut of the year.

Brits best at documentary?

This week (5-9 Nov) Sheffield Doc/Fest celebrates the art and business of making documentary film.

There's a fab article about the festival in The Independent (who are sponsoring the event), which also explores the state of documentary filmmaking in Britain. 'The greatest docu-show on earth' argues that Brits lead the field in documentary filmmaking but that funding is tricky to come by. Nick Broomfield says 'Today, the UK Film Council doesn't seem to think documentary is its responsibility....'

Here at FLM we distribute lottery funds on behalf of UKFC to facilitate young people's filmmaking and roughly a third of projects we fund are documentaries. But even if young people are making documentaries are they watching them? 'The greatest docu-show on earth' notes that 'according to a survey carried out for the BritDoc festival, 60 per cent of TV documentary viewers are aged 55 to 64...'

Check out a FLM documentary below, 'Personal Demons' created by 32 young people aged 12-18 from Rotherham.


Personal Demons from First Light Movies on Vimeo.

See Bond first!

We are all getting very excited in the FLM offices as we look forward to seeing the new James Bond film 'Quantum of Solace'. As Barbara Broccoli, Bond Co-Producer, is the Chair of FLM's board we've been lucky enough to get tix to see the film a week before release!

You can see Bond first too at the FLM Charity 007 screening!

First Light Movies charity 007 screening
Northwest Vision and Media and ODEON Cinemas are holding a charity gala screening of ‘Quantum of Solace’ in aid of First Light Movies on Thursday 30th October at the new ODEON Liverpool ONE cinema.

Tickets for this black tie event are priced at £40, include pre-film drinks reception, admission to the film and entry to a private after-show party at Kingdom, with all proceeds going to charity.
To book tickets please RSVP to Kate Lowe on 0161 244 4639 or email 007@visionandmedia.co.uk by Monday 27th October.

Bond Blogs:

Interview with Daniel Craig and Marc Forster

Video blog with Bond stuntman Ben Cooke

Video blog with Chris Corbould SFX Superviser

Video blog with Debbie McWilliams Casting Director

Reviews roundup: What the critics thought of the Quantum of Solace

Bits and blogs

48 Hour Film Dash
Check out this film made in Birmingham in 48 hours during the 48 Hour Film Dash.

Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap is an exciting filmmaking project that aims to “bridge the gap” between the old and the young. It is being run by White Lantern who are also developing scripts for another project with funding from FLM's What's the Big Idea? fund. NB. FLM is currently accepting applications for What's the Big Idea and the closing date is Tuesday 16 December 2008.

Without Censorship
Finally a reminder of how lucky we are to live a place where we are free to make films and create art without censorship: Artists battle censorship in Islamist-ruled Nigerian state

Ani-mazing competition for children and schools

Film Street, First Light Movies' award winning children’s filmmaking website and educational software house Kudlian Software have got together to launch an ani-mazing filmmaking competition. For Animate IT '09: To cut a long story short children under 12, primary schools and after school groups from across the UK are being invited to make an animated trailer to promote their favourite book!

Encouraging children to use their talent for animation to promote their love of reading, the competition is also supported by CBBC's Ed Petrie, the National Year of Reading in England (November is Screen Reads month), and leading film marketing agency, the Picture Production Company.

Aspiring young filmmakers can use any type of animation to make their trailers. The winning trailers will be shown in Film Street’s Cinema and the winning animators will win animation equipment and software from Kudlian Software, and a tour around the offices of top trailer makers, the Picture Production Company.

To make the competition accessible to as many young people as possible entrants can
download a free five day trial of Kudlian’s award winning animation software I Can
Animate. Entries can be submitted by email or post on CD, DVD or video in any format by
by Friday 3rd April 2009.

Last year, Animate IT ’08 received over 600 entries from youngsters from across
the UK. We hope that Animate IT ’09: To cut a long story short will provide a new creative
challenge that will tempt even more young people to get creative with animation!

Further information and full competition rules can be found at www.filmstreet.co.uk

P.S To give our potential entrants an idea of what we are looking for Carl and Karen from FLM had a go at animating their own trailer for 'Fantastic Mr Fox' by Roald Dahl.....!?!