http://www.barnesfilmacademy.com/
Barnes Film Academy is a smaller business based in Barnes, West London. For one week, children aged from 10-15 use the resources provided to write and direct a short film in that week. The company was started by Sam Cullis, who has had experience in the media industry, and has been running since 2012. It is aimed to be a very simple introduction into the fundamentals of filmmaking. It is a brilliant way to get younger people in the mindset of how films are made, showing them it is incredibly diffuclt even for a smaller production. One of the main elements associated with BFA is that every film is made on almost no budget at all, however due to its location and equipment provided, this has yet to prove to be an issue. The passion for the films is outstanding and so no matter what the final product it, the work is more than worth it.
The Business
There are quite a few points to make about Barnes Film Academy as a business model. It is with a heavy heart that I say that they are mainly detrimental. While working with BFA, I can't help but feel like with every course, they are simply shooting themselves in the foot. It is incredibly upsetting to say because I understand the effort that has gone into making this a fully fledged company, but there are so many issues with it as a business and as a filmmaking course, the future of it is rather dim.
The Good
- This is the only film course I know of that specifically caters to younger crowds.
- The week is laid out to provide more enjoyment than anything.
- With the price of £400 per child and about 20 children per course, there is some revenue.
- The final product is not expected to be incredible, only good enough to keep parents happy.
- Provided work for people like me.
- Unfortunately, all of the problems for this course come from the children themselves.
- For myself and Sam, it proved incredibly difficult to keep them enthusiastic for the entire week.
- When writing the scenes, the children never focused on how it would play in to the rest of the plot. It was just a case of what might be fun to say at the time. Trying to show them why it wouldn't work was next to impossible.
- All the equipment for the course was supplied by the employees of the company, so there was not really any "professional" kit. This was not a major issue however as the children just assume that if its a camera, its professional.
- Barely any of the kids wanted to learn about filmmaking. Most of them were there to just be in a film. It is understandable they're young, but the way they talk about making films was often difficult to listen to.
- All the pressure to make the film into something good was put on us, the employees, especially by the parents. It would be assumed that if the film was bad, it was out fault for not giving enough guidance.
I could go on about the negatives, but it saddens me to the point of pain to say this because I love the passion that has gone into the company. However, something that is aimed at mainly wealthy children under the age of 12 will be unlikely to progress, especially as a film course.
In order to get a placement here, I was lucky enough to be in contact with Sam. Over the summer, I was able to spend a week working on their next film. It is not a traditionally professional setup, however there is money on the line and it is imperative that everyone is kept happy, almost over the success of the final product. Both Sam Cullis and Yoni Ben-Haim were mainly in charge of this weeks course. I worked closely with both.
My Roles
Unlike for Empire design, my roles here were slightly smaller due to the much smaller company. For the week, my main role was as Director and 1st AD of the film. However, it was not traditional directing as the children almost refused to do any of the shots asked of them. I was more of a Persuader than a Director.
The film I worked on for this course was called Hamsterwoman vs Snakewoman. I was primarily 1st AD for this film, but due to the nature of the course, I was more or less a supervisor for everything the children created. The first and second day primarily consisted of script writing for the next days of shooting. The plan was to let the children write the script, but have myself and Sam edit them in order to have something that is usable. When we came down to shooting, a lot of the scenes panned out exactly the same way. I would be on camera with the director. The children in the current scene would complain about large parts of the story and would take strong persuasion to start the scene. Lines were often improvised and any sort of script we had would usually be scrapped on set as it would not link up with the rest of the story. My main job was to ensure the shots not only worked with the story but also to try and direct the children to stay in frame and give somewhat believable performances for the scenes. Yoni was the mastermind behind this film though. He had worked with Sam to write this film predominantly before production.
What I Learned
Since this course is not a usual film set, I learned more skills on the side of management rather than actual filmmaking. In a lot of the cases, this course would be a babysitting course for some of the children that would end up with a rather shaky film at the end. I learned how to manage children rather well on this course, giving them reason to perform in the scenes and letting them find out for themselves what would happen if they did not try their hardest. I was also working with Sam for a large proportion of the time making sure that all the children were happy and addressing any issues parents would have as well as trying to write a coherent film. In the end, the film does make sense, so I believe we fulfilled our roles.
Without even realising it on the day, however, I found that due to the large amount of children that were needed to be directed, I learned how to direct large crowds. This was something I had absolutely no expereince with and proved to be very difficult at times. It all depended on how hard the children were willing to work.
Barnes Film Academy is by no means a big industry standard production company. It focuses on giving children an introduction into the world of filmmaking. My job was not to be as professional as possible, it was to keep the children in check as I filmed as much as I could. It was more or less a children's production, but I don't think I have ever seen a group of children this happy as we shot this. I believe that the management skills I learned here, being more vocal about the needs for the film, will be incredibly useful in my future productions. It is like shooting a film on a handycam and then on an Arri Alexa XT 65mm. If you can make something good with the handycam, you can make something unbelievable with the Arri.
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