Click here for the LensHeads Application form

We are offering the following film schools.

Summer Film School for previous LensHeads participants at Bellshill Academy from 26th July 2010 (Filming Dates 9th, 10th, 11th August 2010).

Animation School at the Summerlee Photomedia Studio in Summerlee Heritage Museum every Tuesday and Thursday from 6th July 2010 until 5th August, then 2 recall days 21st August and 18th September and final production days 11th to 15th October 2010 .

17 Week Film School No 1 at Kilsyth Academy every Thursday evening from 9th September 2010.

17 Week Film School No 2 at Airdrie Academy every Tuesday evening from 14th September 2010.

More details are available from the lensheads.thelearningcentre.org website.

Preparation Night

Please note the preparation evening for LensHead Students has been rearranged for Wednesday 9th June at 7:00pm.

We invite all previous LensHeads from Missing You, Strings Attached, Son and Heir and Curiosities,  to come along to The Learning Centre, to meet fellow LensHeads and organise some of the details of the premiere.

Such as who will say a few words to introduce the film you have made!

We look forward to seeing you there on the 9th June at 7pm till 9pm at The Learning Centre, Bellshill Academy, 321 Main Street, Bellshill, ML4 1AR.

LensHeads Premiere:

The premiere itself will take place at Summerlee Heritage Museum at 7:00pm on Monday 14th June 2010. Further information will be posted to all LensHeads this week.

Working on behalf of our client The Lanarkshire “Getting It Right For Every Child” Resource Team, we were commissioned to shoot a series of photographs depicting Lanarkshire children of all ages.

Below are some shots of John working in the studio with the children plus a few of the finished photos:

The announcement was made on Tuesday 2 March at a ceremony in London’s Odeon Leicester Square, with UK director Sam Mendes and actor Ralph Fiennes among the judges.

Sir Alan Parker, Director of Evita, Bugsy Malone, The Commitments, Pink Floyd The Wall and Mississippi Burning said of Backfire: “It’s convincingly written with good, realistic dialogue. It’s a nicely constructed story between reality and paranoia on topical subject.”

BackFire was written, directed and acted by pupils from St Andrew’s and St Ambrose high schools, Coatbridge; Airdrie Academy and St Aiden’s High School, Wishaw.

The film school, based in the Bellshill Learning Centre, was started six years ago to encourage pupils to become involved in film and media studies.

The First Light Awards aren’t the LensHeads team’s first success. The group also scooped The Discovery Youth Screen Award 2009, Scotland’s top film-making prize for under 18s.

The youngsters from the Lensheads Film School wrote and directed “Backfire”, an explosive short film that portrays how Frankie’s young life is turned upside down when someone asks him a favour that puts him on the wrong side of the law.

Pupils from St Andrew’s HS, Airdrie Academy, St Ambrose HS and St Aidan’s HS were involved in the making of the film, which was selected by an audience vote at a screening of nominated films.

Willie Davidson, who leads North Lanarkshire Council’s filmmaking initiative, he explained:

“There were over 50 submissions to the short film award and the youth jury chose seven for the shortlist.“

“These films were shown at the Discovery Film Festival. The audience – a mix of young people and industry professionals – then voted to choose the winner. It was a close run, but Backfire took the title.”

The Lensheads youth filmmaking group had two films in the shortlist (Backfire and Seaweed) and member Jack Frisky was at the DCA cinema to pick up the award from festival producer Katharine Simpson.

Katharine, from the festival organisers said:

“Backfire immerses you in Frankie’s dilemma, and is gripping from start to finish. Congratulations to The Lensheads team for producing such an accomplished film. I look forward to seeing more from this group.”

The prize includes the Discovery Youth Screen Award cup and a cheque for £250, which Lensheads have said they are going to invest in developing the screenwriting skills of their young filmmakers.

Jane Liddell, Head of Education Quality and Development, said: “North Lanarkshire Council’s Learning and Leisure Services has a long-term commitment to film education.

“While we have received several awards in the past, the Discovery Award is the most prestigious to date. Special thanks must go to First Light, who provided funding, and to everyone involved with the Lensheads project.”

The Discovery Youth Screen Award is given to the best short film made in Scotland by under 18-year-olds in the past 12 months. It is awarded annually at Discovery – Scotland’s leading youth film festival – which screens the best in international film for young audiences and this year welcomed 4000 young people at the DCA Cinema.

To assist in the learning of Mandarin, the Learning Centre has developed two audio CDs containing a range of topics from Actions to Weather.  Each topic has been recorded as a track so that the listener can select the topic they wish to practice.  Each track consists of words or phrases associated with the topic.  Each word or phrase is spoken in English followed by the Mandarin twice with sufficient silence in between for the listener to practice saying the word or phrase.  A PDF for each topic is available on the CD and can be accessed via a computer.  The PDF contains the English, Mandarin and Pinyin for each of the words or phrases.  A copy of the Audio CD in MP3 format is also on the CD.

The pack is available for purchase from the Learning and Leisure Service.

To assist them we have created lesson outlines, materials and training that empower teachers to deliver high quality ICT training to pupils using Adobe’s Photoshop. This is a Scottish publication designed with the requirements of the Curriculum for Excellence in mind.

The materials include four introductory tutorials and four advanced project based tutorials (packaging, CD design, book cover, poster). These are delivered via printed magazines and interactive white board notes for staff use and an accompanying CD that includes and printable notes for pupils, lesson/unit outlines & all necessary assets (pictures, templates, logos).

The pack is available for purchase from the Learning and Leisure Service.