Into Film Clubs
Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.
We are delighted to reveal our latest Film of the Month winner Boo. A humorous film about a newly dead ghost who discovers what it takes to move on to the afterlife with the help of an older mentor. Made by Lewis, Nickan, Harvey, Juli, Sabine, Milly, Johnny, Amelie, Vivien and Lily as part of a Young Film Academy short course. Plus a special mention to The Bookshop, from Elena and Grace at Prendergast School, London.
Boo (engaging for 11+) is a hilarious horror comedy including a fun twist on the 'mentor' archetype.
A joyous short film with a big heart that's expertly executed.
Film of the Month judge on 'Boo'
We caught up with the young filmmakers who created Boo to find out more about their filmmaking experience.
Why did you want to tell this story?
We knew we wanted a wholesome, light-hearted comedy that could just make people smile. Contrary to typical assumptions, we made our ghosts like normal people to encourage people to change perceptions to things they have assumptions about.
We ended up going with the ghost 'moving on to another life' idea to give them a goal they could fail at to show the character's growth and the fact that they didn't give up when faced with a challenge.
What were your main influences?
One of the ghosts shares a lot of mannerisms and voice characteristics with the Beetlejuice character from the Tim Burton movie, though this was a decision made more on the actor's part.
I don't remember a specific influence where the story is concerned, though the general idea of 'moving on' and 'haunting' is drawn from a lot of Ghost movies.
The look for this film is fantastic, how did you create the props and costumes?
During the Young Film Academy residential summer camp, we were so fortunate to have access to a massive props and costume store with a wild selection for us to use in our shoot.
We hadn't originally planned on using face paint, but the prop department created a great design for the ghosts. We had come up with the idea for the ghosts to wear all white, in both a ghostly and heavenly way.
What was the script writing process like?
We had a little idea on the script before we started it so we did most development in pre-production. It took us a while to settle on the 'ghost' idea, and even then we were torn between a horror movie or a comedy movie, a heart warming movie or a coming-of-age movie.
Once we settled on the horror comedy genre, people in our 6-member group would throw out ideas to build the story. It was really cool, once we had our protagonist and outline for the story the script writing came quite naturally because everyone had unique ideas to bring to the table and we were all really open about them, taking the best bits from each one.
What was your favourite part about making this film?
I loved working with the camera, I think it's so cool and takes a lot of skill and knowledge to operate it smoothly to create high-quality cinematography, and though we only scratched the surface of the power and potential of a film camera, it was an incredible opportunity, nonetheless.
Sometimes I find it difficult collaborating with people outside of film and theatre so to have the opportunity to work with like-minded people to create something was really special, as we all just wanted what was for the good of the film and our experience at camp, for it was only one week!
What piece of advice would you give to someone making their first film?
My biggest piece of advise for making your first short film would be to not over complicate. It is easy to get carried away planning hundreds of shots however this is often impossible to achieve in the likely short filming time you have.
In addition the simpler your story the easier it is for the audience to understand and ultimately enjoy the film.
The groups' film will now be showcased to over 300,000 film club members online, and get featured on the Into Film YouTube channel. They have secured a £100 voucher to help further develop their filmmaking.
Think you could win Film of the Month? Find out how you can enter Film of the Month and our other competitions here.
Special Mention
Each month we highlight one runner up that we think deserves special recognition for their filmmaking achievement. This month we are excited to feature The Bookshop, a charming documentary exploring a bookshop in Lewisham where people are encouraged to share ideas and think differently, from Elena and Grace at Prendergast School, London.
We caught up with Elena and Grace to find out about their documentary.
Tell us about your film...
Grace - When we were searching for a place to film the documentary we looked at local businesses and after a while had the idea of the bookshop. When we looked into filming there, we noticed how inclusive and diverse it was for the community.
We had actually already been as customers a few times and loved the atmosphere and large range of genres. After we began filming, we came to the conclusion it really was the perfect place to film, from its interesting quirks right down to its unique variety of staff. After a lot of hard work and team effort we created our film!
