PRLog (Press Release) –
Mar 19, 2008 – Margaret Beaufort Middle School in Riseley has become the first school in the United Kingdom to produce a Book to Screen film where the children carried out the disciplines themselves. The film was based on just one chapter from acclaimed children’s author Julia Jarman’s book, entitled ‘Ghost Writer’. With advice and guidance from a film director and cameraman, the pupils scripted, acted and carried out many of the technical roles, including sound boom operator, continuity and clapperboard.
The production of ‘Ghost Writer’ took just 3 months from start to finish and the Premiere was held at the Civic Theatre in Bedford. Nearly fifty people auditioned for cast and crew and several workshops were held including technical know-how, the author’s craft and script writing, where the pupils learned to reduce the original 2,500 words down to a shooting script of just 195 words.
The film’s director, Julie Laslett, is managing director of Dramatic Media Ltd, which produces innovative visual resources for schools, combining TV quality film dramas and curriculum-mapped activities.
Julie explained how the project came into being. “Julia Jarman and I both live in Riseley and have a mutual interest in education and she is a regular visitor to schools in Bedfordshire. We decided that a chapter of her book would make a wonderful ‘Book to Screen’ resource and decided to approach a local school to see whether they would participate in our idea.”
Margaret Beaufort Middle School was already using some of Dramatic Media’s resources and had reported back that the pupils, particularly the boys, were extremely motivated by the visual stimulus. Head of English, Liz Wickins, was keen to see how her pupils would cope with the technical skills and personal discipline required to make a film, and was happy to provide the support needed to get the project off the ground.
Author Julia Jarman was delighted with the film and commented: “I couldn’t believe the children were acting, they were so convincing as my characters. The scrutiny they’d given the text was very gratifying and contributed to those amazing performances. The build-up of tension, aided by the haunting film score created by teacher Sheridan Fenshaw and her pupils was ‘edge of seat’ exciting and left everyone, especially me, wanting more.”
Liz Wickins was particularly pleased about the on-going improvements she had witnessed post-filming and said: “It was easy to pick out the pupils who had taken part in the project, it has raised their skills and totally transformed the way we teach Book to Screen.”
“So much of the renewed framework is visually based and I believe that this is the way to go. We have a strong culture in our school for reading but we have to remember that children access all kinds of technology throughout their day, so this is the perfect complement to other areas where we are trying to raise standards. The children’s feedback has proved that it has been an extremely valuable learning experience and they are now able to be more creative in converting words into visual literacy.”
Julie Laslett was delighted with the whole project and thought that the Premier screening was a night to be remembered. She said it was such a thrill to witness the tremendous buzz in the theatre and the pride of the participants at the successful outcome. This was truly an example of teachers and pupils and the community working together at their best.
Pupil Henry Smith who played one of the lead characters summed up the feelings of his fellow pupils when he said “it was absolutely brilliant, we learned so much and it proves that reading books doesn’t have to be boring, you can really make it fun.”
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Date: 19th March 2008
Editors’ notes:
300 dpi jpg image featuring pupil Henry Smith with Julie Laslett and Julia Jarman at the Premier available from media contact
For further information on author Julia Jarman please visit www.juliajarman.com
For further information on Dramatic Media Ltd please visit www.dramaticmedia.net or telephone Julie Laslett on 01480 479250
For media information please contact Val Jefferys, Ultimedia Public Relations, tel 01767 601621 or email val@ultimediapr.co.uk
