Northern Ireland’s leading film, TV and games professionals will provide free online training sessions to young people looking for a career in the screen industry.
Education charity Into Film and Northern Ireland Screen have launched ‘ScreenWorks Online’ a series of 15 video tutorials with feedback from industry professionals aimed at stimulating interest in a range of disciplines from prosthetics to visual effects and storyboarding.
ScreenWorks co-ordinator Sean Boyle said that while the global pandemic has brought a halt to major film and television productions, Into Film and Northern Ireland Screen were continuing to plan for a time when work resumes.
“ScreenWorks Online will enable greater numbers of young people to become aware of the exciting opportunities in the screen industry. After watching the tutorial, they will then be set a task which our industry professionals will critique, giving them individual feedback on their work. We hope that the young people who participate in the virtual tutorials will join the workshops when they restart,” he said.
The first workshop to go online on Documentary Filmmaking has been created by director Brian Henry Martin.
Mr Martin said: “It was an honour to present an online documentary tutorial for ScreenWorks, who are such a vibrant and vital enabler for the next generation of filmmakers across Northern Ireland. And at this most difficult time, I was particularly delighted to offer young people the opportunity to devise their own documentaries at home. This is a fun exercise, designed for participants to reflect the world around them and I look forward to hopefully seeing some of their creative approaches on screens in the future.”
A further 14 videos will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Each video is 10-20 minutes long and will include online exercises for students to work on at home to help build up their portfolios.
Richard Williams, Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Screen, said: “We are delighted that ScreenWorks has been able to move online so that young people can continue to be inspired by our local industry professionals. We are grateful to those who have taken the time to make these workshops possible and we’re confident that participants will come away with an increased awareness and understanding of the variety of screen industry roles available to them.”
Since January 2019, ScreenWorks, co-ordinated by Into Film and funded by Northern Ireland Screen, has provided work experience to more than 500 students in 40 different programmes.
For more details about ScreenWorks Online go to www.intofilm.org/screenworksonline
