Reel Solutions

Want to learn the difference between FlipAClip and Stop Motion Studio and how to use them both to make animations?

Maybe you just love films and want to have fun finding out more about how they are made or try your hand at creating your own short animated film? A new online film course from the British Film Institute (BFI) aimed at young people aged 12 – 15 years old from West Yorkshire and further afield will support you to do just that.

Focusing on animation, the 7 day online BFI Film Club delivered by Screen Argyll, who already deliver fantastic BFI Film Academy online animation courses, and Reel Solutions, encourages you to get creative and gives you the skills and confidence to start making your own animated films. You’ll learn more about model making, how to make a FlipAClip and lots of other filming techniques to create a series of short animated films of your own guided by friendly film professionals who work for companies such as the world famous, four times Academy Award winning Aardman, creators of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run.

The new BFI Film Club builds on the success of Bradford’s BFI Film Academy which has been delivered annually in the town by Reel Solutions since 2015 for 16-19 year olds and has helped many local young people find work in the film industry. Reel Solutions will deliver the Film Club in partnership with Screen Argyll who deliver fantastic online animation courses for the BFI Film Academy scheme. The new course will be part of a pilot project this year have made possible by funding from BFI, National Lottery and the DCMS Youth Accelerator Fund.

BFI Film Club are new filmmaking courses for 2021 aimed at young people aged 12-15 years old from the British Film Institute (BFI) in limited towns and cities throughout England in locations identified as ‘Opportunity Areas’ by the Department for Education (DfE) owing to social and economic challenges. See here for more information.

Each BFI Film Club will support up to 20 young teenagers aged 12 -15 who want to find out more about film, careers in the film industry, develop their skills or try filmmaking for the first time. Previous filmmaking experience isn’t necessary. Courses are free to attend although in some instances there may be a charge for Kit Bundles which include all materials and software needed to complete the course’s practical tasks or a participation deposit.

Reel Solutions is very proud to have been delivering film schools to young people in Yorkshire in partnership with the BFI since the start of the BFI Film Academy scheme in 2012 providing the very highest quality film skills training to talented young people aged 16-19. We are excited to extend these filmmaking opportunities and training to a younger age group through our BFI Film Clubs in Scarborough and Bradford in 2021 by providing opportunities to have fun with filmmaking processes, gain confidence, new skills and learn more about careers in our thriving Yorkshire film network, which we are very proud to be a part of. We believe in the next generation, their enthusiasm, their talent and their ambitions and feel hugely privileged to be able to help support and play a role in enabling their dreams, expanding their horizons and experience.

Through these new BFI Film Clubs we want to inspire the next generation of filmmakers, giving young people who might feel that it’s not for them, or that it’s an impossible dream, the chance to explore a range of films and other screen-based media, gain a real understanding of what goes into making them, the breadth of job roles available, and the pathways to other BFI programmes where they could learn more. We’re delighted to be working with providers across England to offer subsidised opportunities outside of school hours in underserved areas, as well as tailored provision within PRUs. We’re grateful to National Lottery players for helping to enable this activity.

Leigh Adams, Director of Education and Skills at the BFI