Filmmaking workshops for young people
Imagine if your students arrived at school having never made a film, and left after their first premiere!
That's Script to Screen. It's our most complete filmmaking workshop, and it's been a firm favourite with schools, colleges and arts organisations for years. Your group writes a script, casts it, shoots it, and edits it together, all in a single session.
Our Script To Screen workshops are a great hands-on practical introduction to creating a short dramatic film. With the support of industry experts, young people are given the practical experience of being a filmmaker.
What ‘Script to Screen’ packages do we offer?
Half Day Workshops
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We can run short sessions on one element of the script to screen process, or run a series of half-day sessions, with separate dedicated time for scripting, filming, and editing. This can be a great option to work around your schedule and offers a chance to shoot scenes in different locations!
Full Day Workshops
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Our workshop has been honed to develop from an initial idea to full-blown film in the course of just one school day. Participants will work in small groups, and write, shoot and edit their own short film.
Holiday Workshops
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Scripted drama workshops lend themselves to full-week courses during School Holidays. More time will enable the participants to learn more in depth production skills and produce longer and more challenging films.
What key skills do the students learn on our filmmaking workshops?
Young people are taught the process of creating a scripted film from pre-production to post-production and delivery of the film. With the support of industry experts, young people are given an insight into filmmaking.
They learn to craft compelling narratives, develop characters, understand camera angles, and explore the basics of filmmaking. Through hands-on activities, they transform scripts into on-screen productions, fostering creativity and teamwork.
They will work together in teams and be given different responsibilities, which forces them to collaborate from the script stage to the final edit. Our team will help and guide them each step of the way.
This is the perfect workshop if you are curious to know all aspects of filmmaking.
How can short filmmaking with the national curriculum?
Script to Screen was made for schools, but it doesn't feel like homework. It's a genuine highlight of the term for most groups, while quietly ticking a lot of boxes.
It's a natural fit for English and Drama, since writing and performing a script draws on exactly the same skills as the classroom, just with a camera pointed at it. Media Studies and ICT groups get real, practical production experience most coursework can't offer. History classes have used it to bring a topic to life as a dramatised scene. Modern Foreign Languages groups have written and performed scripts entirely in the language they're learning. Whatever the subject, if there's a story to tell, we can help your students tell it. (For more ideas on bringing curriculum topics to life on camera, our filmmaking resources blog has plenty of tips written for teachers.)
What equipment will they use?
We tailor our workshops to the group itself. Depending on the age and ability level of your group, they may be using our professional production kit or simpler, more accessible camcorders.
Another great option is to film using mobile phones and edit on free software – this enables the participants to continue using the skills they’ve learned even after we’ve packed up!
Filming on phones is perfect for capturing adventures, making funny videos with school friends, or even creating mini-movies. Our team will show the children how to get the best shots and let their imaginations run wild!
Common Questions
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A full day covers the whole process, script to final edit. A half day will focus on one stage of production to Longer projects can be split across several half-day sessions if that fits your timetable better.
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We run it with primary, secondary and college-age groups. We simply adjust the kit, the pace and the level of support to suit the age and experience of the students in the room.
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Yes. We bring cameras, lighting and sound kit suited to your group's age and experience, from simple camcorders and tablets right through to professional production equipment. If you would prefer us to use your kit, that’s fine too.
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Absolutely, and it's one of our most popular options. Nine Elms Studio is a genuine television and film production space in central London, twenty minutes from Soho, and makes for a memorable school outing as well as a great workshop venue.
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Yes, every filmmaker who leads a workshop is DBS-checked and safeguarding trained, and many are trained first aiders too.
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It works especially well alongside English, Drama, Media Studies and Modern Foreign Languages, and has also been used to bring History topics to life. We can tailor the script's subject matter to whatever your curriculum needs.
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Yes. Chocolate Films Workshops is an unfunded not-for-profit company, so we need to charge for our workshops - we keep them as reasonable as possible though.
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We charge per facilitator, per day. Each facilitator will work with up to eight students at a time.
Check out our other film making workshops
If Script to Screen isn't quite the fit, we run a other hands-on workshops your group might prefer, from animation and music video to documentary and light painting. Many schools end up booking more than one across the year. We can also organise a day with taster sessions of two workshops.
Your School or Our Studio?
We know every school works differently, so Script to Screen flexes around you.
We're happy to come to you and run the whole thing in your hall, classroom or drama studio. Or, for something a bit different, bring your group to us at Nine Elms Studio in Central London. It's a genuinely great school outing, students get to work in a real television and film production studio, complete with a professional lighting rig, soundproofing and broadcast-quality kit, just twenty minutes from Soho. For a lot of young people, it's the first time they've set foot in a working studio, and it shows in how seriously they take the day.
Sessions run from a single half day covering one part of the process, right up to a full day taking a script from idea to edit. We can also split things across a series of half-day sessions if that suits your timetable better, with dedicated time for scripting, filming and editing on separate visits, and even a chance to film in different locations along the way.
Chocolate Films Workshops in numbers
2001
The year we were founded
3000
The number of people we work with in an average year
4-102
The age range of students who’ve attended our workshops!
Committed to keeping children safe online
We think making video is one of the most useful tool a young person can learn nowadays. It’s not just creative and fun, it’s an essential life skill. However the Internet isn't always a safe place for images of children and young people to live.
At Chocolate Films Workshops, our mission is simple: we want children and young people to make great content safely.
With regards to publishing content, we follow current guidance available as strictly as possible. This means we don't put footage or photos of children on our website or on our social channels.
After a workshop, we want the participants to proudly show their work. When we share films with schools and parents, we give clear advice on how to share that footage, so that there are no headaches further down the line.
If you have any questions about our approach to onine safety just get in touch.
Script to screen - short film resources
