Stanley Treshansky reports from the Teen Group’s trip to the Scottish Youth Film Festival in Glasgow
I was so excited when I got out of the car to start the trip to the SYFF in Glasgow. I signed in and took a front row seat on the coach there next to my friends. The trip there was lovely, the time passed by so quickly after playing Top Trumps, chatting and doing Rubik’s cubes. With five minutes left until the trip finished I collected all of my things, had a quick drink of water and headed off the coach with all my friends to go into the building. We walked towards the end of the building to meet Scott from the SYFF and he told us that it would start in about fifteen minutes. We all went to the cafe and got some snacks and drinks. I had a cup of tea in order to finish properly waking up in time for the events.
First we went into the main auditorium where we got the all too familiar safety speech telling us about fire exits and everything. We also got the overview on the day’s events and schedule.
For the first workshop, I chose the Kevin Guthrie Acting Q & A. We got to hear a little bit about his career and background before asking him questions. He told us a lot of useful tips and advice. This was some of what he said: he told us that film and theatre acting are very different in terms of how to do it and the impact it has on you. He also said that confidence is very important whenever doing anything in life. He told us that just before he walks into the audition room he imagines the door as a cold icy pool and tells himself to take the plunge, and if he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t get it. I found this workshop so inspiring and insightful. It is so awesome to meet a real professional, a common theme in the Scottish Youth Film Festival.
I then went into the Next steps filmmaking panel which had loads of real industry professionals that I got to meet. The event was a similar structure to the previous one. They all told us a little bit about themselves and what it is that they do and then we got to ask them questions. They gave us loads of great pointers on how to get into the industry and also told us about the vast number of jobs you could do that I had never heard of. They told us to do what you love and keep at it. They also encouraged us to get into all aspects of filmmaking. They told us that people are more valuable than money. Some of the careers they told us about were: script supervisor; foley artist; and gaffer. Foley artist was one of my favorites, they make sound out of objects to replicate whats going on in the film.
Then it was lunchtime where I treated myself to a pack lunch and second cup of tea, Yum! I also talked to my friends about what workshops they went to and what they were like.
When lunch was over I went to the Animation Workshop where I continued to learn loads of new things! I learned about how animators animate in 24 frames as 25 at 12 fps, I also learned all about momentum and its effect on how you animate (it is very difficult to animate walking!). We even got to learn about Eadweard Muybridge’s horse animation where he discovered that horses do lift all 4 legs off the ground. I had loads of fun putting this knowledge into practice by making animated films with all of my friends and people that I met there.
We still had a little time before the awards, and decided to use this time looking at the Film Archive (seeing as we were in the ideal place to do so). We found some old footage that was very out of context and dated, looked at the difference, laughed, and saw how history had treated Scotland.
Awards Time!!! It was so awesome to see all of the different films that were entered, some of the 9-12s films were so funny that we couldn’t stop laughing. We got to see the winning film and learn about the outreach program too. At the end off the day, we got to take back the shortlisted award to the Film Academy.
We had a very smooth and quick trip back without any complications.
I wouldn’t have spent the day any other way, it was such a fantastic event and I am looking forward to next year’s 😉
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Stanley Treshansky is an actor and can be found on Facebook at Stanley’s Acting Page.
