One Day Film School 2024

Headington’s U4 (Year 9) recently put their filmmaking skills to the test with the One Day Film School.

In the morning, they learned the essentials including film history, fight choreography, camera work and screenwriting.

The groups then moved onto making short films. First there was the Three Shot Challenge, where girls try to tell a story through three simple shots. Then it was time for the 10 Shot Challenge: pupils worked in groups to create silent (with music) films of up to two minutes based on a classic narrative eg ’Someone is kidnapped, an attempted rescue’.

Then it was time for the 2024 Headington School Oscars: the judges (Headmistress Caroline Jordan abd Young Film Academy representatives) took their seats for the world premiere of the pupils’ films working to decide who would win Best Motion Picture, Best Performance and Best Technical Achievement. The results were as follows:

Best Motion Picture: “Teacher Trap”

Best Performance: Tessa, “Ransom on the Red Carpet”

Best Technical Achievement: “The Trapper”

Natasha (U4) said: “The One Day Film School was a great opportunity to learn about the skills needed to edit, produce, and act in films, and taught us about pursuing careers in drama and what those would entail. We looked at physical theatre at first, learning about how to fake a convincing roundhouse punch, which many of us enjoyed and therefore ended up using in our productions.

“Later in the day, we focused on camera skills, such as filming from different perspectives: wide, medium and close-up. These three were the basis of a short film of only three clips, which we had fun filming in small groups in preparation for the longer production made in the afternoon, of ten clips. Oscars were then presented to the winning groups.

“Overall, the day taught me a lot that I did not already know about making a film seem professional, but I also had so much fun by making our own original work.”

Well done to Natasha, Holly, Amelia, Rhea, Margarita and Amelie, as well as Mr Pompeo and Mr Rogers, for their amazing work in creating ‘Teacher Trap’ which will be entered into the One Day Film School’s 10 Shot Film Awards.