The story starts
with a idea born in Hannover, that brings together representatives from the Centrum Sztuki Dziecka in Poznan, Watershed Media Centre in Bristol and, in Hannover, the MedienWerkstatt Linden, KroKuS arts and community centre and the city cultural bureau for the first time in January 2002 to lay the basis for an international youth joint venture to produce a film.

preliminary meeting

The aim is to make a film together. Initial ideas of basing it on an existing screenplay are quickly discarded in favour of a suggestion to devise the story together with the young people and thus to pick up on their own concerns. The final film will be in four parts: three storylines will be created independently by the groups in Bristol, Poznan and Hannover, and the fourth part will bring these plot threads together, devised and filmed by the international group.

preliminary meeting

Young people for the project are found and motivated through contacts with local schools: in Hannover from the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Realschule in Bemerode, which was already working with KroKuS, in Bristol from three secondary schools with a strong arts basis - Cotham Comprehensive, Ashton Park and St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School - and in Poznan from the X. Liceum, which has already set up a class working with film. Committed teachers work hard to launch the project in their schools.

Financial problems are sorted out and the project starts on 1 September 2002 in workshop sessions with the three local groups. Fifteen young people are involved in each city - a lot for a film project, but there are several different jobs to be filled in screenplay, acting, and filming. Professional film makers and media educationalists share their skills and support the project groups.

The first workshop in Bristol
The first international meeting happens in Bristol in October 2002. At first the young people regard each other warily - such a partnership is new to them all. Some of them have problems with their host families and there’s fierce competition for places in the youth hostel. They arrive with different abilities and attitudes, and varying degrees of concentration, self-reliance, expectations of their own work and teamwork capability. The Germans above all have problems with English as the project language, although some of them speak Polish. Some of the English young people have been learning German and try out. Sometimes communication works without words – but sometimes even a good knowledge of English isn't enough to be understood.

meeting in Bristol

Work in mixed-nationality workshop groups is planned to introduce them to the various areas of interest and work for a film production, with sessions on screenplay, acting, camerawork, directing and dramaturgy. Six short films are made and the young people are well pleased with their work. It brings them together and the first friendships begin to grow - but the national groups still stick together often.

play with the group

The young people suggest using their own experiences during the Bristol meeting for the joint film - stories set in an international schools exchange. The scenes at home should be about the preparations, and the fourth joint section will show the characters meeting on the exchange. The task for the weeks to come will be to devise the home scenes through to the start of filming so that a single film can emerge from them.

Work at home
In the months that follow ideas and draft screenplays for the local films are found and rejected, emailed back and forth, until three plot threads are decided.

Communication between via internet doesn't really take off. Technical and language difficulties play a part in this, but the main problem is that each of the three groups is so wrapped up in devising its own story that the young people don't yet have a great deal to say to each other.

This changes when representatives from all groups (two young people and a film maker from each city) meet in Hannover in late February to dovetail the three draft screenplays and plan the joint fourth part. They manage to devise a sequel to the stories of characters of the separate parts - a group result that demands tremendous concentration. Now the final rework of the local screenplays and filming can begin.

Joint film work
For the second international workshop in Hannover at the end of March the rough cuts of the three local films are ready. Over ten days work resumes in international groups: a script group to devise the final screenplay, three recording crews to set up the scenes, an acting group preparing for their scenes and a documentation group. Coordination of the various groups isn't easy and demands plenty of patience and commitment from all involved.

... in Hanover

The groups are supported by professionals, but the young people do all the practical work; in front of and behind the camera what they say goes, while directors and camera team, actors and writers are on hand to offer their know-how. It’s plain to see how the young people have grown with the project – they’re more committed in the workshops and much more open with their international partners. The Hannover workshop concludes with presentation of a rough cut of the entire film to all involved, parents and invited guests.

working at the filmcut

The film isn't finished yet
Two young people and a director from Bristol and from Poznan come to Hannover for a few days in June to work on the final cut. Subtitles are prepared and the final structure decided. The question of whether the film should be edited as a parallel montage of the local parts is hotly discussed and decided on more pragmatic grounds. Work on the sound and the three subtitled versions takes a while longer.

But now ...
In October the film is premiered an Bristol's Watershed Media Centre and Hannover's Kino im Künstlerhaus. In November all involved meet in Poznan to wind up the project, to show the film at the XIV Biennale of Art for Children and to work on the documentation (video, photographs, internet). This final workshop wasn’t originally planned, but the better the young people understood each other in the course of the project the more insistent they became about this third meeting, arguing that such a long and intense partnership between three countries should include meetings in all the participating cities. The meeting in Poznan is another highlight of the project.

pictures of the film

The young people
Work on the project was integrated in school activities but happened after school. Along with practical experience with screenplay, movement and expression work and cinematography, there was theoretical study of various aspects of film production (in Hannover, for instance, by reading 'Die große Rolle' and 'Vorsicht! Dreharbeiten', film analyses or discussion on film making).

The young people gradually became more involved in the project organisation. They were involved in setting up the international meeting (especially leisure activities, lodging guests with families and setting rules for all participants) and were part of preparations for the premieres, press and PR work, and evaluation.

Strong commitment was expected from them, often more than they had imagined at the beginning of the project.
They had to gather a great deal of experience in a short time and cope with conflicts. They acquired film production skills, learnt something about their international partners and improved their social competence (especially with regard to reliability, tolerance, consideration for others and mutual respect).

Friendships have grown and the internet platform will continue to be used for communicating with each other.

The professionals
Locally and during the workshops, professional film makers, camera crew and actors worked with the groups, coaching the young people and putting their ideas and work on a professional basis. A screenplay consultant was engaged to coordinate the scripts.

The finished film
The 40-minute film consists of four sections, spliced together in editing. Three sections, each running for between six and eight minutes, were produced by the local groups in Bristol, Poznan and Hannover and the fourth, which lasts nine minutes, picks up the storylines of the three local scenes and weaves them together. The film was recorded with professional DV cameras and edited on an AVID Media Composer. The various scenes were filmed in the actors' own languages and three subtitled versions, English, Polish and German, were produced. The groups contributed their own music, and for musical links and the fourth section a professional recording studio was involved.