How did you come up with the idea for your film ‘Strays’ – and what inspired you to make it?

I’ve always had a passion for telling stories about young people growing up in smaller working class towns. I grew up in Blackburn and went on to study at film school in London. Moving away made me realise just how different a childhood in the capital city was, compared to that of a smaller, more secluded town. The unforgiving and harsh post-industrial landscapes of the north are a perfect backdrop for adventurous children in a town like Blackburn.

Throughout my previous work, I’ve explored techniques such as street casting and improvisation, in an effort to bring out authentic performances. I’ve always aimed for a purely local cast, as I feel it adds a layer of authenticity; not just with the dialect and accents, but also as they’ll have a broader understanding of the landscape and why the story is relevant to them.

Locations have always played a vital role in my films. Often, I’ll shape a story around a particular location, and for Strays this was the case more so than ever before. The film is set against a backdrop of terraced houses in the area where I was born, and where much of my family still live to this day. Around a decade ago, work began on demolishing all of the properties to make way for a new regeneration scheme. Lots of residents were moved out, and work commenced on pulling down rows and rows of red-bricked terraced houses. Halfway through the demolition, however, work came to a standstill due to a lack of funds, and rows of half knocked down houses were abandoned. Several years on, the houses still remain; half-demolished, crumbling and forgotten.

The area looks and feels like a post-apocalyptic war zone, taken over by nature and lost in time. I thought it would make the perfect location for a story which mixes reality with fantasy, in a dark and unsettling world in which children have taken over.

Tell us about your Random Acts film in one sentence.

A dark and unsettling world in which children have taken over a forgotten terraced street, devoid of adults with no rules or boundaries.

Tell us a bit more about how you’ve brought your idea to life.

My films have always explored the darker side of youth, but this film was an opportunity to take a different angle on that; supported by cinematic visuals, locations, costume and sound design with the largest budget I’ve had access to. This was the first non-student film that I had the chance to write and direct, and it was a great step up with the backing of a professional production team, mentoring and support.

The film was partly inspired by the book Lord of the Flies, in which a group of school children are abandoned on a desert island. I thought it would be interesting to explore what would happen if a similar story took place on the streets of Blackburn, with feral children running wild without rules or boundaries. As part of my writing process, I gathered up a few local kids and asked them what they would do in a world without adults. The resulting feedback was unsurprisingly dark, and thus the script developed into quite a sinister and unnerving narrative.

Please tell us a bit more about yourself and your artistic background.

My films explore stories of working class youth; with unscripted and improvised performances, street casting and non-professional young actors at the core of my filmmaking approach.

My debut student short, Throw Me to the Dogs, won 10 awards on the festival circuit, with praise from Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle. Screening at prestigious BAFTA and Oscar® qualifying festivals around the world, the film went on to achieve worldwide distribution via MUBI, streaming in over 240 countries, as well as being awarded a ‘Best of the Month’ Staff Pick on Vimeo.

Your film has a mostly child cast. What was your casting process?

The casting process for Strays was a massive challenge. I knew that to make the film feel like a real and believable world, we had to cast a large amount of children. I already had casting experience from working on my previous film, The Truants, which featured around 150 child extras to make up a school yard.

I published a casting call for Strays in the local newspaper, and the response was overwhelming. Around 600 parents applied for their children to take part, and in the end I had to narrow the selection down to around 50. The biggest challenge I faced in casting, was that we didn’t have the time or resources to set up audition sessions, and so all of the children had to be selected from photographs. As the film had no dialogue, I was confident that I’d be able to bring out strong performances without seeing any auditions, and so the resulting cast was selected purely based on image.

Talk us through your days on shoot. How did you find directing children? Did you encounter any difficulties?

Working with a larger cast with lots of varied scenes was a really exciting and challenging experience. I hadn’t met most of the cast before, which made shooting each scene really spontaneous. It was really rewarding to be able work with such a diverse cast across multiple scenes – from a quiet and intimate indoor shoot with a two year old toddler one minute, to being out on the streets with a dozen or so children running wild the next.

The shoot was hectic and action-packed, but it was such a great experience to be able to incorporate my improvisational style in a new and exciting way. A number of scenes that made the cut were improvised and hadn’t been written in the script, with many of my favourite moments in the film being captured this way.

How have you found the whole Random Acts North experience? Have there been any unexpected elements to the programme?

The best part of the Random Acts North experience was the fact that each commissioned artist was catered to individually. It didn’t matter if you had no experience making films or lots of experience, as everyone’s ideas were developed on a personal basis.

What hints or tips would you pass onto to someone who has been commissioned to make a Random Acts North film?

Taking risks and facing challenges is a big part of the process, so be prepared to step out of your comfort zone and explore your style as an artist from different perspectives. The most important part of the process is to enjoy it, as once it’s over you’ll wish you were doing it all over again.

Find out more about Aaron’s work at aarondunleavy.com – you can also follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Dunleavy

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Click below to watch – you can also click here to find out more about Jack.

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A writer and director with a passion for narrative cinema and original storytelling, Jack’s films take risks in form, content and cinematic ambition.  As well as his work with Random Acts he has previously worked with funding bodies such as Creative England, the BFI and the UK Arts Council.

A Life Hereafter explores the final moments in the life of a man tormented by his past and is now available to watch on Channel 4’s Random Acts YouTube channel.

Find out more about Jack’s work at www.jackbenjamingill.com – you can also follow him on Twitter @JackBGill

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How did you come up with the idea for your film – and what inspired you to make it?

Honestly I was lying in bed one morning and it sort of just came to me. But an idea that takes seconds to formulate takes months to produce and the idea I had is nothing like the end product. At the time I pitched the film idea to Random Acts North, I was investigating int eractive projection which was something I wanted to continue. As well as reflecting on the cyclical nature of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Talk us through the process of making your film. What were the exciting parts and the challenges when making the film?

The film spent a lot of time in development, where the interactive projection elements gave way to the visuals and animation being much more prominent. The core theme of the film never changed nor the flow of the storyline. But finding the right ways to represent them in correlation to my own artistic style and practice was challenging. I am not one for representational imagery which I think is quite clear in the final product. I actually ended up learning an almost completely new program for the animation which was quite a big task. The testing nature of the film making process (and other creative practices) actually correlated with the story and underlying theme of the film, highs and lows and how we battle through them. So this in itself gave fresh inspiration as well as, I hope, a wider interpretation of the abstract imagery.

Beyond the artistic challenges, more everyday life ones were: the time it took and needing to work whilst also trying to focus on the film which was not an easy division of time. Also, what might seem like a small thing, was only communicating being able to communicate via phone and email with people such as producers and other collaborators. I don’t think anything can beat a face-to-face meeting in terms of understanding each others thoughts and generally being able to bounce off people. That is why the talent weekend at the beginning where you get to meet your mentor and the other participants is so much fun!

I guess I can’t write about the exciting parts without mentioning about being selected to be actually shown on the Channel 4 Random Acts TV show. Still not sure I believe it…

Describe your Random Acts film in one sentence.

This is what the inside of my brain looks like.

Tell us about yourself and your artistic background

Well my artistic background doesn’t really exist much outside an educational format, except for Random Acts. That’s why this has been such a good experience. After studying art at school, although I wasn’t going to as “I can’t draw”, I went to University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury to study Art Foundation and then to Leeds College of Art where I completed a degree in Visual Communication. This was a great course for me because it allowed me to combine my passion for environmental sustainability with my technology based art and design practice. I do like to experiment and play around when it comes to developing visual styles and I certainly feel more comfortable working with abstract forms, shapes and colours than people and realistic representations of objects. As I said before I usually use some form of technology to produce work, which I take a similar experimental approach to until I find my own little personal process.

How was the whole Random Acts experience?

A definite learning curve. I’d never considered myself as a filmmaker, although I think 10 year old me did want to be a director, so Random Acts North gave me the opportunity to experience something new and different. It was great working with a professional team and meeting other young people with similar interests but on different paths

Would I recommend the experience to others? Yes, of course. Everyone should apply just for the challenge of pitching an idea and condensing that vision in your head into such a few words on one piece of paper.

Eleanor’s film Illuminated is available to watch now as part of Season 3 of Random Acts on Channel 4.

Find out more about Eleanor’s work at eleanoredwards.co.uk

Browse Eleanor’s Vimeo profile here.

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The new series airs from Monday 21 August at midnight and is curated and hosted by actor and artist Zawe Ashton.

Episode 1 on Monday 21 August includes the premiere of Illuminated (above) by interactive visual artist Eleanor Edwards while Episode 3 on Monday 4 September features the short film Herd (below) by actor, dancer and choreographer Peter Groom.

Episodes from the new Channel 4 series will be available to watch online on All 4 the day after transmission.

Image: Herd, by Random Acts North artist Peter Groom

Both Illuminated and Herd were produced through the Random Acts North programme, delivered by Tyneside Cinema in conjunction with HOME in Manchester and True North in Leeds, one of the region’s leading production companies.

A recent graduate from Leeds College of Art, where she studied BA Visual Communications, Eleanor Edwards’ preferred medium is computers. An aspiring Motion Designer, her background is in interactive visual arts.

Find out more about Eleanor’s work at eleanoredwards.co.uk, or visit vimeo.com/eleanoredwards.

Peter Groom is an actor, dancer and choreographer working mainly with dance and theatre. Graduating from Guildford School of Acting in 2013, he has worked both here in the UK and internationally.

Peter has been supported as an artist in residence at Battersea Arts Centre, received commissions from IdeasTap, Royal Philharmonic Society, and is currently Associate Choreographic Dance Maker at DanceCity in Newcastle.

Follow Peter on Twitter @_petergroom, or find out more on his website petergroomdance-theatre.co.uk.

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My film, Staccato, is inspired by Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, who suffered from both epilepsy and depression.

I study neuroscience and obsess over music. I’ve always wanted to make a short film inspired by science, but I’d never had the confidence, or the means. Random Acts gave me the opportunity and freedom to create a film that addresses an unusual topic in a creative way.

My short imagines the neural events of an epileptic seizure and the effects on the sufferer’s emotions, while also exploring the paradoxical beauty of the biology behind the destructive condition. I hope that by incorporating themes of music and emotion, the film I have removed the horror associated with old clunky educational science videos and helped to introduce viewers to the wonders of the brain.

I spent a long weekend in Manchester working with mentors, alongside other young film-makers, developing and refining my film. At the beginning my idea was a very literal manifestation of the emotional strain of epilepsy- think sad faces and slumped bodies. Storyboards were drawn and redrawn, ripped up and reordered until I achieved a more elegant method of encapsulating the sufferer’s emotions. The mentors encouraged me to be confident in my idea and to take creative risks  In the end, I decided the film would be animated and set entirely in the brain.

During the residential I developed mood boards for the sound and the visuals. I collated stills of a range of animations and songs to demonstrate the aspects I wanted to incorporate into the film’s style.

The process of choosing an animator gave me an additional opportunity to talk through my idea to a range of people and to hear their interpretation. After months working independently to finalise my idea, it was really encouraging to hear other people being enthusiastic about the project.

Once I had decided to collaborate with Arcus Studios I created an animatic to map out the series of events. This helped to iron out any issues in the ‘narrative’. The animator took my animatic and sketched a basic interpretation. The sound artist used this to map out the beats of the audio. As the sound and visual artists were not working in the same city, let alone in the same building, we relied on the power of email to send drafts between the two to ensure that the styles fitted together.

A month later the style was tweaked, details were added and the final render was completed. Seeing the finished film was quite a surreal moment. It was the first time I was able to see the visuals with the audio so it was a huge relief that they fitted together so well.  Now I know this how new mothers feel. My baby was born.  The pain was worth it.

Random Acts allowed me to have creative control over my project- a novel experience compared to years of overbearing teachers- and to collaborate with talented people. I would advise applicants to use the opportunity to create something they thought was impossible. Creating Staccato provided me with a new confidence that I hope to take forward to even more adventurous and ambitious projects.

Thanks to all the mentors, the animators and the sound artist, I really really couldn’t have made this film without you.

Staccato will be available to watch later this year on Channel 4’s Random Acts website. 

Read Bella’s online magazine Plathoes Cave: www.plathoescave.com 

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It’s a very exciting time here in the Random Acts North HQ! We’re now a good way into our third year of the project, with our Year 3 Filmmakers busily developing their ideas before going into production. We’ve commissioned 25 artist filmmakers across 23 films, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with.

This year our 24^th film will be produced in collaboration with Beacon Hill Arts. Beacon Hill Arts CIC is a multi-award winning training and production organisation for filmmakers who have learning difficulties, autism and additional needs. Their work has received over 100 festival screenings across four continents and has won accolades from across the world of film – we’re looking forward to working with them!

With one talent residential down, we have two left to go and are eager to start working on Year 3 production.

We’re also coming to the end of production on all our Year 2 films, and the response to those that have already been completed has been fantastic. Both Peter Groom’s film, Herd, and Eleanor Edwards’ film, Illuminated, have been selected to be broadcast as part of the summer series of Channel 4’s Random Acts! The series has just started and airs at midnight every Monday on Channel 4 with episodes available to watch online the day after transmission  – make sure to check them out!

Peter and Eleanor aren’t alone in their good news – we have now had all 23 of our Year 2 films acquired by Channel 4 for their online platforms! You can watch all of the completed films from Year 1 and 2 on this YouTube playlist – and make sure to keep checking back for the latest additions.

That’s all from us for now, but you can keep track of what we’re up to via our social media @RandomActsNorth and www.facebook.com/RandomActsNorth. If you want to learn more about some of our filmmakers’ highly individual processes for putting their Random Acts film together then check out our latest individual filmmaker blogs – we have more on the way, so see you soon!

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Now you can see their eclectic mixture of work at Playback, a new exhibition heading to Tyneside Cinema this summer.

Playback brings together over 200 short films made by young artist filmmakers in one exhibition. These award-winning short films capture and reflect on today’s world: from underground zine cultures, to urban communities and digital lives.

The interactive exhibition features individual touchscreens that let you choose your own films; and include drama, comedy, dance and spoken word.

Many of the films were originally made and produced in the North, including Alex Ayre’s ‘The Brink’ and choreographer Lizzie Klotz’s ‘To Suit’, where young people were given the support and funding to create a short film. Now, Playback gives you the chance to see the people, places and creativity of the region.

As well as being able to catch these new films, those interested in kick-starting a career in the creative industries can take part in Creative Futures, a two-day training and development event for young artist filmmakers aged 16-24. The event will feature masterclasses, workshops and panel talks with a range of professionals from the film and art world – including Catherine Bray, commissioning editor for Channel 4’s Random Acts, and Ian Smith, founder of BAFTA-winning TV Drama Workshop who nurtured young talent including Jack O’Connell and Vicky McClure – helping participants to build a successful professional profile, and develop skills in producing and directing new moving image work.

Tyneside Cinema’s Creative Director of Learning & Participation, Ian Fenton said:

“Playback offers a fantastic opportunity for people in the North East to see the incredible emerging filmmaking talent in the region, and in the UK in a truly immersive and interactive exhibition. We’re also thrilled to be able to present the Creative Futures programme which will help young and emerging artists to progress in their career.”

Random Acts filmmaker, Lizzie Klotz said:

“As a choreographer, Random Acts provided a unique opportunity to explore my interest in developing, creating and presenting my work on film, through the adaptation of my most recent live work To Suit.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the process of Random Acts, working alongside an experienced, supportive and passionate team at Tyneside Cinema and True North, who encouraged me to questions about my work, my practice and myself as an individual.

“Random Acts has been a great springboard for future work, providing a wealth of further opportunities for commissions, bursaries, workshops, internships and mentorships, including the Creative Futures event in July 2017.

I am hugely grateful for the support I have received through Random Acts.”

Playback in association with Random Acts previews on Friday 28 July from 17:30-19:30. The exhibition will then be available to visit for free from 29 July – 13 August, 11:00-21:00 at Tyneside Cinema. Find out more at www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/playback

Random Acts Creative Futures takes place over the weekend of Saturday 29 – Sunday 30 July for 16-19 year-olds. Weekend passes are £12/£6 for students and Young Tyneside members. Find out more at www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/creative-futures.

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Charlotte’s blog also has an exclusive preview of her Random Acts film ‘Cat Sitter Wanted’, which explores her personal anxiety at having to get her first part time job.

Read the blog post HERE.

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