Budding Spielbergs are ready to roll

A GROUP of Oldham youngsters have scooped lottery cash to work alongside professional film-makers to make their own movie.

A total of 17 girls — aged between 11 and 16 — from Robin Hill Youth Centre, Coldhurst, have been awarded £5,000 by First Light for the project co-ordinated by Cartwheel Arts.

First Light is a nationwide organisation based in Birmingham, which helps young people from all backgrounds develop their skills, talent, creativity and confidence by providing opportunities to work with industry professionals.

The budding Spielbergs were chosen as a result of their creative and inventive ideas. They are making an animation inspired by body image and negative thinking.

In the style of TV hit “Creature Comforts” the young people will create characters, based on themselves, who have varying negative views. In a bid to show how image isn’t everything, the characters will undergo a transformation from how they see themselves, to how others see them.

Emma Melling, from Cartwheel Arts, said: “Animation has been chosen as this gives the young people interviewed anonymity when talking about a subject which has caused them distress.

“By creating fun characters they can tackle a difficult subject which is important to them without causing offence.”

The youngsters will be involved with every aspect of the production process from drawing storyboards and writing the scripts to directing and lighting the films alongside industry professionals.

First Light chief executive Leigh Thomas said: “First Light gives young people the opportunity to tell their stories on film. The fantastic ideas we receive are grown from the young film-makers’ own imagination and innovation and tackle some very important issues relevant to them.”