Young Thame Film Makers Get Tips From The Pros. (Contributed)

ROBERT Perkins, TV actor from Where the Heart Is, Dalziel and Pascoe and Rosemary and Thyme, taught top tips for TV acting to the youngsters taking part in the video workshop at Thame Youth Centre last week. “It was a brilliant workshop, I wish there could be opportunities like it for all the children in UK – I really enjoyed myself!” said Robert before dashing off the the Libary Theatre in Manchester where he is to star in “Dancing at Lughnasa”

The young film makers, who were aged between 13 – 18, made short films; a comedy about a drunken fairy and a mix up in voices, a Monster movie and “Don” a black and white short about mafia killing.
“It was really cool!” said Matt Harris (14). “Robert showed us how to make the fight look really good, with great angles for the shots.” They shot some of the monster movie, “True Blue” in Thame; heads turned as people caught site of aliens shopping at the Co-op and Essences in the Buttermarket.

Their films were then shown at Thame Cinema with “Dodge Ball”, and the audience laughed along, not realising the behind-the-scenes dash to get it edited in time. “The Thame Welfare Trust have supported us very generously,” said BBC producer Margie Barbour, “as has the Thame Partnership. The kindness of Paddock Video in still lending us editing equipment so soon after Gordon Surman’s sad death was especially generous.”

Margie Barbour led the workshop with Gavin Slaughter and Leone Lachlan, and Lord Williams’s audio-visual wizard, Jeremy Palmer, supported the group technically. All the young peoples’ one minute movies will be on the BBC Oxford web site at www.bbc/oxford/films.co.uk The workshops were part of OFVM’s SummerScreen project.