Elyse Lord is one of the participants on our tenth BFI Film Academy (2021). Having come almost to the end of the course, we asked her about her experience of the academy…
When starting HOME’s BFI Film Academy I was really nervous yet excited as I knew this would really help me to get a grip into the film industry. During the film academy, I’ve learnt a lot about the process you need to go through in order to create a film. This started on week one when we were taught a few different ways to think of an idea. We shared a lot of ideas and everyone collaborated on each others. This was a really fun experience as I am very creative and like to think of ‘outside of the box’ ideas.
The following week we started film theory sessions which explained the history of film and how the developing of technology allowed films and their genres to develop too.
The shoot week during the film academy was amazing as we got to see our ideas come to life whilst using equipment we had never heard of or experienced before.
Some of the challenges which I have had during the film academy were thinking of ideas to add to existing ones as I didn’t always want to go down the basic route, but if you work as a team with everyone else this is easily overcome. The film academy has been a great opportunity and I have met some amazing people who have had such good ideas and have helped me develop mine. By doing the film academy I believe that I will have more opportunities in the future and also more knowledge when it comes to working in the film industry.