The showing of films such as Next, Attack of the Clones, Bullies, Freaks and Geeks and The Wisdom Tree was attended by parents and friends, with workshop leader Brendan Toole full of praise for the films and their directors. 

“The kids have been unbelievable over the last three days. They’re just a credit to themselves and their families with how much hard work they put into the workshop,” he said. 

Mr Toole said part of the workshop was about helping the kids realise that they didn’t need fancy equipment and expensive software to be able to create a film on their own, rather they could use the technology they had around them. 

“They filmed their movies on iPads using iMovie, it was as easy as that for them,” he said. “Now they’ve got the skills and now some of the techniques, all they need is a great idea to create their next film.” 

Each of the students worked from 9am to 5pm on their movies, filming, acting, editing, re-writing scripts and putting it all together - just like they would have done on a film set but on a smaller scale. 

Each of the four groups taking part in the workshop all had amazing ideas for their films according to Mr Toole with evil clones, a talking tree, nerds and geeks, and a peanut butter ad audition all making the final cut. 

“I really enjoyed learning about different camera angles and filming techniques that go into making a film and then being able to put them into practice,” Next actor and director Grace McLean said. 

As well as showing the four student made films, movie goers were able to watch two documentaries made by the kids about the knowledge they had gained from taking part in the workshop. 

Mr Toole said that each of the young directors now had the knowledge they needed to enter their films in the Tropfest Junior and Mudfest short film festivals.