It may be the summer holidays but students from several Gwent secondary schools have been hard at work on a three-day movie-making course at the University of Wales, Newport – creating promotional videos.

The youngsters were taking part in a summer school which uses digital media and programme-making to stimulate learning and develop media skills across schools in Wales.

Using the state-of the art facilities at the International Film School Wales (IFSW), they were challenged to make a short promotional video about the University and its facilities.

“We’re really enjoying making a video from scratch,” said 14-year-old Miya Knowles from Chepstow. "We’ve all learned that there’s more to film-making than you think - we had to do seven takes of someone walking through a door!”

“They've all had a wonderful time and really got a lot out of it,” said Laura Janes, one of the University’s First Campus co-ordinators. “Working in teams, they wrote a script and then went “on location” to film at various places around the campus.” 

The picture shows Cassie Gully from Chepstow Comprehensive School operating the camera under the watchful eye of Will Colthart, the Chepstow co-ordinator for Media4Schools. Rachel Wood and Jade Wilson run through the script before going for a “take”.