'Bill' to open education project Into Film

Into Film, a new UK-wide film learning programme, has launched.

Shakespeare comedy Bill, starring the cast of Horrible Histories, has been confirmed as the first film to take part in Into Film’s initiative ‘Green Light to Opening Night’.

The initiative will allow a selection of young people from schools and colleges across the UK to observe and report on different aspects of the film’s life from start to finish. Each area from behind-the-scenes will be turned into a series of video reports and interviews led by, featuring and presented by young people, allowing them to ask the questions they want to ask.

Bill star and writer Laurence Rickard said of the project: “We are tremendously excited to have Into Film reporters on set. We grew up loving film and so to have young people coming on set who also have got that same enthusiasm will be brilliant.”

The ‘Green Light to Opening Night’ project forms part of Into Films ambitious and inclusive ‘See, Think, Make. Imagine’ programme which aims to put film at the heart of children and young people’s learning, contributing to their educational, cultural, creative and personal development, and seeks to encourage and enable watching, making and critical understanding.

Training and resources will be provided to give teachers and youth leaders the tolls to support engagment at all levels and to promote the use of film as an education resource.

Key to the programme will be a new digital platform offering interactive modules, teaching and learning tools and tutorials delivered by leading industry practitioners. Currently in development, this will be phased in installments from autumn 2014.

Speaking at today’s launch at London’s Westminster Academy were Into Film chair Eric Fellner (co-chair of Working Title Films), CEO Paul Reeve, film director Beeban Kidron OBE and award-winning headteacher Sir Alasdair Macdonald. Kidron and Macdonald are Into Film trustees.

Fellner commented: “We are incredibly excited that we have been awarded the funding to deliver an ambitious and inspiring programme which is of scale, reach and quality. It is a substantial commitment by the BFI to film education and to future generations of young people.”

Supported by the BFI, together with funding from the film industry and a number of other sources, Into Film will incorporate the legacy and staff of two leading film education charities, FILMCLUB and First Light.

For more information about Into Film, visit its website.