Alice During from Radio 5live shared her programme-making skills with teenagers creating a short film about the online hazards of blossoming relationships.  She worked with the advisory service Brook which was a successful applicant through BBC Outreach’s Community Doorway programme. 4y3249

In the second of two different blogs from the project, Alice writes about her volunteering experience.

‘It certainly has made me rethink any hesitation I may have felt when working with this age group’

I wanted to volunteer because I wanted an opportunity to connect with harder-to-reach audiences in the community, so working with Brook was the perfect project. They wanted help to make an informative engaging, film that would be made by, and appeal to, young people aged 15 years upwards who were starting out in finding a relationship. And I wanted to try my hand at making a short-form film with this teenage audience.

At the start we scoped the idea with a group of teenagers, who were at first reluctant to open up about their love-lives, but by the end of our afternoon we had possible volunteers to star in the project.

We spent a couple of evenings drawing up an outline and story-board for a drama script and decided to have two parallel stories with different outcomes similar in concept to the film Sliding Doors.

Then we fleshed out the concept and scripted the story and finally had one last meeting to finalise the shooting plan and locations. In the edit, we would be using graphics and on-screen text messages, Sherlock-style.

I was impressed with the enthusiasm and hunger of the young people to throw themselves into the task.

We had 14 teenagers to direct in two separate stories, working multi-location all in one day. The night before filming I was looking forward to it, but with some trepidation.

The day itself was challenging – in a good way. My colleague Becky Bailey and I were filming a fictional blind date on a rainy morning in Ordsall, Salford, at a school, a café and at MediaCityUK.

There was plenty of good-natured banter and the young people took direction well. They didn't complain when asked to do another take or try it a different way next time - even when I was asking them to try it again a different way on a cold rainy morning in the park.

Our teenage team was well behaved, co-operative, patient and enthusiastic - all done with good grace and humour, and I was amazed by their professional attitude – even asking if they were clear so they could go back to class.

I am confident the project has not only produced a film that delivered all that was asked for by Brook, but was a positive and worthwhile experience for all involved.

It certainly has made me rethink any hesitation I may have initially felt when it comes to working with this age group and would gladly do another project.

I certainly learnt a lot about putting together a short-form film from blank paper to final edit. I can’t wait for my next assignment!

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.

Becky Bailey shared her production skills with teenagers to help make a film focusing on safety online in romantic relationships. She worked with the advisory service Brook which was a successful applicant through BBC Outreach’s Community Doorway programme.  

In the first of two different blogs from the project, Becky writes about her experience. 

'I use my improved understanding of this audience every day'  

Last month I found myself shooting a scene in the drizzle with a team of talented teens intent on getting everything just right. I’ve had some limited experience as a self-shooter, but my portable little Canon XA10 was a far cry from the thoroughly professional XF305 I was having trouble lifting.

I was freezing, sneezing but glowing with happiness. This was it, I thought to myself. I love my job but this is something else. A change is certainly as good as a rest!

At the time, you would usually find me comfortably indoors. I entered the BBC as a team assistant with Bitesize, which required me to re-code content and migrate it to the new website.

However, I saw the advert for the Outreach programme and immediately wanted to chip in, if only for a day. Outreach have been working alongside Brook, the young people’s sexual health and wellbeing charity, to create something entirely new - a piece of online video content focusing on safety in online relationships. This was content that would make a real difference to someone’s life and, most importantly, might keep them safe.

The wonderful thing about this kind of project was that Outreach and Brook decided it should be created by the very audience it tries to reach. Nearby teenage students in Salford made the project possible with some fantastic creative ideas for Outreach to flesh out and some indefatigable acting to boot.

I do love a challenge and I feel really gratified when I have pushed myself, so learning a new skill, such as handling a new camera, and working with a new team of colleagues and audiences seemed ideal.

I got stuck in with writing the script, assisting Allison Hinds the Outreach project manager and staff volunteer, Alice During from Radio 5live - they both had a wealth of experience in creating content.

As I had only just ed the BBC, I was very keen but had limited experience of bringing a larger project together and so I learned a great deal from them both.

I’ve never worked so closely on a project with young people and their energy and enthusiasm for the short film really spurred me on to do the best job I could. BBC Outreach are incredibly ive and friendly. Not only do they want the best for the young people involved, but they want their volunteers to be 100% comfortable and happy with their work, too.

By the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted but I knew we had enough footage to create something special. It was a real team effort. The young people involved made the entire project completely worthwhile; they had a new way of approaching certain narrative problems and were a constant source of inspiration - we just couldn't have done it without them. They should be very proud of their contributions to the project throughout.

Since volunteering, I've taken the next step with my BBC career and I am now a researcher with Childrens Interactive. Needless to say, my work with the teenagers has been so valuable.

I use my improved understanding of this audience everyday as I strive to make exciting content for the CBBC website and I think volunteering has given me an edge, both in of creating online content and in understanding our audiences better.

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.