For the 2022 – 2023 edition of Pic ‘n’ Mix we’ve chosen the theme of ‘Flip the Script: Finding ourselves in the Stories that Make Our World’. Through poetry, performance and storytelling, local school pupils will explore how their own personal narratives link to those of different places and times, and how our collective histories impact the world we live in today. 

As ever, we’ll be using film and movie-making techniques to help the children think about their own personal and communal stories, encouraging them to reflect on whether they see themselves in their given topics, culminating in the creation of their own short film.

Kicking off in autumn term

Alongside the films local school children work on, Pic ‘n’ Mix features an ambitious programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), film festivals, takeovers and after school activities, all focused on providing enriching cinema and film education for students.

Teachers explore stop motion animation techniques during a CPD workshop.

Our programme started back in September 2022 with the first of three CPD workshops focusing on the different aspects of filmmaking and film literacy: writing, production and animation. Some 13 educators attended, experimenting with how they can use movie making and associated art forms in their classrooms.

A CPD session exploring filmmaking skills behind and in front of the camera.

In September our first session was a collaboration with Tower Hamlets’ Schools Library Service, highlighting the importance of children seeing themselves in the stories they read, watch and create. The SLS offers extensive resources for engaging in stories from all over the world and provides excellent book choices for schools. Teachers were given the chance to reflect on stories and books from their own lives and childhoods. Our Associate Artists Amani Saeed and Mr Gee then led a writing workshop where our teachers reflected on their writing practice and how free writing can inspire creativity in the classroom. 

In autumn and spring we hosted two festivals with Into Film. The first one in November saw 700 children from local schools visit our building to watch The Croods 2, Minions and the Rise of Gru and The Bad Guys. The schools were given resources from Into Film to continue discussions in the classrooms, such as classic villains (like the big bad wolf) wishing to go against the stereotypes put upon them. This allowed for the pupils to discuss stereotypes and how the film ‘flips the script’ on these. 

As part of Into Film we organised a Kids in Museums Takeover Day where pupils from Virginia Primary School were invited to come behind the scenes of our working cinema to learn how our building runs. We also held our first Pic ‘n’ Mix After School Film Club, running on a weekly basis during term time. 

In December our second and third CPD workshops were led by Robin from our partners at Into Film and focused on practical filmmaking and animation techniques. These workshops were a great chance to embrace the format as the teachers got a chance to dress in costumes, play with props and get creative using various animation styles. Each session involved hands-on filmmaking and they ended the day with a work in progress film to be proud of. It is such an important experience for the teachers to have a chance to experiment and play with filmmaking so they can better understand the methods and engage with their students throughout the programme. It’s also a refreshing opportunity for them to be silly and playful while creating a film!

Thank you so much for your warm welcome to Rich Mix yesterday. We really appreciate all that you did to make all our pupils feel included. The trip was really important to us as we have had so few opportunities to take all the pupils out together. They had a great time and were still buzzing about the film today!
St.Paul's Way Trust teacher attending Into Film Festival '22

And into spring…

In spring we welcomed hundreds of students back to our cinemas for the next Into Film Festival. Our free screenings included Raya and the Last Dragon, WALL-E, Song of the Sea, The Boxtrolls, Queen of Katwe and Matilda the Musical. For the Matilda screening we were joined by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and Into Film, who led a workshop discussing how ratings were set and why Matilda was rated as it was. An interesting discussion followed about rules and who gets to set them. This screening was so much fun and our building was full of singing as the schools left happily after the film.  

 

Diving into spring term workshops

After the winter break, January, February and March have been a full-on schedule of workshops in schools. The first featured our Associate Artists Mr Gee and Amani Saeed leading writing and performance sessions to generate ideas. These were followed by film workshops on pre-production, filming and editing. 

Young people were delightfully surprising in the way they responded to the theme of ‘Flip the Script.’ We transformed texts like ’The Highwayman’ into explorations of how we can protect the things we love, took inspiration from animals, talked about our dreams, and found the fun in poetry.
Amani Saeed

I think that one of the most interesting conversations that I had during one of our sessions was around the idea of ‘fairness’ and ‘injustice’. Marner School had been studying the The matchgirls’ strike of 1888 at the Bryant & May match factory. But the conversation was quickly brought forward to the present day strikes in 2023 (transport, nurses, teachers etc). Some of the young people were acutely aware of the conditions that bring about such actions because it was affecting them in real-time. The ability to see a correlation between a historical event and the present day was most impressive.
Mr Gee

With such a creative brief for this year’s films, there have been some fantastic ideas coming through from the sessions so far, ranging from animal extinction, protest, equal rights and the hidden figures of history. These include:

  • A class who are studying the topic of ‘Settlers and Invaders’ are looking at various conflicts throughout history and how we need to learn lessons from the past to be more welcoming and kind in the future.  
  • A class who have read the myth ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ are making a film about how the Minotaur is actually good and is only stereotyped as a monster: really he is quite shy and just wants to have some friends! 
  • A group discussing Dreams and Goals as part of their PSHE curriculum are creating a fantastical film about dreams and nightmares and how we believe in ourselves to make our goals come true. 

Getting ready for summer term sharing and film festivals

Now that the films are taking shape, the pupils are considering post-production edits and finishing touches for their movies. They will then be screened at our big carpet premiere in our cinemas in June, for the Tower Hamlets Primary Film Festival. 

I’ll be excited to see all of the ideas that the young people have to offer. I love doing Pic ‘n’ Mix because I learn so much from doing it. There were several deconstructions of the terms ‘settlers’ and ‘invaders’, even the idea of protecting a poem from being destroyed was acted out in one of the classes. I really can’t wait to see the final productions!
Mr Gee
I’m excited to see how these young writers have turned their ideas into words, and their words into movies.
Amani Saeed

Hearing back about the programme so far

Some children have really identified with the script-writing process and as such, I have extra scripts which have been completed as additional homework to read. Other children are already designing costumes for their ideas of Invaders and Settlers while some other children were truly captivated by the filming process yesterday and asking to film mini-movies in class already. Thanks so much again for all your expertise, guidance and help!
Year 5 teacher
Thank you so much for today! The children loved it and were so proud of how much they were able to achieve. It was amazing for me to see their knowledge of film making grow and their awareness of how shadows can impact on filming. It was also fantastic for them to use real film making language when recording (quiet on set, etc.) to build their vocabulary and understanding of how film and television sets operate. Thank you for your hard work!
Mayflower teacher – Year 5

We’re looking forward to sharing the films with you when they’re ready – watch this space!

Find out more about this year’s Flip The Script programme.

Watch 2020’s Green Tower Hamlets compilation film.

Watch 2021’s My Story, Our Story compilation film.

Watch 2022’s The Future Is Ours compilation film.

The Pic ‘n’ Mix programme is delivered in partnership with THAMES (Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service), Into Film and supported by THAMES, Derwent London, The Portal Trust, Travers Smith and The Merchant Taylors’ Foundation.