大象传媒

A short film made by a group of teenagers in Devon is to be submitted for a national award.

Lost Roots is an eight minute film made by members of MED Theatre's Wild Night Young Company, in collaboration with Coombeshead College, Newton Abbot.

Moretonhampstead-based MED Theatre had the help of professional mentors including Mick Catmull, who works for 大象传媒 Television in Plymouth.

He helped guide the young film-makers aged 13-18 as they filmed the movie during school holidays and weekends.

"I've made a lot of films with young people, and these are the most talented bunch of young film-makers I've ever ever worked with," said Mick.

"The cameraman, David Stewart-Watson, did all the camera work himself, operating manually throughout, and I couldn't spot a single shot out of focus."

Most of the filming was done amid the spectacular scenery at Yarner Wood - Natural England's nature reserve on Dartmoor.听 The rest of the film was shot in Moretonhampstead.

The film was premiered at Coombeshead College

The film is funded by First Light Movies, which was set up to unearth talented young film-makers across the country.

Each year, First Light Movies holds an award ceremony in London for the best films, and Lost Roots will be competing for one of the prizes.

The story of Lost Roots centres on a Bosnian refugee and her friends.

While on Dartmoor, the teenagers witness a local forest ranger systematically removing all non-native trees.

The role of the Bosnian refugee is played by 15-year-old Bozena Petroshich, who was born in Bosnia and now lives in Plymouth.

The film was premiered at a special showing at Coombeshead College.

One of the film-makers, Jamie Holding, 17, said: "Rain was a constant hindrance to filming but we seized every moment to continue planning the rest of the filming.

"All the hard work, dedication and early mornings were well worth the result of seeing it on the big screen with an audience."

The story for the film was based on a play, titled Roots, that the young people wrote and performed as part of MED Theatre's Wild Nights Young Company in 2005. The script for the movie was written in Spring 2007.

Rae Hoole, community media arts officer at Coombeshead College, said: "We're very pleased with the film. Everyone is very proud about it.

"We haven't won a First Light award before, but we are quite optimistic this might win an award.

"It's a quality piece of work, and it's all the work of the youngsters. They had expert mentoring, but it's genuinely their work - they wrote it, shot it, edited it.

"It's a real pleasure to see the quality of what is being produced."

Coombeshead College has previously produced two other young people's films, Talisman in 2005 and Street Rat in 2006, with the aid of First Light Movies funding.

* Lost Roots won an award at the MotionPlymouth film competition in November 2007.