Marguerite (UVI - Year 13) gives a recount of her Virtual Work Experience week over October Half Term, run by the Goethe-Institut London, which gave her a chance to practise the language and learn a lot more about German film. She even had the opportunity to have a go at making a film together with other participants! We are very impressed with her commitment  and hope to get a sneak preview…

'The first day started with activities to get to know the other 20 participants and the film directors Judith Rifeser and Lynne Brackley. We split into breakout rooms to do this, so we could get to know each other more closely. In the second half of the day, we started to learn more about film through the film director Judith Rifeser, who explained to us how different lightings and environments can affect sound and lighting and we had a go at doing this ourselves by taking pictures using different lighting angles and also by recording sound in different spaces. I found it really interesting how different lighting highlighted certain aspects of the photos. On the second day we were offline and given independent activities. This time our challenges were based around using the apps 'SpeakPic' and 'Stop Motion Studio', as our final challenge would be to make a film about the topic of health. On the third day, we had the opportunity to watch some short films produced by the film director Sharlin Lucia and put questions to her in an interview. This was especially interesting as we watched her films on range of different topics including bullying and sexual assault and we were able to find out how she wanted to raise awareness through her films on these topics. In the afternoon we were given the chance to start planning our own films. Our group decided to create a film based on the impacts of COVID on young people focused around two German teenagers. As 'der Drehbuchleiter' I was in charge of writing the script for our group and had the opportunity to read it through with Judith to get her insight and feedback. On Friday, the last day, we interviewed the film director Emily Winkel and the curator and film critic Jan Künemund to find out more about their work. Then we finished off making our own film which included recording the script and making animations for our film. At the end of the day we said goodbye to everyone, but luckily we get to meet again on the 11th December to see the premiere of our film at the Goethe-Institut in London!'