This week we launch an exciting collaboration with The Young Women’s Film Academy (YWFA), a Newcastle-based charity dedicated to empowering girls and young women through filmmaking. This partnership aims to enhance efforts to promote diversity and inclusion within the screen industries.

We are holding a dedicated taster workshop event on 7th March at our Newport Road campus, to celebrate International Women’s Day. This event is designed to inspire and empower female-identifying students from secondary schools who are interested in careers within the film, TV, and digital media industries.

We are welcoming around 90 students to campus, the event will include:

✅ Three dedicated workshops delivered by the Young Women’s Film Academy
✅ A guided tour of our facilities
✅ A talk on creative industries and career pathways
✅ An industry panel Q&A featuring professionals from the sector

Industry Panel Members

Heather Luke – Lead Filmmaker 
Runs the majority of the Wander studio shoots.  Film, lighting, sound and interviewing. she also edit the videos and her job involves a lot of problem solving and creative thinking.

Alice Toth – Creative Babes Club
Creative Babes Club is a community that gives space for your creative wellbeing, your creative ideas and to grow your creative circles. Alice, founder of the ‘club and a once *overwhelmingly* burnout and anxious creative, knows how uncreative we can feel… and how as life is life-ing, and our to-do list gets longer… our creativity can take a back seat.

Through ‘creative networking’, cup-filling workshops and community events, Creative Babes Club are creating spaces and opportunities for North East ‘creative babes’ to nurture their creative wellbeing. With creatives who get. it. The only “club code”: come exactly as you are in your creative ‘ebbs and flows’.

Harriet Langan – VisualSoft
Harriet Langan is a commercial videographer and photographer based in the North East. She has 8+ years experience shooting a wide variety of content including promotional adverts and imagery, testimonials, how-tos and demonstrations, social-focussed videos and brand awareness pieces. Over the last 5 years she’s been part of the Visualsoft team, where she’s progressed from Creative Media Assistant to video Production Lead. This role requires the wearing of many hats; including creative planning, shot list and storyboard creation, liaising with clients, filming and post-production. Harriet has worked on campaigns for Jayley Collection, Charles Clinkard, I Love Cosmetics and many more.

Harriet is super passionate about creative industries and loves to champion them whenever she gets the chance, whether it be delivering a talk to aspiring filmmakers or working with educational providers to develop course content that’s really relevant.

Caris Rianne – Rianne Pictures x Women X Film Festival and Events
Caris founded Rianne Pictures in 2013 and has written and directed over 10 short films, along with her award winning feature Demi. She’s a development producer and has mentored over 30 filmmakers since 2021 through RP: Evolve and Creative UK, along with developing all of their scripts plus countless others. She’s a film programmer and judge for Keswick Film Festival and does programming and operations for Sunderland Shorts Film Festival when she’s not directing the BIFA accredited Women X Film Festival for which she was nominated for the Makers and Shakers award for ‘Shaker of the year’. Her original podcast Not Having It All was featured on BBC Sounds and named Film Podcast of the month by Film Stories. She is a frequent speaker at events including BFI Southbank and universities across the UK.

Rhiannon Banks – YWFA – Programme Lead: Talent and Skills Development
Rhiannon has been working freelance with the Young Women’s Film Academy since the end of 2022. They come from a photography background. Mainly specialising in music, documentary and portraiture photography. You can usually find Rhiannon photographing a band at a local venue. They work freelance have helped run photography studios and been a photographers assistant.

Caitlin Wright – Social Account Manager – Her job involves thinking creatively about marketing, anything from Tik Tok to online advertisements. She works closely with clients to make their digital marketing align with their overall goals.  She also collaborates with graphic designers and the production team, as they bring visuals to life for social media.

Grace Davis – Project Manager/Production coordinator – Grace’s job involves managing projects from start to finish.  I manage pre-production and post production stages, making sure the client’s brief is hit and deadlines are met.  On the TV side, I coordinate productions in pre-production, making sure the production has everything it needs for the shoots, including paperwork, locations and crew.

Jane Havakin – Senior Lecturer – BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation with Design
Prior to her academic career, Jane was self-employed for 10 years supplying costumes to film, TV, a variety of clothing outlets worldwide and performance costumes to a variety of artists, including the Spice Girls. She also worked with various television wardrobe departments, including Channel 4 – designing and making outfits for a number of presenters for programmes including Changing Rooms, The Big Breakfast and ITV – supplying costumes for The Bill. Jane ran her own clothing label, supplying fashions to a variety of clothing outlets worldwide, including Galleries Lafayette Paris and Harrods as well as a number of concession shops in John Lewis and Top Shop’s flagship store on Oxford Street.

Camilla Fox – Casting Agent
Camilla Fox has worked in film & TV for over 29 years as a casting agent, and has also worked as a location manager. She has worked on TV shows like The Dumping Ground, Byker Grove, Emmerdale and Vera. She has also worked with the likes of Ant and Dec and Sam Fender.

Beth Connolly – YWFA – Programme Lead – Community Engagement and Wellbeing
Working as a freelance Filmmaker and Videographer for companies in and around Yorkshire and Lancashire Beth has been active in the industry and gaining experience since 2017. Beth has worked for production companies in and out of the UK since 2016, including a year studying screen acting at the Bow St Academy for Screen Acting in Dublin in 2018. Beth specialises in Documentary and unscripted content, and strongly believes that when it comes to filmmaking, this is a platform that should be used by underrepresented communities that are in need of a space to stand and be heard. Social activism through filmmaking is an area they are very motivated by.

Workshops Overview

IMPACT Workshop – Focus on digital/live responses to fast fashion and climate change, including a screening of IMPACT and creative response activities.
Casting for Film & TV Workshop – Led by Camilla Fox (Fox Casting), covering TV, film, and commercial auditioning, industry insights, self-promotion, and professional conduct.
Mosaic Workshop – Based on the film Mosaic, this session explores identity, acceptance, and kindness through storytelling and drama-based activities

If you are interested in studying film at college level we have offer a fantastic career focused diploma that allows students to develop the skills and experience needed to start an exciting career in the film industry. Find out more here.