Filmmaking CPD for Teachers

One day. Real tools. Big on-camera confidence.

When: 10:00–16:00 · Where: Cromer Studios, King’s Cross · Fee: £75

Lights. Camera. Classroom. Spend a day in our King's Cross studios and leave with a toolkit you can use the very next lesson. We'll bridge the gap between stage and screen, translating solid drama practice into filmmaking techniques your students can master with nothing more than a smartphone. You'll try the exercises, get behind the camera yourself, and learn exactly how to teach them - no film set required.

The MN Way (your north star)

Our approach is built on three Core Creative Objectives that make filmmaking teachable and progressive:

• The Audience's Eye: Control exactly what viewers see and when they see it - framing, movement, and the camera as storyteller.

• Storytelling Language: Know when words drive the narrative and when images do the talking - and teach students to choose deliberately.

• The Director's Vision: Develop authorial voice through consistent tone, genre awareness, and intentional creative choices.

Whether you're introducing filmmaking as a new strand or gearing up to deliver MN's graded exams, these objectives anchor everything you'll take away.

The Day at a Glance

1) Stage vs Screen: Directing the Eye and Why It Matters On stage, the audience can look anywhere. On screen, you decide. We'll unpack how blocking, framing, and camera placement replace traditional staging and how to explain it to students in plain English.

2) Practical: The One-Shot & Coverage-Based Methods Get hands-on with the two foundational filming approaches that underpin our entire syllabus. You'll shoot a one-shot sequence and a multi-angle edit, feeling the difference between sustained choreography and the flexibility of coverage.

3) Pre-Production That Actually Gets Used ABTs, storyboards, shot lists, and production plans - we'll show you how to teach these tools so they genuinely shape the filming day rather than gathering dust in a folder.

4) Camera Confidence: Shots, Movements & Building a Visual Vocabulary Work through MN's shot types and camera movements reference list from basic through to advanced. You'll practise pans, tilts, tracking shots, and Dutch angles - and learn how to introduce each tier progressively across the grades.

5) Guerrilla Filmmaking: Low-Budget Brilliance Wheelchair dollies, broomstick booms, torchlight through sweet wrappers - creative techniques that prove you don't need Hollywood to deliver professional-looking results. We'll cover intentional lighting, DIY sound recording, and the "hand clap" sync method.

6) Core Creative Objectives, in Practice We connect the dots across all three levels so you can plan, teach, and assess filmmaking with clarity - from a Year 4 student's first one-shot through to a Grade 8 learner's layered sound design.

7) The Director's Analytical Commentary: Teaching Reflection How to prepare students for the post-production commentary that sits at the heart of Level 3 - turning conscious creative choices into articulate, confident self-evaluation.

Don't just listen to us, take a look at our reviews ...

Sarah Hitchin | Act First

Krystina Westall | WTA

Shannon Parker | Magna Academy

Emily Edwards | Stagecoach Ringwood

Why we know you/your staff will love it

• Hands-on and classroom-ready.

• Fits any drama curriculum: Use it to enrich existing schemes or scaffold MN’s graded exams.

• Community: Swap ideas with fellow educators and steal - sorry, adopt - their best tips.

Places are limited. Book your day, bring your curiosity, and leave with a plan.