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Filming Our Greatest Generation

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30/06/2015

BBC Two - Filming Our Greatest Generation

Ten top tips on how to film our greatest generation are demonstrated by schoolchildren.

Ten top tips on how to film our greatest generation are demonstrated by schoolchildren. Each rule is also illustrated with examples of good filmmaking from all over Britain.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War 2, schoolchildren all over the country took part in an exciting project linked to the BBC2 series Britain's Greatest Generation, which told the life stories of some extraordinary last survivors from the Second World War, now in their nineties and hundreds.

With help from the charity Into Film the children were given the chance to make short life-story films about elderly people in their community. To help them, wonderful archive film was made available by the British Film Institute and the British Council.

It proved to be an exciting and important project and one that Steve Humphries, the producer and director of the BBC2 series, wants to encourage. He works with a young film crew to illustrate the ten top tips on how to make a good life story film. He is joined by young schoolchildren Maya, Maisie, Oliver and Max who he helps to make their own film interviewing an extraordinary survivor from WW2, Fergus Anckorn. 

Fergus - once the youngest member of the Magic Circle and now at 96 the oldest - tells the story of how he survived as a prisoner of war in the Far East by using magic. Each top tip - for example, choosing an interesting character, interviewing them well, achieving good picture and sound, and the importance of editing, archive film and music in making a life story film are all explained. Each rule is illustrated with examples of good film-making taken from schools who took part in the Make Film Greatest Generation project. 

We see a wide range of stories in which children interviewed fascinating local characters. Some recalled serving their country during the war, like Arctic Convoy survivor and gunner Austin Byrne. But most of those filmed were children in the war and they vividly remember evacuation, bombing raids and food rationing. 

For everyone who took part in the Greatest Generation project it was a richly rewarding experience - educational, informative and above all lots of fun for all involved.

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