The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is recognising the social media skills of young people by running programs to build them into full-size film-making.
Angela Blake, who leads the smartphone film-making workshops at NIDA’s public program, NIDA Open, said parents were well aware that their children were skilled smartphone users, digital natives and technologically savvy.
“They know their children inhabit a constantly connected, online world of video content,” Ms Blake said.
“What many don’t realise is that young people are also constantly creating content, especially video content, for their friends and social networks using YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and other apps.”
She said two of the most popular courses at NIDA were Go Viral – Presenting for primary school children who wanted to be online presenters, and Smartphone to Big Screen, a smartphone film-making workshop for secondary school students.
“These online presenting and smartphone film-making workshops train children and young people in the specific skills required to become influential storytellers in the age of video content,” Ms Blake said.
She said that for smartphone film-making, NIDA Open delivered “an inspiring and educational program that left young people feeling proud and amazed by the calibre their films could reach with a little structure and training”.
She said anyone could pick up a smartphone and shoot.
“That is what you see on YouTube, and some of it is good but a lot of it is amateur and doesn’t get watched by people,” Ms Blake said.
“If you want your story to get watched, to be a film-maker or a YouTube sensation, you do need to be trained.”
