How to use this site

Film Street has been designed to engage primary aged children with film culture and filmmaking. The ultimate aim of Film Street is to encourage children to make their own films - with a little bit of help from you!

How does it work?

Children enter Film Street by clicking on the zoetrope, they can then choose to be guided through their journey by Nicky or they can 'switch her off' and explore The Street in whichever order they like.

Film Street is made up of eight buildings for children to explore.

The Cinema

The Cinema has three screens where children can watch short films on their computer using a Quick Time player. You can visit the Technical Info page to find out how to download Quick Time free.

In Children's Films they'll be inspired by the work of other children, in World Cinema they'll see foreign language films and films made outside of Hollywood, and in Trailers they can watch clips from current mainstream releases.

The purpose of the Cinema is to increase the range of film that children see and inspire them to make their own films.

Reviewing Films

After watching each film, children are encouraged to review it by commenting on the story and how the film was made.

We hope that they will learn to identify the filmmaking techniques they have learned about on Film Street and comment on these in their reviews. They can then use this knowledge to help them plan their own films.

The rest of Film Street

The other buildings on Film Street have been designed to teach children filmmaking techniques and skills. Each building is dedicated to a particular element of filmmaking.

When a child enters a new building they will be greeted by a character. They can click on Glossary linked filmmaking terms and glowing objects to learn about that element of filmmaking. There are film clips in each building that show filmmaking techniques being used and there's an interactive game that enables children to practise what they have learned online before they have a go with the camera!
The Scrapbook

If children have registered and logged in all the results of their interactive games can be saved in their own online Scrapbook and accessed each time they visit Film Street. On each page of the Scrapbook there are also downloadable activity sheets with exciting tasks that children can do away from the computer to reinforce their learning.

To access the activity sheets, download Adobe Reader here.

The Library

The Library is where children can find out more about film, it has sections dedicated to areas that aren't covered elsewhere in the site: Documentary, Adaption (Fiction), Music and Behind the Scenes (film exhibition and distribution). Each section contains articles, film clips and downloadable activities.

The Library also contains a Glossary explaining the meaning of the filming terms used throughout the site, and children can read the best bits from the Film Mag again in the Greatest Film Mag Articles section.

The Film Mag

Film Mag contains reviews of the latest film releases, details of film festivals, profiles and interviews with top filmmaking professionals and competitions.

Giving children a voice in a safe environment

The Your News section of the Film Mag and the Message Board are the spaces created on Film Street for children's feedback. We'd like children to email us to tell us all about the filmmaking they have been doing and the films they've been watching.

Film Street is moderated by CRB checked moderators so these areas of the site provide a safe forum for children to express themselves. Children are not able to chat directly with another person on the Message Board and no images of children will be uploaded onto the site unless a signed permission form has been received from a parent or guardian. All content is checked to ensure it contains no offensive language, email addresses, telephone numbers, or web addresses.

Accessibility

There is a link to the Glossary at the top of very page of Film Street to enable users to check the meaning of any of the filming terms they are unsure of.

Children who are not yet fluent readers will need the text on the site read to them. There is a link to the Accessibility page above the search box and here you can download Browse Aloud™, a free plug in that will automatically read out the non Flash text on the site. Browse Aloud can also translate the text into a range of European languages.

The colour settings of the non Flash content on the site can also be changed to make the text more accessible for Dyslexic or visually impaired users.

We also have two audio described films in our online cinema - 'Ice Cream Dreams' and 'Lions are Green' which can be found in the World Cinema section. We are planning to add more audio described films to Film Street in the future.

Downloads

The following downloads give a more detailed description of each location on Film Street: the online and offline activities children can complete, the knowledge and skills we hope they will develop and details about how these activities meet the requirements of the Primary Framework for Literacy, the National Curriculum and the BFI's film education document 'Look Again'.

Download Adobe Reader here.