Reel FilmmakinG

Welcome to Reel Filmmaking, our film production training brand within Reel Solutions. We run practical filmmaking courses designed to help you try out new creative skills, build your confidence, and find your path into the UK screen industries. We believe the next generation of filmmakers should come from all walks of life. If you have a passion for film and visual storytelling, we are here to help you get hands-on experience, make industry connections, and take your first steps. Our short, in person, introductory short course in film production will take place in Scarborough around the October half term holidays and offer year-long wraparound support to help you prepare to break into a career in the screen industries. 

Whether you want to take your very first steps or improve skills you already have, our courses are completely practical. As a participant, you will:

• Get hands-on experience: work with professional cameras, sound and editing gear

• Learn from pros: work directly alongside screen industry professionals

• Understand the industry: discover all the different job roles available behind the camera and beyond

• Join a network: become part of an alumni network with year round support and access to training opportunities such as the BFI Film Academy Specialist residential courses

Delivered at over 50 locations across the UK and supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, National Lottery, Screen Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen our introductory hands-on filmmaking courses help train and inspire the next generation of UK filmmakers, supporting talented and committed young people aged 16 to 19 (and up to aged 25  with an EHCP - Education, Health and Care Plan) to develop the commercial and cultural knowledge and skills to help kickstart a career in film. 

Working across the region in partnership with Showroom, Sheffield and Leeds Young Film, all participants from our Yorkshire and the Humber courses are offered year-round ongoing support and opportunities such as more courses to apply to and training schemes to help boost your chances of breaking into the screen industries. These include the week long BFI Film Academy’s intensive specialist residential courses designed to develop more specialist filmmaking skills. 

Reel Solutions have been running practical filmmaking courses since we started the business in 2011. The same year we piloted some of the first BFI Film Academies in the UK and have been delivering these annually ever since in a range of locations including Leeds, Bradford, Scarborough and Chester, which became the first Academy in the UK to focus on Virtual Reality (VR), Virtual Production and 360° filmmaking.  We ran BFI Film Clubs in Scarborough and Bradford for 12-15 year olds, and other practical courses for organisations including Into Film and local partners to enable young people to connect with their local film, TV, immersive screen and gaming industry networks. 

‘One of the most brilliant things I have done… it’s set me on the path for university’ 

‘…a very valuable, interesting and exciting experience that provided me with more knowledge about the practical side of filmmaking but also about the wider creative sector.’

‘BFI Film Academy just let me as a young British Muslim woman come and take part and welcomed me.’

‘The best experience for a young person who wants to lead diversity changes in the film industry. The BFI has given us the opportunity to show that people of colour can make a difference.’

Reel Solutions is a film-focused agency based in Yorkshire predominantly working with partners and clients in the screen industries. As well as our education work and practical filmmaking courses, we provide guidance and support to a range of local, national and international creative businesses and organisations. We offer a range of services including programming advice, a film booking service and event planning and delivery. Other services include evaluation, bid writing, project management services and support with strategic planning. Our clients include Labour of Love Films, Screen Yorkshire, Into Film, British Film Institute, Independent Cinema Office, Manchester Animation Festival, The Junction in Goole, Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and Cambridge Film Festival.

We have developed, and continue to run, our own projects. These include Day Schools, a specialised cultural cinema education programme running in venues in Bradford and online for those who enjoy watching and talking about film; Coast to Credits,  a one-day event held in Scarborough for the next generation of filmmakers, creative freelancers and small business owners to inspire and share practical information through panel sessions and networking opportunities; and Screenwaves, a rural cinema pilot which took the big screen to small community venues across North Yorkshire.