The first learning, teaching and training meeting took place at the partner school in Campobasso, Italy, on March 11-17, 2018. The aim of the meeting was to acquire knowledge and skills related to script writing and film making techniques. The meeting was initiated by a welcome speech by the mayor of Campobasso, Mr. Antonio Battista. The mayor emphasized the importance of the participation of modern youth in international projects, thanks to which young people find themselves in various social and cultural situations, and thus broaden their worldview. In the next stage, the participants of the meeting were shown around the school, where they could learn about the specificity of the school, the subjects taught and the workshops. In addition, the students were involved in integration exercises, which resulted in overcoming shyness and awakening the spirit of work.
As part of the project, students showed fragments of two films prepared in their schools in their mother tongue, which discussed social problems important in their countries. Before presenting the films, the students briefly described and summarized the films. It should be mentioned that, in order to facilitate the reception and understanding of these fragments, students, while still in their schools, prepared a translation of the dialogues in English and placed them in the fragments presented. The screenings of the films were accompanied by strong emotions, as the fragments presented touched upon the characters’ delicate problems related to the difficult family situation, violence, discrimination, orphanage and disability. Then, the youth in international groups discussed the issues raised, shared their impressions after watching these films, and discussed the situations in which the protagonists of these films found themselves and their feelings. In terms of technical filmmaking, the focal point of the project activities were workshops and discussions in international groups on the following topics: highlighting the elements of the displayed films that make the film’s content and message clear and strongly impact the viewer; script writing including: time and place of action, plot, characters, dialogues, props; discussion of the principles of filming, including lighting, framing, the type of shots, i.e. the angle of the camera (lens at the level of the viewer’s eyes, shots “from a bird’s eye view”, “from a frog perspective”), filming techniques, eg panning and filming pace. During the visit to the film town “Cinecittà Shows Off” near Rome, the participants took part in a script writing workshop in accordance with the previously presented rules. In the cultural part, the hosts provided the participants with trips to the most popular tourist attractions of Campobasso and Rome: the Church of St. George, Church of St. Bartholomew, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Castle Castello, Museum Sannitico, Savoia Theater, Museum “Misteri”, Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and Fori Imperiali. After the meeting, the participants filled in a questionnaire prepared by the hosts, in which they assessed the meeting, its course, the quality of the content provided, the goals achieved and the atmosphere.
Workshops conducted at school and in a film town on the issues of filmmaking allowed students and teachers to gain technical knowledge on this subject, equipped them with the basic principles that will guide them while recording their films and made sure that by using the acquired knowledge they would be able to shoot good and valuable movies. Involvement of all participants in the activities and activities undertaken during the meeting allowed to jointly determine the course of further activities aimed at achieving the project’s goal and gave confidence that the project will be successfully completed. After returning to school, the participants of the trip shared with other members of the school project team their impressions from their stay at the partner school, the acquired knowledge and communicated what project activities should be undertaken in further work.
