For a week in August, Norwich Research Park welcomed the UK’s first ever STEM film academy. We teamed up with Norwich-based documentary maker, Eye Film, to give 20 young people who want to get into the film industry the opportunity to participate in a week-long project to make four mini-documentaries about some of the science and companies on our campus.
Funded by a grant from the Hornsea 3 Skills fund, the academy, run by Eye Film, gave the youngsters, aged between 16-24 from Norfolk and Suffolk, an introduction to the practical filmmaking and storytelling skills they would need to make a film as well as training on how to use the equipment and mentoring on how to get the best shot, sound and editing.
At the start of the week, the group of 20 young people was split into four cohorts of five, with each cohort being assigned two members of the Eye Film production team to oversee, mentor and train them for the entire week.
On Monday, the whole group was briefed at our Centrum building and given a rapid introduction to the film and recording equipment. After just half an hour they were sent out to make an interview-based film with one of their group. Then each cohort was given the subject for their documentary film and asked to start planning.
The four groups of young people were assigned to make films of three of the companies on the Park and one of the institutes:
- Colorifix makes sustainable dye from plants’ and animals’ DNA
- Tropic has developed a variant of the Cavendish banana that stays fresh and white 24 hours after it is peeled
- Alora is developing rice traits that can be grown in extremely high temperature environments and on the surfaces of the world’s oceans
- Three female researchers from the Earlham Institute who are using biotechnological approaches to research plant, animal and human health
On Tuesday, the cohorts met with the people they were going to interview, to brief them on what to expect and to find out ‘the story’ behind that person’s work.
Wednesday was filming day with the cohorts conducting in-building interviews supplemented by B-roll in labs and outside.
Thursday and Friday were dedicated to the edit before the films were shown on Friday afternoon to great acclaim at the John Innes Conference Centre.
One of the participants summarised her experience superbly, “Before I came on this film academy week I didn’t really get involved much in science as I thought it was beyond me. Now, having seen what goes on at Norwich Research Park, I am hooked and am going to see if I can change my A level topics to include at least one science as I would like to work in the sort of environment in the future”.
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership, said “It was a wonderful experience for all of us involved to see the dedication and effort that the young people put into this challenging project and the remarkably professional films that they produced after just one week! We hope that they are proud of what they have achieved and that their interest in science and research will continue”.
The films will be screened at a special event at Cinema City in Norwich, along with a Q&A panel on Wednesday 3rd September 4.15-5.15pm. It’s free to attend, you just need to register here for your ticket: Norwich Research Park on Film Tickets, Wed 3 Sep 2025 at 16:15 | Eventbrite.
