At the Graduation Ceremony on Friday, held in Balliol College, the students at the Film Academy in Jowett Walk will present to the rest of their class the films that they have been preparing throughout the week. This is an exciting but perhaps slightly daunting task— it is as well that they seem to be making excellent progress.

Yesterday, the Film Academy students were behind the camera once again, making use of the scenery and corridors of Jowett Walk to craft their short productions. They have split into two groups: one is working on a film called ‘The Pill’, and another on one called ‘Lucky Twig’. The Pill has been described to us in a way that makes it seem rather inspired by a combination of the 2003 Lindsay Lohan film Freaky Friday and the oft-repeated Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day. In it, a selfish scriptwriter writes a film script and refuses to include in it certain people; she then takes a pill, and wakes up in an alternative reality in which it is she who has been cut from the script. It sounds like an intriguing premise, and we can’t wait to see the completed film on Friday!

In the evening, with classes throughout the day having been concluded successfully, students had the opportunity to continue their work in the Homework Club –an option seized upon by many keen to make sure that they remain on top of their schedules— or to take part in a thrillingly interactive outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Similarly theatrical happenings were taking place in Jowett, where there was a Stage Combat session: students learnt how to land punches that seem devastating blows, but are in fact nothing of the sort. It was a curious exercise— it turned a chaotic ‘fight’ into something more like a choreographed dance. It left students keen to look out for the same techniques in films and plays that they watch in the future!