Watch Courtyard Film Club short films

The Courtyard Film Club returned this term and we’re delighted that you can now watch the short films that they have produced.

About Jonathan Zaurin

Award winning Hereford film director/editor and one of the founders of LBS Films Jonathan Zaurin took over leading the sessions this term. In recent years Jonathan has created a series of Award Winning horror short films based and made in Hereford. The shorts gained quite a lot of attention, most notably through the short film Portrait(s) which won a major award in the Sin City Horror Film Festival in Las Vegas.

In 2020 Jonathan teamed up with Dr Who screenwriter Keith Temple to create Hereford’s first Independent horror feature film, Wyvern Hill. The film stars Pat Garrett, Pete Bird, Ellie Jeffreys, Ben Manning and Mike Coombes. Mike kindly contributed to the Film Club by allowing the children to direct him in their film. Wyvern Hill found worldwide distribution in 2021, with releases in North America, the UK and many other territories currently in the work for 2022.

Jonathan’s second feature film is currently in the works.

The Courtyard Film Club

In 2021 Jonathan took on the Courtyard Film Club where he started working with two different groups (ages 9-13 and ages 13-17) of children towards the creation of a short film.

Under his supervision, the children of both groups were able to create a high quality short film. The idea was to offer learning opportunities in every aspect of the creation of a film. Both groups were given the opportunity to touch on a little bit of everything: writing, filming, directing actors, editing, sound editing, grading, even a bit of dubbing. The Film Club members were involved in every step from pre-production to post production.

The idea was to offer a realistic and authentic vision of what it means, and what it takes to make a film with limited resources (with problem solving at the heart of the process). Jonathan, as much as possible, let the children make their own decisions and their own mistakes.

“The final work is of high quality and is the product of several months of work with these children, in which they applied themselves every single week.” Said Jonathan, “They thought about their craft and how to obtain the best possible results, worked with high quality equipment and professional award nominated actors Mike Coombes and Clova Perez Corral, and learned to collaborate and work together. This is an important point, as the children were made to organise themselves as a group and debate their ideas and choices, making sure the group was happy with every decision made and instilling an environment in which the children are free to express their creativity safely and confidently.”

The Film

We are delighted to be able to share the results of the Junior Film Club members’ hard work this term. Watch their short film below: