UKfilmNet is an online resource accessible to teachers, students and film fans who want to improve their knowledge of both the skills and practical production know-how of film and television.

UKfilmNet is unique in being a collection of the expertise and experience of a very wide range of industry practitioners who are leaders in their respective fields. Experts are drawn from filmmaking, lighting, animators, storyboard professionals, producers and many other roles.

The Experts are leading providers of industry know how including the BBC, BSkyB, The Director's Guild, The Guild of TV Cameramen, The Society of Television Lighting Directors and many other organisations at the heart of the UK film and TV industry.

Any teacher or student can acess the materials, which are currently free of charge. Teachers, students and film clubs can all have unlimited use of the site, but to ensure the resources are targeted we do ask for proof of identity - which is usually proivded by an email from the school teacher concerned, or from the leader or co-ordinator of the flm club applying for access. Teachers, students and film club members will then be given a single log in which can be used for this discussion site as well as for the learning website. In some cases access to one or other site may be more appropriate.

There are two ways.

1. UKfilmNet forums can be accessed by logging into the UkfilmNet discussion site (this website) at the top right of the page
2. Teaching and learning resources can be accessed by clicking on Learning Resources | Login and then using the learning Resources password you have been given. This is usually the same password as the main UKfilmNet discussion site (these pages)

Teachers will have access to all materials on this site, and since the materials are available 24-7 there is no need to copy and paste materials. The Learning site uses Moodle to give universally recognised structures and e-learning materials in a very familiar layout that many teachers will be familiar if they have used Moodle (the market leading free e-learning software tool) This means that in many cases teachers can enrol students in the courses to allow students to participate fully in discussions, newsgroups and homework activities and uploading of coursework.

Students are reminded that copying and pasting materials from his website do not work well as a means to effective learning. Using the materials by adapting these resources and adding to them in yiur own work is a more effective approach. REMEMBER the website materials on this site have been created by experts and simply copying materials and then pasting them into your own work achieves and shows very little learning and is very easily spotted by your teachers AND classmates!

We are a very small organisation with a lot of visitors so we ask that you take a moment to complete the contact form to raise any issues or sk specific questions.

We do recommend you check that your question hasnt been answered in this section. If it hasnt then we will make sure to add it to the list of user questions!

Please get in touch using the contact form and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

Its vitally important that learning of key skills takes place in an industry context.

In most cases schools will not have access to the same software used by the leading professionals with whom we work to ensure real industry relevance. However the gap between affordable school software and its counterpart in industry is rapidly closing with the falling cost of storage, memory and hardware performance.

Our approach is to use software resources that are either free, or within the financial reach of most secondary, further and higher education. We chose each application based on the balance between affordability and industry relevance. So for example, we recommend Final Cut (From Apple) for editing - whether Educational or Full Version as it offers relevant skills to CURRENT industry skills and usage that are not perhaps reflected in other perfectly acceptable alternatives.

What maters to us is that learners and teachers understand the common themes, functions and skills that fall across all areas.

Whether using Adobe Creative Suite (CS3or 4) or Apple Final Cut Studio 4,5, 6 the concepts are the same, even if the precise buttons and menus are slightly different.

Equally the different in price for VOLUME education licensing between the competing players is closing, as too is the overall cost of purchasing and using such software. For more information get in touch and we will endeavour to give independent advice on such matters.

We are unable to provide individual training for schools, but we are very happy to suggest or introduce contacts and experts who have expressed an interest in such activity. We also strongly recommend registering for free with LONSAS (for London and South East Schools) as a very comprehensive source of trainers. We are lookign to build up a national database of free and paid training contacts as we grow in size.

Other sources of Independent Trainers include.

• BBC 21cc (London (and soon) Slaford Based
• LONSAS
• Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Ask for your local Lead Practitioner List in Creative and Media
• Contact your local Education Business Partnership via your local education Authority
• For Diploma projects contact your regional Diploma Co-ordinator for your area (or consortia) You may well be entitled to special matched funding to pay for the costs of Independent Training Providers.

Also a search of Google, such as this provides a very useful starter.

Due to small staff numbers we ask that you please use this form for all contact or questions. The Forums will also form a useful discussion point as membership and the commonwealth of knowlege builds.

Certainly - please ask them to provide their details thorugh out contact point and we will be hapy to add them.

We prefer organisations to select which is best however we can offer our opinion on the tools and approaches we as teachers and former Lead Practitioners have found to work. You also want to review this issue here

Many though not all of the creative companies do run both formal and informal placements schemes. We recommend direct contact with these organisations and suggest asking for the Education Officer or Work Rleated Learning co-ordinator for that organisation.

We also expect to start ading contacts for organisations offering these schemes.

The UK Film Council - the Government-backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad - has made available modest funding to allow the autors of the project to deveop resources aimed at supporting teachers of film, media and television.

We fully support its aims, and those of the 21st Media Literacy Strategy.

Yes. You can download a copy here.