<h3>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>

UKfilmNet is an online resource accessible to teachers, lecturers, instructors and of course students and film fans who want to dramatically improve their knowledge of both the skills and practical production know-how of film and television across a wide range of industry and craft disciplines.

We were set up to address the ciritical shortage of technically qualified teaching and instruction staff, and to far better support one of the most employable degree subjects available. 

We are a COMMUNITY organisation that is entirely non profit - and we rely on the the more 29,000 hours of volunteered time from experts and educators like you - to make this incredible resource possible. You can find out more here.

If YOU would like to get more involved as a volunteer - please do let us know here.

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, educator, lecturer or student can acess the materials, with a student, pupil or teacher/lecturer account.  For safeguarding reasons, students and learners can only get access to the resources via an application by their instructor/teacher or lecturer. At present this website does not make any charges for access, and so access to the resources cannot be unlimited, and we cannot guarantee access to every one wanting access.

So to ensure the resources are targeted fairly, and in order of need,  we do ask you - the teacher or educator -  to complete a short eligibility test, and if you provisionally qualify for access then for reasons of safeguarding we will perform a check of your employment status for proof of identity - which is done directly with your organation. ALL you need to do is complete the eligibility form and your details, and then await an email to allow you to complete your application, enrol your students and get working with hundreds of other educators!

Don't worry - If you don't qualify for immediate access - it's not the end of the world. Make sure you DO apply - and click the "Notify me of changes to access" option - and that way we can let you know when your situation becomes elgible for access. Simples.

We want to create as lively and vibrant community of creative learners as possible.  But we get NO central government funding, and are currently almost entirely funded out of the pockets of our small band of volunteers and with in-kind help from software companies, web companies and OEMs that help with equipment loans, webspace and lots of favours.

But we cannot continue like this forever. (It's a question of basic maths!)  We will need to ensure there is some means of paying to keep the lights on the content added to. So in time,  we'll be asking teachers and learners to make a contribution equivalent to about the cost of a couple of text books (teachers)  and the equivakent cost of a Big Mac meal - (students) - for a whole year's access.  

But in the meantime, if you would like to get involved and help share the workload why not consider volunteering to help? https://ukfilmnet.org/welcome/workwithus

Its easy.

There are just two steps for teachers, instructors and educations to apply for access for themselves and those they teach

First click on the Apply for Access link on the home page (if it's not there we're not currently accepting applications due to high demand) and fill out some very basic details.

Next we will check your details, so we can verify who you say who you are and where you teach (Safeguarding rules people!) and then we will send you an email to confirm you have been cleared for access and ask you to follow the link we send to complete your sign up where you can fill in your details, you can create names for the classes you teach and even enrol your students into those classes and then off you go!

You're goning to love this....

As a teacher you will get access to over 500 High Defintion master-classes in pretty much every aspect of film and TV production. We're adding more resources as fast as you can say "lights camera, acrtion" You will get the opportunity to create a custom workspace for EACH of the classes you teach where you can set assignments, upload resources, grade homework, crate dicussion forums, instant message others, watch the ,asterclasses and be able to swap tips with other teachers in the staffroom.

As a student you will be able to get your hands of loads of cool things like videos, computer simulations, top film making tips and a way to communicate with your class-mates - and a lot more besides.

We have taken much advice and guidance from professionals in law and safeguarding as we take the safety and security of you and your learners seriously. 

We ensure that teachers or instructors can only access online or engage with the same classes they already teach "in real life". That means that adults are only able to communicte with the students they already have been DBS Enhanced checked to teach. What's a DBS check? Find out here

The way we ensure your safety is to check the identity of any adults using this resource who are claiming to be teachers or educators. We will check who they are, where they work and whether they have been checked for DBS Enhanced clearance for their work as teachers and educators. If we  can't be sure of all of that - we won't let them complete their sign up.

If you have any questions about safety issues or have concerns, do let us know immediately. 

You can find details of all of our policies on data and safeguarding here.

The web is an inevitable part of the way we live, work and study.The same goes for the way in which we teach and learn. This resource is essentially what is known as a virtual learning environment. Or  VLE. What that means is it is essentially an online space where teachers and students can connect and collaborate and share ideas, resources and knowledge in a rich ecosystem of Video resources and much else.

Is it as simple as using a Whiteboard and marker pen? Almost certainly not. But then you can do a lot more with this remarkable learning resource. But we get it, we hate learning new ways of working too. So - we've tried very hard to make sure the resources feel like a very friendly, even rather cool, digital textbook that works on your laptop, your tab and your smartphone. But we haven't stopped there.

When you in enrol on the website (as a teacher who can then - and only then - enrol students) Your teacher will have access to a video a user guide that gives him or her a great introduction to some of the many things you can do on the website including setting student challenges, creating forum discussions, watching videos, and a lot more else besides.

And what's more the staffroom is shared by other educators like you  - so now - if you have a question about how to teach German Expressionism, or how to upload a film to the website, or how to enter text and images for students to debate - you can watch the video guides or ask a colleague.

 

 

As mentined we're an entirely unfunded project and don't have any government funding. (If you think we should please do tell Screen Skills Creative here  or the BFI Education Team here. Life would be much easier for us with a little help from the government!)

So whilst we would love to have rooms full of staff ready to take your calls, what we have instead tried to do is ensure there is a video user guide on how to use make the most of the resource, a forum for teachers o raise questions from others that might have already solved your question (be nice) and of course the wonderful world wide  were you can search for more information on how our system (which is based on Moodle) and how it actually works.

Until we get funding, we will eventually have to rely on your help with a modest subscription. That way we can hire the staff to help you out. But for now - we hope you understand!

Thats a very smart question.

If you're website has hundreds of world class masterclasses on Storyboarding from the team st Star Wars, or lots of good stuff on lighting and camera from the experts atthe National Film and TV School, or an introduction to news production by the BBC News team, then probably you don't need us. You are all set.

But for most schools, colleges and universities they don't have that.. (We know - we've seen most of them!) So this space is a place that gives you all of that good stuff, but goes further and gives you a whole world of communications and discussion channels to share iseas with each other, help teachers network, and allow you to watch expert lessons 24 hours a day 7 days a week (If you're that keen!)

So enjoy. And if you're already loaded with great resources, why not tell us about them here? https://www.ukfilmnet.org/welcome/contact

Yeah we get asked that a lot.

Ever heard of "link rot"? Pobably not - but you will have almost certainly run into it just when you didn't need another problem. Link rot Is simply a term used to describe the really annoying way in which that really brilliant web link you found on German Expressionism disappears two weeks or three months after you bookmarked it. That's link rot. The Internet I'm afraid, my friend is a curious place, and often transient place for information you may or may not be able to trust - let alone still find some time later -  and just when you think you can go to that great weblink resource you've used before, you suddenly find it's gone, dead, deceased, It's an ex-link. It has ceased to be. Its called a 404.

That's really why we, as teachers like you,  created UKfilmNet. It's a growing repository of knowledge and information that won't disappear, go out of date (we hope) or simply vanish with one of those awful 404 messages.

And what about Youtube? Well, Have you ever visited a news website or article from a few years ago only to find the video link of that great film clip has disappeared? Well, welcome to video link rot and the famous Youtube takedown notice.Something else you'll find when you try bookmarking those video clip. Before you know it someone, somewhere has taken down that video because perhaps they didn't make it, they didn't get permission to use it or the channel has simply closed. Who knows? So again,With UKfilmNet we film or licence all of our own clips wherever posible, so that you don't have to go looking for where they've disappeared to.

Finally, there is the matter of trust. If you try googling for "three or four point lighting", or "the 180° rule" Guess what? You're probably find 25 or more different videos each explaining (with wildly differing degrees of clarity) what those concepts mean. If you're lucky they may be right, they might be relevant, they may be accurate and they might be made by an expert (you hope?) But you don't know do you? So again, with UKfilmNet what we try to do is to remove the hopes and guesswork and hunting, and try to ensure the very best, trusted experts in film and television from centres of excellence, broadcasters and universities are the people you trust - to bring you reliable advice.

Think of us as tools you can trust.

So next time someone tells you how it's probably on Youtube, they may be right, today. But tomorrow?

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