Into Film: Into Space
26 May 2016
Our journey to space began in December 2015 when the Lower School Scholars’ Group undertook the challenge of making a film to enter the Into Film: Into Space National Competition. The Floccinaucinihilipilificaters group decided to tell the story of a girl wanting to be an astronaut and doing everything she could to be selected for astronaut training. In April we received news that our film ‘To Infinity’ was one of the winners in the 12-15 year age group. All of the winning films were then sent into space to be watched by British Astronaut Tim Peake on the International Space Station (ISS).
On Wednesday 25 May we were invited to the Picturehouse Cinema in London for the premiere of the winning films. Unfortunately our two main film-makers, Alex Orton (Fifth Form, Lyttelton) and Charlotte Bird (Fifth Form, Lyttelton), were unable to attend as they had their Physics GCSE that afternoon, but instead some of the Third and Fourth Formers who helped with some of the filming were able to go in their place: Oscar Hill (Fourth Form, Temple), Cameron Chambers (Fourth Form, Grenville), Esme Foster (Fourth Form, Stanhope) and Oliver Seddon (Third Form, Cobham), as well as two of the smaller members of the cast, Alice Murnane and Sophie Noble from Beachborough.
The event began with a little surprise, on the screen appeared a recorded message from Tim Peake announcing all of the winners and congratulating everyone, saying how much he had enjoyed the films. All the winning film-makers then got to see their films in true cinematic style, before being invited on stage to receive a winner’s certificate and Principia Mission Patch from Libby Jackson, a former Flight Director with the UK Space Agency. Libby then managed to establish a live link with Tim Peake on the ISS and we were able to have a group chat with him in space.
The pupils worked extremely hard on this project and thoroughly deserve their win for a fantastic film. If you would like to watch the film, it can be found here.
Sarah Murnane, Lower School Scholars’ Group Coordinator