Introduction

What would happen if a virus struck the world? A virus that leaves the adult population useless; reduced to a childlike state, leaving only those below the age of eighteen unaffected. A world left in the hands of its young people..?

This was the starting point for the film, and the brainstorming workshops at the beginning of the project but over the course of several months of workshops and ideas from hundreds of different children the story has changed dramatically.

The film has been developed and created through a series of workshops and activities and has so far involved over 750 young people across both boroughs, and has the potential to involve many more!

Phase One - In-School Story Brainstorming Workshops (Feb – March 2006)

16 classes from sixteen different schools across North and South Tyneside took part in workshops delivered by Superkrush Productions, usually a week long, and were involved in activities with drama workers, dancers, musicians and writers, all coming up with lots of different ideas that could be used in the movie’s story.

During this stage the story-developer, Ian Dowson, visited every school observing and documenting each element as part of the script development process.

Phase 2 – Script Development and Rehearsals (May – July 2006)

A cast of young actors attended a series of acting and story development workshops with facilitators Rob Atkinson and Paula Penman up until production in the summer holidays.

During this time, the story developer, writer/director, producer and children worked together to develop the stories and structure of the film’s narrative through improvisations and rehearsals.

Phase 3 – Production (July – September 2006)

Production of the film took place on location in North and South Tyneside with film director Ian Cottage, and involved contributions from professional actors to help raise the film’s profile and enhance the experience for the children involved.

Phase 4 – Post-production (March – April 2007)

Post-production will take place during March and April in collaboration with Transmission Post-Production through a number of workshops within schools, using this very website!

Phase 5 – Music Soundtrack Composition and Performance (April – July 2007)

Music composition workshops will take place in Creative Partnerships schools and at the Sage Gateshead from April, with groups of children working with renowned international film composer Bill Connor to develop musical themes and eventually the score for the film’s soundtrack, which will be performed, live at the movie’s premiere.

Evaluation and the “Making of”!

Creative Partnerships North & South Tyneside believes strongly in continual evaluation of projects and methods of working which include reflective practice. For this reason, a separate project has been running along-side the feature film project as an evaluation tool.

The services of broadcast factual film-maker Neil Percival have been engaged to work with academic evaluator Suzanne Auty to create a video evaluation document, recording and evaluating the process of this project.

The final documentary is expected to be approximately 30 minutes long and will be shown for the first time at the Premiere screening of the 'Damage' and included on the DVD of the final film.

It is our ambition that the documentary may also receive a local or national broadcast and it will also be sent to government and education officials as part of the promotion of Creative Partnerships’ work and research findings.