When I received a call from a former colleague to ask me if I’d be interested in making a charity film with The Media Trust, I was keen straight away. Volunteer film-makers would be matched with a charity to create a film for The Community Channel for expenses only. I thought if I wasn’t working at the time, it would be a really good thing to do. But as soon as I had accepted and been matched with a chosen London charity, I was offered a paid Producer job at the BBC. Luckily they agreed to a 4 day week which meant I had some spare time to devote to the charity.

The charity was PIP – Pursuing Independent Paths - and it’s based in Maida Vale, West London. It’s a centre for adults with learning disabilities. It’s a great idea because it helps them gain independence in ways you would not think of such as training them to travel on their own – crossing roads safely, taking a bus to the right destination or tube for that matter. There are all sorts of regular classes in computer studies, literacy, healthy eating and cooking, art and drama, all of which gives them confidence to communicate in our world.

I met up with PIP’s Director, Bill Feeney, and we discussed what should go into the film. PIP covered a lot of ground so it was a question of how we could condense the narrative to a short form and make it stick in the mind of the audience.

I really wanted to make this film a tight 3 minutes or so, like the length of an early pop record. I wanted it to be short enough for PIP to play at meetings when they wanted to attract investors, and to place on their website. I wanted people to come away wanting to know more but not get bored half-way through. I also felt strongly that whoever narrated this film should be on the side of the student, not a disembodied celebrity voice, who could sound patronising.

I thought that the film should be poetic, maybe in rhymes, so it was easy to say and remember and I felt some of the students themselves could probably say how they felt about PIP. Interviews were probably not a good idea, Bill said, as they get frustrated with themselves because they can’t express themselves how they’d like to. Some are not easily understood. I attended a drama session and saw for myself which characters would be great to speak to on film, to represent PIP. I wrote a very simple narrative poem, to be delivered to camera by those students themselves. Woven around the poem would include various activities they would do over the course of a day, some travel training, the drama session, a cooking/measuring session and an outing.

I chose Marco Cervi to be my cameraman because he mentioned he was doing more work with the Canon 5D mk II and I wanted to try it out. It’s essentially a stills camera that takes HD quality video. It’s depth of field takes your breath away and meant that we could shoot the students in a tiny space and it still looked great. I did the sound myself holding a boom and recording onto a separate zoom box, checking the levels and that I was always recording at the same time as the camera! It felt easier to direct the young adults this way, because I was always maintaining eye contact with them, rather than if I’d been on the camera.

The students were absolute stars and they loved being in the limelight as much as they enjoy their time at PIP. It must be hard for their families to let them go as they get more independence but it’s a good thing. The staff and volunteers who work at PIP are amazing too.

It was a real pleasure to make this film and I’m glad I did it for free. Photographer Marco Cervi and Editor Chris K Jones kindly agreed to bring their creativity to the project at a knock-down price, so we could do PIP proud.

The result was shown on Sky’s Community Channel, presented by Sir Trevor MacDonald, and is available to view on the PIP website as well as my own and on YouTube here.

Visit PIP's website.