Cast of 40 enjoy hi-tech film making at school

Youngsters at Turton High School are reluctant to go home at the end of the day and would rather be making their own bids for Hollywood stardom by making films at the Media Club.

The 40 members of the after-school and lunchtime club have become adept at using the state-of-the-art facilities, which are part of the £1.8 million media centre which opened last November.

The children think of an idea for a short film, set off with a camcorder, record the work and then put it together in the video and editing suite.

The suite is equipped with 32 Apple Mac, iMac and G4 computers and there is a special filming room.

Pupils have made films about an unusual series of subjects such as elastic bands -- after they were banned in school -- vandalism, their version of Charlie's Angels and a mini-drama involving Lego characters.

Year Eight pupils Kyle Geraghty, Sean Bennett and their pals admit to being film fanatics and spend more time in the recording suite than in the playground.

Sean, aged 12, is keen to become an animator when he leaves school and would like to make cartoons. He said: "I'd love to do anything connected to animation or filming -- anything but soaps!

"We all like coming to the studio in our dinner hours and after school and are building up enough equipment for a recording studio in one of our bedrooms."

Sean has even set up a film company with four of his school friends called "MJMCS", with all of them working hard to produce a mini blockbuster called "Lego of My Life", which required 15 hours of moving each Lego character bit by bit and then recording the sound afterwards.

Advanced Skills Media teacher Jane Sweetlove runs the club, which has two sections for Years Seven to Nine and pupils in Years Ten and Eleven, with the help of Media teacher Katie Eyres.

Mrs Sweetlove said: "The technology is amazing and it's good for some of the pupils who might not excel academically but come into their own here."