An anti-smoking filmmaking project in Barnet

Stand Up Project 2019

578 Young people engaged

11 Organisations worked with

54 Workshops delivered

33 Films created

In 2019 we worked with Barnet Council to deliver the Stand Up project on anti-smoking in schools (primary and secondary), Pupil Referral Units, and youth clubs in the borough. All of the films created during the project can be viewed here. The brief for the project was to engage with as many hard-to-reach young people in the area, specifically focusing on Pupil Referral Units, and youth clubs.

The winning film was from Canada Villa Youth Club with their film ‘Go on Then’ which can be viewed here.

“I learned that the tobacco industry exploits children for labour”

- Female, 11, Akiva Primary

“I learned that 100, 000’s of people in the UK die every year from smoking”

- Male, 17, Finchley Catholic High School

“I learned that there are lots of parts or jobs for people to do while making a film”

- Male, age 11, Akiva Primary

“I learned that you have to use more angles when recording and that you have to record the same shots multiple times to get the perfect one.”

- Female, 12, Friern Barnet School

A film and assembly project in Barnet

Cut Films Shisha Awareness

3515 Young people engaged

13 Organisations worked with

43 Workshops delivered

98% of participants said they enjoyed the project

93% of participants said that they learned something new about smoking or the tobacco industry

93% of participants stated they felt more confident talking about how bad smoking is after the workshop

97% of participants stated that the workshops made them think about not smoking in the future

For over 4 years, Stacey Williams, Director of Attain Production, has worked on the Cut Films project, first as a Youth Worker and now as Head of the Cut Films Project. Recently she designed, delivered and managed a shisha awareness project in Barnet. 

The shisha project began in discussions with Barnet Public Health team who were  developing a borough wide shisha campaign with a three pronged approach: local marketing campaign, working with shisha cafes/bars to bring them up to compliance and a prevention and education project. Cut Films was commissioned to design a prevention and education project, this was a flagship project led by Stacey Williams. 

The starting point for the education element was Barnet Public Health wanting their own local video on shisha dangers which would be relevant to local young people. This resulted in a two phase project, with phase 1 being a the creation of a short-film on the impacts and dangers of shisha.

Phase 2 was the delivery of assembly style workshops to schools and youth clubs around the borough. The workshops developed were designed on a truth/myth concept where participants had to guess if each 'fact' was real or not. The workshop also included a section on the media influences of shisha, for example, the proliferation of images of shisha in music videos, video games and movies. Finally the workshop ended with the film created in Phase 1. 

Overall the project was received positively by both the participating organisations and Barnet Public Health. Many of the young people and the staff found the workshops informative, engaging and fun. 

Some of the results from the project evaluation can be seen here. 

Phase 1 film, 'More than one choice' can be found here.