Film Team members Oshan Bennett, Euan Miller & Stephen Moore have been shortlisted for the Pics film competition at Galeri Caernarfon on 28th January 2012 - they've all been invited to this black tie event which will be covered by S4C - so we're getting our posh gear on and heading to Caernarfon and that red carpet! AND this is on the same day that the first Film Nation Shorts - Free Film-in-a-day Workshop takes place - part of the UK-wide Cultural Olympiad and the films will be entered into the competition and possibly screened in stadia around the UK - it's an amazing start to the year.

As well as Kevin's regular Thursday night, we hope to have an extra film-making night courtesy of Suzanne Bradbury from Denbighshire Voluntary Service, who wants to run several workshops for young people to make a video version of the Big Plan... dates to be confirmed but we've had a few introductory nights and new members joining - hurrah!

BIG Film Team News... we now have a boom microphone, Video LED light, Zoom Han sound recorder, more memory cards and (ta ra!) a MacBook Pro thanks to all the fabulous Film Team efforts over the past year. These have been purchased with a Community Award from North Hoyle Wind Farm in recognition of the young filmmaker's achievements since February last year. The film making equipment will be stored in the Media Suite and is available at Kevin's Thursday nights and are bookable at weekends. I'm devising a system to have fair access to the laptop when people need to edit their films, write scripts, compose music or use Illustrator and Photoshop for project designing. Film Team is also moving towards formalising as a specific Film Unit - will keep you updated when we've planned a bit more.

The biggest project for us this year will be when the Scala takes part in the Hansel of Film from Shetland to Southampton (and back again) A Cultural Olympiad Opportunity - (A hansel – a Shetland word meaning ‘a gift given to commemorate an inaugural occasion, the launching of a new boat, birth of a child, a new home, a new enterprise’) Shetland Arts, Mark Kermode and Linda Ruth Williams have invited us all to take part in a cinematic journey around the United Kingdom as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad to help celebrate the Olympic Games.  this is an amazing, slightly wild idea - everyone is invited to make a film - all ages, all abilities, all ideas.  The only restriction is that the film can't be more than 5mins long.  I'll be posting out more details when I get them but it's a fantastic and fun project and an opportunity to link-up with other community cinemas around the UK.