Saturday 19th Feb, 2011.
For many, this will go down as the day when it rained a lot, or
as the weekend where they had a particularly tasty croissant for
breakfast.
But for me, Sat 19th Feb will be marked as my favourite day at
work. Ever.
A few weeks ago, we blogged a post inviting people to come along
to a special film makers' workshop here at Fruit Towers. 60 soaked,
but surprisingly chirpy, budding film makers came through the doors
of the Towers on Sat for a very special workshop with Ben
Wheatley - film director, funny man, and chap who made our
advert.

With beanbags and biscuits, and a Wizard of Oz style
presentation from up on the balcony, Ben shared some of his top
tips for film making, ranging from how to use storyboards
effectively to the importance of time management in directing.
We'll let you into a secret...the number 1 rule of film
directing?
Never, ever sit down.
In the afternoon, our budding film makers were set loose to
create their own 30 second mini movie superhero movie, armed with
Ben's tips and a no expenses spared* film makers' kit.
*this may not be strictly true
They looked up for the challenge, so we threw in additional
angle of artistic opportunity/anguish and gave them each a genre or
theme for their mini movie, ranging from slasher horror to circus
chic.
They spent a bit of time brainstorming...
...and then the magic started to really happen as the gaffa tape
came out, the fishwire was attached, and a selection of Fruit
Towers' finest random props were put to excellent use.
The result? 9 truely excellent films watched with lashings
of popcorn that had us in stitches.

Check out some of the results, and find out how you can get
involved in our mini movies competition here.
Thanks so much to those of you who came down for the day. We'll
be smiling about it for a while to come.