Nope. You can turn up having never used a proper camera or opened Premiere Pro before. Equally, you might already make videos - on your phone, using CapCut or iMovie - and feel like you’ve hit a wall. The whole point of the one-to-one format is that you start wherever you are.

We’ll have agreed a rough plan beforehand, based on what you want to learn. From there, it’s hands-on. We might spend the morning getting to grips with a camera, head out to shoot around Brighton & Hove, then come back and build a rough cut of your footage. Alternatively, we might spend most of the day editing, or working on something you’ve already started. There’ll be plenty of explaining, but not much sitting around listening to me talk. You’re here to make things.

Yep. Just you and me. That means you can ask as many questions as you like, spend longer on the things you find difficult and skip the things you already know. There’s no keeping up with a group and no waiting while somebody else figures out where the SD card goes.

No. Filmmaking kit is provided. If you have a camera you’d particularly like to understand, though, bring it along. Learning on the equipment you’ll actually use afterwards can be really useful.

That’s completely fine. You don’t need to design your own syllabus. Once you’ve booked, I’ll ask you a few questions about what you’ve done before, what interests you and what you’d like to be able to do. I’ll use that to suggest a plan for the day and we’ll agree it together beforehand.

Absolutely. In fact, that can be a brilliant way to use the day. Bring footage, an unfinished edit, an idea, a camera you’ve never quite understood, or a project you’ve been putting off. We can use something real as the starting point.

Possibly - but that isn’t necessarily the goal. The point is to leave significantly more capable than when you arrived. For one person that might mean shooting and editing a short sequence from scratch. For someone else it might mean finally understanding manual camera settings, improving composition or getting comfortable editing in Premiere Pro. It depends on what would be most useful to you.

We use a Canon EOS R50 - a lightweight mirrorless camera designed specifically for videography. We attach it to a three-point tripod or a DJI Ronin-S and edit footage on Adobe Premiere Pro, since it’s industry standard. You’ll work on a MacBook Air with a 15 inch screen.

We meet at my studio in Hove. I’ll send you the address after you’ve signed up and depending on what we’re working on, we can use the seafront, beach, streets and surrounding area as our filming playground.

Just yourself and a bottle of water. I’ll tell you beforehand if there’s anything specific you need for your particular session. If you’re bringing your own camera, laptop, footage or project, we’ll sort all of that out before the day. And wear something sensible for being outside while we’re shooting. This is the south coast of England, after all!

The planning for your one-to-one session, plus the actual day which runs from 9am–3pm. Filmmaking equipment, tea and snacks, and a simple lunch are also included - just let me know of any dietary requirements beforehand.

Both - and quite a lot of people are somewhere in between. You might be making video at work without ever having been properly taught. You might have bought a camera and barely taken it out of auto. You might be considering a move into creative work. Or you might simply want to make films because it looks fun. You don't need to call yourself a ‘filmmaker’ to come to film school!

Because learning filmmaking doesn’t have to mean signing up for a twelve-week evening course packed full of theory when what you really need is to get out there and make - with someone knowledgeable standing beside you offering help and guidance.