"But it's Legal" Takes RTS Award 2010

The Teeny Tiny Films short film about the dangers of legal highs "But it's Legal!" won the prestigious Royal Television Society Award on Saturday 11th of March 2011 at the Sage in Gateshead.

The Judges commented that the film was, "A very effective myth busting film for a young audience".

Sam Forsyth TTF director said "But it's Legal" was up against some big hitters - including an emotionally powerful film about the Corus Steel Works - which I was convinced was going to beat us, so it really was a shock to be walking up onto the stage again to get the award. The best bit about it was having Oliver Smith and Sara Cox - key members of our filmmaking team - up there with me."

Barnard Castle Police's own Sgt Mick Urwin got the whole thing started at the end of 2009 when he realised that something needed to be done to tackle the wave of young people in Teesdale both using and selling the then "legal high" Mephedrone. Sgt Urwin and his colleagues pulled together a team of professionals to brain-storm the issue and asked Teeny Tiny Films to turn the findings into film aimed at informing young people about the consequences of choosing to use drugs such as this. Durham Agency Against Crime and Durham County Council funded the film, which has been shown to school-children across the county.

This was the second year in a row that Teeny Tiny Films have won the RTS award (last year was for their collaboration with Cotherstone Primary School "Teesdale Hillfarming Story"). Teeny Tiny Films is a social enterprise run on a shoestring, and again they have beaten some of the biggest film companies in the North East to take the award for the "best non-broadcast factual film".

Sam is looking forward to taking the RTS Award to King James College in Bishop Auckland on Wednesday to share it with the young actors in the film who are all part of BATH (Bishop Auckland Theatre Hooligans) group. Sam said that the award was due in no small part to the professionalism and focus of these talented young people and their inspired drama teachers.

“But it’s LEGAL!”

At the beginning of 2010 the abuse of the (then) legal high Mephedrone was reaching epidemic levels amongst the young people in the Teesdale area – so much so that our low-crime backwater was making national headlines.

Teeny Tiny Films were approached by Sgt Mick Urwin and PC Andy Bustin of Durham Constabulary to produce a film to try and tackle the problem. The brief was to make a film that would be useful in educating young people in how to think critically before deciding to take ANY legal high.

TTF took in information from a large number of concerned legal and youth agencies and, together with youth Theatre Company Bishop Auckland Theatre Hooligans (BATH), came up with the script and shot “But it’s LEGAL!”.

We are very grateful to Durham Agency Against Crime (DAAC) for funding this project.

“After much research with other production companies TTF seemed to do what it says on the tin, and hey presto they did!!!”
PC Andy Bustin

The full film on DVD along with a accompanying lesson plan drawn up by specialist police youth workers is available from Durham Agency Against Crime on 0191 384 1425.

If you would like to place an order online please fill out this form and Durham Agency Against Crime will contact you to arrange payment and delivery.

Teeny Tiny Films wins Royal Television Award

In February 2010, Teeny Tiny Films were delighted to be awarded the Best Factual Non-Broadcast Film at The Royal Television Society (North East and Borders) Awards at The Sage in Gateshead.

The award winning Teesdale Hill-Farming story is a highly creative investigation into the threatened hill-farming culture of a dale in the Northern Pennines. The film was a collaboration between year 5 and 6 pupils at Cotherstone Primary School and Teeny Tiny Films. It was commissioned by Durham County Council to raise awareness of hill-farming culture amongst school children and the wider community.

The film is available for sale on DVD from Teeny Tiny Films (sam@teenytinyfilms.co.uk) for £8.00 a copy.

You can read more about the film and its success in an article by The Northern Echo.