Cinema Extreme is an established short film production scheme funded by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and Film4 - a new training arm of this scheme took place in 2008/09, which ran alongside it. It was funded by Skillset's Film Skills Fund.

The training programme's aims was to strengthen the development and production skills of those taking part, enabling participants to better position themselves in the industry, have project-based training, peer support networks and faciliated practical experience of working with two of the key financiers in the UK who have the ability to finance first features.

The training encompassed initial one-to-one feedback on the proposed film with Development and Executive Producers from The Bureau, Film4 and Lifesize Pictures;  group sessions, focusing on development skills - encouraging the teams to think in a more innovative way on how to approach their projects; general Development Training - enhancing the writing/development skills of the teams, and then finally Production Training - a combination of bespoke training and ongoing learning with the Executive Producers from The Bureau.

Four short films were produced by filmmakers selected from participants on the training programme.

The short films showcased at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2009 were:

Five Miles Out - Andrew Haigh / UK / 2008 / 18 mins
Little Red Hoodie - Joern Utkilen / UK / 2008 / 15 mins
You're the Stranger Here - Tom Geens / UK / 2009  / 17 mins
Songs For My Mother - Jane and Louise Wilson / UK / 2009 / 15 mins

To visit the Cinema Extreme website, you can click on the link below:

Cinema Extreme webpages