With 2024 Drawing to a close Wicked Wales Would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year.
Join us as we Sum up what an amazing year we have had this year and and give a little snapshot into what to expect in 2025!
2024 In a Nutshell
As we look back over the last twelve months, from that cold day in January when we took the keys to a garage on a business park in the West End of Rhyl. We stood inside for the first time, planning what would go where to develop our new film studios for Rhyl.
Twelve months on and our dream has come true. It has taken so much hard work, with so many people supporting us, our funders, our volunteers, other community organisations, schools and the local community. Thank you to everyone, we couldn’t have done it without you.
We would like to share with you some of the highlights of our year.
In January we started discussions with Kids Regio about a European research project on films for children and families, working with 12 other countries. Our thanks to Ysgol Melyd for their help with this.
We continued to welcome our Ukrainian friends each Friday for a couple of hours when together they could catch up on everything in their own language. Then we said goodbye after two years of working together as they moved to other parts of Wales.
We will stay in touch with our Ukrainian volunteers, our friends.
We made a short documentary film for the UK Parliament film competition, using this opportunity to share the additional challenges faced by young people living in deprivation and poverty,reducing their confidence and self- belief.
Following Wicked’s support to develop Rhyl’s first successful Horror Festival Rhyller Thriller, we were pleased to see the Festival happening again and to provide the technical support.
To celebrate working with the fantastic children and teachers at Tir Morfa special school in Rhyl for the last 10 years, we decided to make a documentary with cameraman Rob,Carole and Sara with Andrew directing called ‘Tir Morfa – A Very Special Tale’.We were grateful for the access to every part of school life and seeing first hand all the additional activities which take place every day. This documentary will be premiered in 2025.
Our volunteers continued to record news items for ITV helping to get their thoughts and ideas onto the national news.
As our Studios opened and we started to make links with production companies and freelancers we were delighted to join forces with Out For a Film Media on a BTec film project.
The films they had made during their workshops, with children all over North Wales were screened with families present at our film festival. We look forward to working with Tom and Addie again in 2025 at the Studios.Â
We produced blogs throughout the year mapping the process of the transformation from our virtual studios to actual premises ‘from a garage to film studios’. We hope these will help and inspire other groups of young people to develop spaces
We responded to requests to include gaming activities alongside film and had a great summer with Ronnie and her support group for children with ALN at Salford Camp with the gaming van, we had gaming group sessions and gaming on the big screen at the Festival. Â
We held our 9th International Youth film Festival,  the first  in our own home. Lots of incredible short films made by young people from all over the world. We had the support of ITV’s  presenters Carole Green and Mike Griffiths hosting workshops and welcomed representatives from the Czcech Republic who travelled to Wales to pick up their film  award.
We recognised two outstanding volunteers Ellie and Dylan who both clocked up over 200 hours each of volunteering.
We finished the year with Head of Studios Andrew winning the DLL award for the ‘Most Inspiring Young Person’, well deserved for his work supporting other young people wanting to be part of the creative industries.
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We have spent every week this year fundraising and our thanks go to the funding bodies who were prepared to back us with our new studios. I hope they can now see that we deserved their support.
What to expect in 2025!
Wicked Cinema
With the recent announcement of the upcoming closure of the the VUE cinema in January. We decided now would be the perfect time to officially relaunch our community cinema here in our very own Studios.
We will aim to develop a 3 monthly programme of films to hit a wide variety of audiences, whether that be something for the whole family or something more specific.
As we want to make Wicked cinema as community orientated as possible we will be looking to the community to help us with the programming of the cinema.Â
So keep your eyes on our Wicked Wales Cinema Facebook page to have your say on which films you would like to see on the big screen.
Film Making Sessions
We are delighted to announce that as of 2025 we will be running a once a month FREE session for young people to start creating their very own short films.
In order for us to deliver these sessions we will be teaming up with Addie and Tom (Out For a Film Media) who currently run similar sessions in Prestatyn, Llandudno and Llandulas.
We are very fortunate to be able to be working with Addie and Tom to deliver these sessions and we feel the Young people in Rhyl will be able to benefit hugely from this introduction into film making.
Connect with film network
The Connect With Film Network is an online network hosted on the Wicked Wales website where creatives of all levels of experience can connect to share experiences, knowledge and opportunity's here in North Wales.
There will also be some basic film making materials available to download for FREE for anyone who is new to the industry.
To Join the network all you have to do is make an account on the Wicked Wales website. Your request to become a Network member will then be sent to one of the Wicked Wales team and you will be sent a short survey to gather more information about you and what areas of Film you would like to be pinned on your Network Profile. Its that Simple!
After you have been approved you will then have access to discussion forums and be able to look through our list of members and connect with them.Â
Gaming
Earlier in 2024 we ran a short gaming programme over the summer holidays. We unfortunately had to put the gaming sessions on hold whilst we focused our efforts on completing the Wicked Wales Studios and running our annual International youth film festival.Â
We then made the decision to continue exploring gaming and how we can continue to include it within our Yearly programme of activities.
We appreciate that gaming is an escape for alot of people and it gives them a much needed break from the world around them. One of the problems we have found with this is it isolates them and people are spending more time on their own than in social environments.
The aim for our sessions is to introduce the social element back into gaming and encourage social interaction. This will enable people to gain self confidence, meet new people and create new friendships over the common ground of gaming.
Wicked Wales Associate
As a community organisation all of the work we do is grant funded so we rely heavily on our amazing volunteers to help us deliver our work. When you become a Wicked volunteer you are always more than just a volunteer you become part of the team and we believe the term ‘Volunteer’ doesn't quite show how important you are to us.Â
So as of 2025 any Volunteers will become Wicked Wales Associates
What does being an Associate mean?
Being an Associate will come with some great perks such as:
Free Entry into any film screeningsÂ
Free use of the studio for any meetings or hot desking spaceÂ
30% off full studio and equipment hireÂ
Free Tea/Coffee during your time at the studios
20% off Soft drinks and snacksÂ
Wicked Wales Associate ID cardÂ
Access to Training and OpportunitiesÂ
And much more...
Do the above perks sound like something you would benefit from? but don't have the free time to volunteer for us? Dont worry. For the small fee of £25 per year you can have access to all the above.
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