On Friday morning, June 15th, a BBC online headline caught my eye: Will school blogger return?
Six weeks ago, a 9 year old Scottish schoolgirl, Martha Payne launched a cute, sweet blog called “Neverseconds” in which she was posting a daily picture of her school lunch, a few simple lines of comments about her day and then grading her lunch out of 1/10.
By the middle of June she had recorded an astonishing 2 million views and was getting contribution from all over the world as other school children emailed in their school lunch pictures too
The reason for the blog was to raise money for a respected charity called MARY’S MEALS which provided school meals in Africa. The cost of a kitchen was £7,000 – Martha’s blog target, and after 6 weeks she had raised £2,000,000
On Thursday June 14th her Headmaster hauled her out of math class and told her to stop taking pictures, rendering the blog nearly useless.
With great sadness she said GOODBYE on her blog, Neverseconds.
Within hours after the BBC story, dozens of other news channels had picked this story up. You can see the BBC articles here:
Even Jamie Oliver started commenting, and then by Friday afternoon the council and headmaster relented.
Have a look at the amount of money she has raised by clicking on Mary’s Meals page on the crowdfunding website for charities: Justgiving.com [remember to deduct £2,000 from the total!]
Apparently her blog will return on Monday, with more pictures, more contributions from fellow students the world over, and even more donations.
Fade Out
How did a 9 year old school girl raise over £60,000 in 24 hours? What can you, a filmmaker, learn for your own project?
There must be some terrific lessons filmmakers can learn from this case study.
Now, get going!
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand. It started as a rebellion: film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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