A BUDDING filmmaker from Corsham School headed to the Media Magazine Awards in London yesterday, July 6 hoping to win a top award for his short film.

Year 12 pupil Joshua Stone's Sugar Syndicate film beat off hundreds of competitors to make the final four in the trailers and shorts section.

The 17-year-old from Corsham has his own film company, DVA Films, has already been hired to film a promotional video for a joinery and harbours strong desires to get into professional film-making in the future.

"It feels pretty cool to get shortlisted," said Joshua, who began making films in 2013 with Lego stop motion animations.

"It was a big surprise out of hundreds of entries, I did not think mine would be picked to make the top four.

"Looking at the winners from last year, they all had high budgets with authentic costumes, props, and really big production teams. In contrast to my film, which had a budget of £0 and the production team consisted of just me."

His film is about his school's playground being ran by a villainous gang named the Sugar Syndicate and the explosive struggle that follows when their authority is challenged.

"I came up with the idea after seeing a kid selling sweets and cans of Coke from his locker," said Joshua, who is currently studying for A-levels in photography and film and media studies.

"It took two days to film and a long time to edit but the film was done on an almost zero budget as I borrowed all of the props. The only money I spent was on the sweets."

To see his film visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZVP1rYSFw