The students from Newton Abbot had never made a film before, but have now completed their first short, working with industry professionals.

Their school, Coombeshead College, was awarded £4,000 from First Light, the UK Film Council's initiative to encourage young people to make films.

Alex finds her lucky stone

The 12 and 13 year olds decided to make a short digital film about today's attitudes to superstition and luck.

'Talisman' tells the story of Alex, a girl who believes she is unlucky, until she finds a stone that seems to change her luck for the better.

The students worked on the idea with professional filmmaker, Mick Catmull. He introduced the Year Nine pupils to camera and directing skills.

"It was fun, but a lot of hard work," he said. "The school has specialist media arts status, so there was good support from staff and excellent equipment for the pupils to use."

"I think they learned a lot. The pictures were fantastic and the resulting film was really good."

Alex discusses her find with a friend

The idea for the film came out of discussions at lunchtimes and after school. With the help of the school's Community Media Arts co-ordinator, Rae Hoole, the students shared memories from their past.

They talked about the way memory works, and each student then worked on a story outline, using their own memories as inspiration.

Rae Hoole said the students got a lot of pleasure and pride out of their work on the film.

"None of them had been involved in making a film before. Some found they had a real interest in camera work, some were more interested in sound," she explained.

"Some of the students enjoyed the early storyboarding and planning, while some performed in it. Between them they did everything."

Thirteen year old Jo Fearon acted in the film, and took still shots on location. She enjoyed the experience.

"It was good," she said, "I came up with the idea at the beginning and then we did the scripting together. Taking photos was fun, and acting was really good."

The film was edited by another industry professional, Mike Bow. He said there were some tough decisions.

"We had to cut the first rough edit down from ten to five minutes. The students made the decisions. We had to lose a couple of scenes which they decided were less important to the drama."

The final scene - Talisman

Mike is used to teaching university students, and he said it was a different experience teaching young people.

"They'd never had anything to do with TV or film making, and it came as a shock to them that there was so much work involved.

"The experience brought out talents they didn't know they had."

Addie May Swarbrick Schwarz played Alex in the film. She said some of the acting was difficult, and "repeating the scenes over and over again got annoying, but it was worth it in the end."

The pupils are now keen to apply for more funding from First Light. Rae Hoole says they'll be trying for follow up money to make another film.

"One of the students has written a storyline, and we want to go for a studio award to make a longer film this time.

Constance Potter was one of the camera operators on 'Talisman', and she'd never used a camera before.

"It was fun to do. The director told me which shots to get and I had to line them up," she explained. "I enjoyed all of it, and I'd like the same job if we did another film."