A summer of fun, film and photography

The Summer Holidays are fast approaching and for many people it will mean sun, sea and sand...for a short while anyway. Closer to home, the British Summer never fails to disappoint. The expected heatwave never arrives. The kids are under your feet. "I'm bored mum." "I'm bored dad" they moan. There is only a certain amount of times you can visit the zoo, go to the cinema or take them to the beach before they become 'boring' too.

If you're short on ideas and looking for things to do in Colchester, then Signal Media Arts Centre has a variety of workshops that will not only keep them occupied doing something new, fun and interesting but it will give them skills in new areas that they never knew they could do. If you were impressed with the drawing you've got stuck on the fridge door then you'll be blown away when they come home with their very own comic book, which they created themselves in the Comic Book Heroes Workshop (7+)

When its mid August and it starts raining, instead of sitting indoors watching Wallace and Gromit boxsets with the kids, wondering

"how do they make those little plasticine figures walk, talk and eat cheese?"

let your child spend the day at our Claymation workshop and they can come home and inform you on how it's done! Our most popular workshop teaches them the basics of stop frame animation using modelling clay to create a short animated film.

Signals Media Arts also provide a Five Day Film School that will really give them something to talk about when they head back to normal school in September. Taking them through storyboarding, scriptwriting, camera work, sound skills and editing, the Five Day Film School gives young people aged 12+ a real hands on experience in filmmaking.

So you're probably feeling a bit left out now. Your Summer sounds boring compared to the kids. But you can get the whole family involved with our Family Photography and Family Claymation workshops. Then you can tell all your neighbours how your family feature in your very own film. Take a look at the full list of courses and workshops here

Now, who said there aren't things to do in Colchester?