Axolotl

Project Writer & Reporter · Lead Trainer · Video & Photography Facilitator · Erasmus+ KA153-YOU · Mobility of Youth Workers

Videomakers 101

A 7-day professional development training course equipping 25 youth workers from 6 countries with video production skills – to reach marginalised communities through the power of digital storytelling.

Budget €20,041

Participants 25 youth workers Countries 7 Duration and place 7 days, Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

What we set out to do

Videomakers 101 was a Erasmus+ KA153-YOU training course by Association Alter Network, bringing together 25 youth workers from Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands for six intensive days of video production training in Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. We noticed that youth workers increasingly work with young people through digital media, but most have no formal training in how to create it. So we decided to give them the basis for it.

Axolotl’s founder Toni Lyubenova was brought in as the project writer and reporter, lead trainer and video facilitator, drawing on her background in Film & TV Production from National Academy of Film & Theatre and her experience producing video content for NGOs, campaigns, and educational programmes across Bulgaria and Europe.

What Axolotl delivered

Wrote, designed and facilitated the full videomaking programme across 7 training days in Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria
Led hands-on sessions covering storyboarding, lighting & composition, sound, editing, and digital storytelling
Facilitated the creation of individual educational videos by each of the 25 participants – for use with their communities back home
Guided group documentary projects on a community issue identified by participants during their time in Sofia
Supported the Local Phase design, briefing participants on how to deliver follow-up videomaking workshops in 6 countries

Approach and methodology

The training used experiential learning as its core framework – participants first experienced each method themselves before applying it to their own content. Sessions moved from trust-building and group dynamics through to technical videomaking and finally to community-impact creation. Every technique was dedicated to a real use case: how to use this with the young people you work with. We went out there, filmed for the local community, engaged with them, asked them about their issues as locals, and created movies about it.

Photos by Eve Enfer and Anthon Toshev

Axolotl contributed expertise in visual storytelling, documentary filmmaking, and video as a non-formal education tool – adapting professional production methods for a non-specialist, multilingual audience of youth workers.

Experiential learning · Visual storytelling · Documentary filmmaking · Storyboarding · Digital media for inclusion · Non-formal education

What participants learned

Communication through video – models for connecting with marginalised target groups
Storyboarding – planning and structuring their own educational videos
Research methods – how to ground impactful video in community reality
Sound and editing – practical tools and software for post-production
Storytelling in video – the poetic, documentary, montage, and interview techniques
Lighting and composition – exercises in visual framing and camera work
Group documentary project – co-creating a short film on a community issue in Sofia
Individual video creation – each participant produced one educational video to take home

Impact and results

“By the end of the training, youth workers had moved from theory to production – each leaving Gotse Delchev with more than one finished educational video and a clear plan for their local follow-up workshop.

– Toni Lyubenova, lead trainer, Axolotl

25 educational videos produced by participants across 6 countries
6 local follow-up workshops delivered in participants’ home communities after the training
Shared video platform created for ongoing content distribution across partner networks
Approx. 350 young people in marginalised communities reached through local follow-up activities

PROJECT DETAILS

Programme: Erasmus+ KA153-YOU

Type: Mobility of Youth Workers

Dates: 10–18 September 2023

Venue: Hristov Hotel, Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria

Budget: €20,041

Axolotl’s role: Lead trainer · Video & photography facilitator

Client organisation: Association ALTER NETWORK, Sofia

PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

Bulgaria: Association ALTER NETWORK (lead applicant)

Netherlands: Stichting De Olde Vechte, Ommen

Czech Republic: YOUnique z.s., Teplice nad Bečvou

Italy: ORIEL APS, Verona

Greece: Active Green Solution, Serres

Poland: Vamos!, Warsaw

COLLABORATORS

Anton Toshev, Logistical support & co-facilitation

Need a video trainer or media facilitator for your next project?

Axolotl designs and delivers video production training, digital (and non-digital!) storytelling workshops for Erasmus+ projects and NGOs across Europe.

axolotl.management@gmail.com

VIDEOMAKERS 101

Videomakers 101