The Story

North Weezie is a thought provoking interlocking collection of stories set in North West London. The story begins with, in reality, a common occurrence in North West London - a couple of innocent girls being mugged by a gang.
This badly affects one of the girls - who, scared and lonely retreats into herself...
Meanwhile the boys who did it, wouldn't have a clue, they just keep on getting high and getting nowhere...
One boy in the gang - the doctor, has a bit more ambition and he decides to leave them to it but makes a dumb split decision with devastating consequences... and are his mates there to help?
Around the corner, a young girl tries to decide what to do about the creepy way her step dad looks at her and by the end of the night -
Everyone ends up in casualty... is there any justice in the end? Watch and find out.
Most of the music used in the film is also written and composed by the switched on students.

The Making

North Weezie was devised by the Switched on Students with the help of the National Youth theatre. The NYT team used drama workshops to help the students mould a story together which was written by Connor Morrissey. The process was really powerful and not only helped the students come up with creative ideas but bond as a team and develop more confidence.
The whole drama was filmed in the CLC and has a very theatrical quality - there are very few props and the sets are minimal so the viewer can focus on the dramatic performances... and they really are. Considering these students have not had any drama performance experience they are really amazing performances. The students were lucky to be able to work with some very talented people from the BBC - Katy Holbird and Melanie Lindsell and had some inspirational filming direction from Max Pugh from Yeast Culture.

The Concepts

The whole story comes from the young people. The ideas are based on experiences the young people have had and heard about. During the lead up to the drama we had the Trident Murder Squad come in and talk to the group about the cold hard facts of gun crime - the completely unglamorous side and we also had a man who has been to prison give some advice about avoiding this and finding a direction in life. The story is hard hitting and hopefully people will watch and talk about the ideas. The general underlying concept is that all actions have consequences...