TEENAGE filmmakers from an Oxfordshire college have created films about a controversial wind farm, and picked up prizes for their work.

Four groups from Abingdon and Witney College were among the young people entering The Switch competition, which challenged 16 to 22-year-olds to create a three-minute film tackling people’s views towards climate change and featuring the Westmill wind farm near Swindon.

And two of the teams walked away with the top prizes, with Suzy Frindle, 18, Charlie Neilon, 17, and Sophie Woodbridge, 17, winning the top prize for their film, GBM: The Eco Project.

The efforts of Alex Green, 19, and Ruth Banwell, Henry Dixon and Molly Woodley, all 17, came in second.

Mr Green said: “It was both challenging and a lot of fun.

“We had to fufil the brief and at the same time make it entertaining, fresh and original.”

Course leader Tim Rose said: “This was an opportunity for them to have a real world climate and get some real world work experience.

“Having that opportunity was really great and then after giving them the actual brief and looking at how they would decide to tackle the issue was fantastic.”

The winning film was a mock news broadcast featuring interviews of local residents raising their concerns about the wind farm – before Superman appeared and explained how he has seen the world being destroyed.

It then becomes a viral video where Superman explains the possible effects of climate change.

The second place film is in the style of a 1950s or 1960s public broadcasting announcement trying to demonstrate the errors of historic attitudes to climate change and how current attitudes might also seem outdated in the future.

Mr Rose said: “For some of them it was a real eye opener, for a lot of them it was a job and something they were commissioned to do and they wanted to win.

“But all of them took the research very seriously and approached it with a very professional mindset.”

The winning team took home £100 and the second placed team received £50 – which they pooled and spent on a celebration end of year meal at Frankie and Benny’s for the whole year group.

Mr Rose said: “It was really good for the winning groups to be able to take the rest of the group out and treat them.”

Last year a group from the creative media production course produced a shot by shot remake of Plan B’s She Said video, set in Witney’s old magistrate’s court which was being used as temporary classroom for the college.

Since then it has received 26,000 hits on Youtube.

The winning The Switch videos will also be available on Youtube through the college’s TOCA Media channel.