Reel Creatives - Story First

Story First

Championing Wearside Creators

We support filmmakers, artists, and creatives in Sunderland, Washington, Houghton, Hetton, and County Durham.

Learn More About Us

About Us

Information about Reel Creatives.

Reel Creatives aims to foster a vibrant community of filmmakers, creatives, and artists by providing a free, inclusive social hub for skill development through monthly competitions and challenges. We strive to encourage creativity, collaboration, and personal growth among our members.

Story First is more than just a slogan; it’s our guiding principle at Reel Creatives. By putting story at the heart of everything we do, we inspire filmmakers, creatives, and artists to think deeply about the narratives they want to share. This focus on storytelling encourages meaningful connections, sparks collaboration, and helps our community create work that resonates and leaves a lasting impact.

Events

Our next event will be held on: 25th November 2025 at

The 3 Stories Company Logo

Sunderland | SR1 3BY

Tues November 25th | 6:30 til 9:30pm

Get your FREE ticket!
Promotional flyer for the Reel Creatives November Hub event.
The interior of The 3 Stories venue, showing bookshelves and seating. A group of people at a Reel Creatives event watching a presentation. A person filming with a camera on a tripod.

On Tuesday, 25th November 2025, we will host our 10th FREE monthly networking community hub for local filmmakers, actors, and supporters. All welcome! Any experience, any involvement, always FREE!

Watch and offer feedback on the content created for this month's challenge.
Theme: Horror.
Featured Element: A Candle.

Our next challenge will be set on the night.
Come along and be part of this community hub in which ever way you feel fit.

Current Challenges

Each month, we set a creative challenge to inspire filmmakers, actors, creatives and supporters to get involved and showcase their talent. These challenges are designed to spark ideas, collaboration, and creativity in a supportive and inclusive environment.

Poster for the current challenge. Theme: Christmas. Element: A Christmas token (e.g., mistletoe, cracker, bauble, stocking).).

The Christmas Challenge:

You’ve got two months to create something festive! Everyone who submits to the December challenge will receive a Christmas present from Reel Creatives as a thank you for taking part.

Rules and Expectations:

    The challenge includes a Theme and a required Element. This month's challenge must include:

    Theme:
    Christmas.
    Element:
    A Christmas token (e.g., mistletoe, cracker, bauble, stocking).

  • You can interpret the theme and element however you like as long as it is festive. Keep it achievable, keep it fun, but be creative!
  • Submissions must be a short film this month.
  • Work solo or collaborate with others in the community.
  • Submit your work (finished or in-progress) by midnight on Friday, 19th December 2025.
    Email your submissions to submit@reelcreatives.co.uk. For video submissions, upload your content to YouTube or a cloud storage platform, and send us the link via email or social media message.
  • Your work will be showcased at the next event, where attendees can provide feedback and celebrate the creativity of the community!
Poster for the 'Scared in 60 Seconds' mini-challenge.

November: Open Submission (No Main Challenge)

  • For November we’re throwing out the usual rules and asking you to Submit Anything.

    Anything you’ve worked on, been part of, want to create now, or have tucked away in your vault — we want to see it.
  • Please keep submissions to a short film for screening.
  • Work solo or collaborate with others in the community. You can also revisit our past challenges and make something for a previous brief if that helps you get started.
  • Deadline: midnight on Friday, 21st November 2025.
    Email your submission to submit@reelcreatives.co.uk. For video entries, upload to YouTube or a cloud platform and send us the link.
  • All submissions will be showcased at our next Creative Hub event with supportive feedback from the group.
Poster for the 'Scared in 60 Seconds' mini-challenge.

The 1 Minute Challenge:

  • Our mini challenge called "Done in 60 Seconds"

    Your task is to create a complete scene/short that lasts no longer than 60 seconds:
  • Tell a complete story in exactly 1 minute — Not one second under or one second over.
  • Your submission could be a short film, a script, a monologue, or something completely different.
  • Work solo or collaborate with others in the community – whatever suits you.
  • Submit your work (finished or unfinished) by midnight on Friday, 21st November 2025.
    Email your submissions to submit@reelcreatives.co.uk. For video submissions, upload your content to YouTube or a cloud platform and send us the link via email.
  • Submissions will be showcased at our next Creative Hub event, where you'll get feedback and support from the group.

Submit Your Work

Use the button below to submit your challenge entry or any other creative work you'd like to share.

We welcome submissions for feedback and showcase—whether it's a film, script, monologue, or something else entirely. It doesn’t have to be related to the current challenge.

⚠️ Please keep submissions ideally under 15 minutes. If your piece is longer, send us an enquiry by email first.

Submit