TWO talented teenagers are hoping to win awards for a short film they wrote and filmed together.

Sara Harrak from Chigwell and Megan Salter from Theydon Bois both studied drama at college but decided they wanted the chance to go behind the camera instead.

The 19-year-olds managed to secure funding for their project from Essex County Council and enlisted the help of local bands and actors to help them with the production.

Titled 'You Will See Life' the film is about a young girl who loses her eye sight.

Sara said: “The whole point of the film is that the girl has acceptance about her blindness. She becomes a song writer so there's hope at the end.

"Everything has been done by youths and we wanted to inspire young people and show that you can achieve.”

The two friends attended workshops to learn the basic skills of filming and then approached the BBC about editing their footage.

Sara said: “We paid hardly anything and the BBC edited it all for us. It's been amazing.

"This is the first film we have ever made and now we want to show it at film festivals and hopefully wins some awards. We are showing it in a cinema and inviting the BBC people who helped us along and we're also giving it to the Blind Dogs Association for them to use as information about blindness.”

The girls have also been backed by Waitrose in Buckhurst Hill where customers can donate tokens to the girls project which is then transferred into money to help with funding.

Both girls are now hoping that their production will lead the way into a film making career.

Sara added: “I really enjoyed it and I love being in front of the camera as well but it's definitely where I want to go. Megan was the lead role and I directed it and it was great to be able to create it exactly as we wanted it to be.”