Most young people dream of being on television, but on Saturday some took their first steps to actually doing it - and found it is not as easy as it looks.

Most young people dream of being on television, but on Saturday some took their first steps to actually doing it - and found it is not as easy as it looks.

At least 30 hopefuls gathered at the Seagull Theatre in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, to try out for roles presenting, directing, sound recording, filming, editing or producing. Norwich-based Eye Film and Television is leading the Street Level Media project, which will see a dozen young people trained in film making. Across the 10-week course they will make 12 short films about the work of Lowestoft Together, a neighbourhood management community action group, which is sponsoring the Lowestoft air show as well as smaller projects.

The project is the brainchild of Enterprise Lowestoft and is being funded with £70,000 from Lowestoft Together, some of which will pay for filming equipment that will stay in the town.

Hazel Johnson, from Enterprise Lowestoft, said: “Young people are very enthusiastic about media, and this will give them a real insight into camera skills, editing, the equipment, how you interview people. The young people who are trained will have very real opportunities in the industry.”

Each hopeful had to do a mock audition to see how they got on. Aspiring presenters had to quiz creative director Frank Prendergast, from Eye Film and Television, on camera, as if presenting a news bulletin.

Mr Prendergast said: “We will have 12 short films at the end, and also a group of trained young people. The films will be ready to put on the internet and television at a later stage, in the short term they will be presented locally and on the community television screens.”

Sera Worrall, 21, from Oulton Broad, who auditioned to become a presenter, said: “I have been wanting to be a journalist since I was 16. I am looking for work at the moment and hoping to go into media.

“I was quite nervous before I went in but it was quite easy to talk to the person who was talking to me.”

Tom Valentine, 22, an engineering apprentice, said: “I am definitely interested in a career in television. I wasn't really nervous going into it but the worst bit was summing up, I didn't know how to put my words together.

“The interviewing was quite easy, it was just asking questions and letting them do the talking.”