"A few years ago I was running home one day and it started to rain," says Ashok Baker, an 18-year-old from Blackpool. "I was completely soaked and out of breath so I stopped in an Asda car park. A few seconds later this woman rolled her window down and said, "I've seen you looking."

Baker, wearing a hooded top at the time, didn't know how to react but the experience wasn't uncommon. "The immediate assumption is that people my age are all terrible and this is especially dependent on the way they dress," he said.

So Baker set out to dispel some of the myths of so-called "chav culture" in a film, Reflections, a compelling thriller centred on three Blackpool students, which he wrote at the age of 15. The film, which is now in post-production, has been three years in the making but is the result of a long collaboration with a film company with a difference.

Blackpool-born Baker, who it's fair to say is a bit of a film nut, first encountered Workshop Productions when he was at a Blackpool film summer school as a year eight pupil. "When it came to doing work experience, I asked lots and lots of film companies and they all said no," Baker said. "But Workshop Productions said yes within seconds to a two-week placement.

While there, he showed the team his film and they agreed to help him make it. In short, says David T Guest, one of Workshop Productions' founders, "it was a film by young people, about young people, for young people".

Workshop Productions, which was founded in 2005, in addition to working on commercial and corporate projects, does much of its work with young people and sidelined groups. In January 2007 they undertook a project with local schoolchildren that looked at the issue of bullying. Guest said: "After discussing the cliches of educational films, the young people wanted to put a new spin on them. So we came up with the idea of a film about bullying from the bully's point of view." Entitled simply The Bully's Story, says Guest, "it is possibly one of the best products Workshop Productions has generated."

A week-long workshop at Lancaster University in August 2008 produced a film entitled Cuts Like A Knife, on issues surrounding knife crime. This will be entered into young people's film festivals in the coming year.

And the company has just finished a workshop with Connexions Liverpool entitled Move Up Film as part of PAYP (positive activities for young people), a national government programme for eight to 19-year-olds offering arts, sports, cultural and educational activities. The young people involved in the workshop were all categorised as at-risk or with learning difficulties. The resulting production was a dance video in partnership with Activate Arts, a charitable creative-industry company based in Liverpool.

More recently, Workshop has made Are We Bovvard?, a short documentary focusing on whether the much-vaunted regeneration of Morecambe is actually affecting the experiences of young people on the street. The film was produced and filmed by the young person's stakeholder group at Signposts, a Morecambe-based community organisation.

As the teenage narrator points out in the film: "The absence of literal stories and experiences of young people, begged the question of how consultative the regeneration project has been during planning phase." The film yields suggestions there is a lack of open space in the area, lots of noise and a drink problem, but it also says there is a great energy and a "buzz".

This balanced view is important. Pam Beswick, chief executive of Signposts, said: "Are We Bovvard? was an honest account of the young people's experiences. We have to listen to what they have to say and I think it was a positive experience and it's given us something we can use as a resource and – moreover – something they can say they've done to change things."

Guest said the benefits of using film to engage young people are manifold: "The 'cool' of the media often breaks down barriers infecting participants with excitement and curiosity while other activities such as sport or art might meet with disdain or indifference."

The workshops, he added, "are inherently practical with a hands-on approach rather than an academic or classroom delivery. This engages those who are not naturally inclined towards traditional teaching methods or have suffered bad experiences in school."

And then there's the issues raised which, to date, have ranged from bullying to knife culture and racism. Guest said: "The production process allows for an excellent outlet for these ideas and energy that might otherwise be misdirected in antisocial or criminal behaviour."

Now working towards a BTEC in media production, Baker sees himself working as a film director on films which "make a point about society but in a new way". See you at the Oscars.