Congratulations Class of 2014. Today our graduation ceremony will be at Lincoln Cathedral from 2.30pm. This year’s graduands are already making their mark in the world. Here is a small snapshot of some of them. Rachel Hagreen is working at VideoJug; Gemma Benefer has a reporter’s job at KCFM; Natalie Dobson is a Junior Producer at Gems TV; Sasha Tucker has an internship at Vodafone, which he secured after being part of the student team who won the national 24-hour challenge with its e-cigarette concept; Faye Wood had an online media internship at the College of Arts, University of Lincoln and said she has now been “hired as the web and multimedia officer” here; Steve Staff is an intern with Knight Hall Agency for a month and will update us here when he’s finished, along with an idea about a script network he’ll be setting up; Luke Werra was chosen for the BBC Talent Pool; Danielle Crooks created the soundtrack for an animation project, Lullaby, which was led by Lucy Clay and Amy Fairclough. It’s been nominated for the Student Competition section at Animasyros 7.0 International Animation Festival and will be screened there in October; Dean Dobbs will make his debut guest presenting on 15 Sept (along with 2013 grad Jack Howard as Jack and Dean) on Radio 1 with Dan and Phil – part of the show’s vloggers take-over on Mondays 9pm-10pm. [Last night’s was ‘TomSka‘, 2011 alumnus Thomas Ridgewell]; Sophy Taylor is working in Ibiza as a photographer, also an executive videographer for IBZ.TV and she’s been accepted at the New York Film Academy to do a postgraduate course; freelancers Andrew West and Emily Cowlishaw (our blogger) have decided to undertake their MA course at LSFM; a short film My conversations with Katie by Matt Dean was given an honourable mention in the Santa Monica Independent Film Festival; student team (at Wallbreaker Productions) Ash Wilks, Luke Winter, Alex Whitcombe and Tom Mckie’s The Last Fisherman film has been selected to be screened next month at the well established 14th International Student Film Festival Pisek 2014.
Tom’s camera work on The Last Fisherman has been shortlisted in the top six films for the Bill Vinten GTC University Awards. He said: things seem to be going well at the moment and along with graduating, trying to earn enough to pay and all this it’s a bit mad. But it’s great to be nominated for these awards.
Senior Lecturer Chris Hainstock recalls the making of The Last Fisherman: These four (Ash, Luke, Alex and Tom) were my third year students in 2013/14 and I am obviously very pleased for them.
The students formed a strong production ethic quite early on during their Media Production degree and made two very strong films in the third year – Facebook Anonymous and The Last Fisherman.
The team planned The Last Fisherman with care and attention to all the details, from the location in Staithes, to the fishing boat, the town itself and the smaller props and art direction challenges. They also had quite a considerable list of safety issues to contend with. They decided to shoot The Last Fisherman using one of our new Canon C100 cameras as well as DSLRs and even a Go-Pro for certain shots. For the sound recording they also had visiting US audio student Robert Paulson to help.
I think why The Last Fisherman is gaining such interest lies in the fact that it builds on a strong tradition of what might be called classic film grammar. It takes a relatively simple story, based on a well honed script by one of the group – Luke Winter. To me there are shades of British films from decades ago, such as Local Hero, whilst at the same time using the latest high definition cameras its style echoes much of what is best about British television drama today, with thoughtfully composed shots, combined with subtle editing. The viewer is quickly immersed in the story and is left afterwards with a lasting memory of a snapshot, a glimpse into the lives of others. The group also tried to contextualise the story against the backdrop of the struggle local fishermen are having against the power of the mechanised producers – though this is understated and only really hinted at. The ISFF Student Festival entry will be an interesting test of its international appreciation.