Recent LSM graduates, Warren Hayward, James Martin, Gideon Marriott and Leanne Bacon had some valuable work experience contributing to the post production of ‘The Forty’, a film made by  Lecturer Dan Frodsham. The film charts the painstaking work of conserving an exquisite Renaissance fresco in Famagusta, Cyprus. Dan sent us an update on the film’s success:

‘The Forty’ had a very successful World Monuments Fund screening at the Empire State Building in New York yesterday (11 Dec). Mike Walsh, who presented the film, emailed me with: ‘Talk went well. Got a lot more money. Film went down a treat. WMF asked for permission to stream it.’ Yiannis Avramides from the WMF has been in touch to arrange uploading of the film to their site http://www.wmf.org/. Yiannis added: ‘I would also like to tell you how engaging everyone in our office thought that the film is. In my opinion, high-quality content like that is the key to making our work in the heritage field more engaging, which is something that everyone always agonizes about.’

It’s good to see the film doing exactly what it was intended to achieve: raising money and awareness and gathering support. I don’t yet know yet how much money was pledged by sponsors yesterday but it all sounds promising…and means there’ll be resources to continue with conservation work next year….and maybe another film?!!!!

Thanks once again for all your work on the project, and well done…its been a great success!

Graduate Gideon Marriott added:
“I developed a great interest in film sound during my studies at LSM and this was a great opportunity to utilise what I’d learnt. It was a great experience and I’m thrilled the film is doing so well worldwide. It was my pleasure to work with Dan and some fellow LSM graduates. We’re currently looking to enter the film at appropriate festivals and I hope it continues to raise awareness for similar conservation/restoration projects. I’m proud to have played a part.”