Congrats to indie filmmaker, 2008 grad and LSFM part-time lecturer, Darren Scales at Backyard Productions. After three years in the making … with a budget of £5,000 … the support of hundreds of volunteers … the premier of The Drift (2014) science-fiction feature film was on Saturday at the University of Lincoln. Reviews are coming in from Midlands Movies to ITV News.
Category Archives: LSFM
Student-mentee Bryony Hooper | Paid work with Industry Mentor
I was slightly late. On my first ever paid gig I was slightly late. The first Assistant Director (who also happens to be my mentor) called me to ask where I was. I arrived a couple of minutes before 8:30am when I was meant to be on set by 8:15am. I was upset at the fact I had just broken rule 1 of ‘never be late’ and slightly nervous as I hadn’t met any of the crew before apart from Jonathan Sidwell (my industry mentor) and slightly out of breath as I had basically just ran from Baker Street tube station to Marylebone. But the crew could not have been nicer. Nobody said anything about my lateness and Jonathan immediately introduced me to everyone there and got me straight to work. Making coffee. 
This is what I had expected the day to be. Running around fetching this, that and the other, maybe looking after a few divas, picking out all the green M&M’s. But apart from the first few jobs of make coffee, help this guy, help that guy, go find somewhere to get lunch from (where I had to ring my dad to Google maps of the area), I was stood around watching and learning most of the day. Which was amazing. I feel like I helped quite a bit and got to do an important job of audio playback and clapperboard. I also got to sit behind the director and watch his every move. I also feel like I impressed the crew quite a bit, I asked when I didn’t understand something. Then when I got asked to go on the set as a stand in, I asked if I should take my shoes off Continue reading
Doctor Who: Anatomy of a Hit | RTS event by student Bryony Hooper
Image from RTS webpage: www.rts.org.uk/doctor-who-anatomy-hit
It was Friday night and I got a direct message on Twitter, I heard the notification on my phone but I ignored it as it was raining and I was on my way home. Once I had got in I looked at my phone and it turned out I had won a pair of tickets to Doctor Who: Anatomy of a Hit in London (for 11 Nov)! I do admit I had a fan girl moment. I had only entered on the off chance and I had actually won. Now to spend more money – buying train tickets. It was Tuesday, the day had finally arrived. I got my train down to London, met my Dad (who I had given the other ticket to) and we were off. WE walk past The Guardian building, which felt like an honour in itself somehow, and arrived at 90 York Way. We walked in and there was a queue to go downstairs so we waited, for what felt like forever. Then finally a woman gave the signal and we went down. For some reason everyone who I thought was there for business got up and followed us down, mainly middle aged men, I only saw 2 people that were dressed head to toe in Doctor Who gear who I would class as hard core whovians, weird. As we were registering 2 people came round dressed as monsters from the show. I got some brilliant pictures of them!
Then finally we were allowed in. The scene was brilliant; a weeping angel and a dalek were on stage. I got a seat, 5 rows from the front right in the middle. Then Moffat came on and my life was complete. Continue reading
LSFM Mentoring | Industry engagement between alumni and students
Lincoln School of Film & Media Mentoring is a unique way for us to link industry with 20 of our undergraduates. Thanks to our mentors, they’re all our alumni from media & its related industries, AND LSFM students who applied to be mentees this year.
After a successful pilot launched at the start of 2014, our mentoring initiative will continue this academic year and is a collaboration between the School and the University of Lincoln Careers & Employability Service. LSFM Mentoring between industry professionals and our undergraduates is part of our LSFM Network, which (as you may know) created this blog and started the School’s ‘Meet the Graduates’ alumni event (next gathering for graduates & students will be on 29 Oct) to name just a couple of things managed by the network. The LSFM has always been keen for our alumni to be part of our activities and events. LSFM Mentoring is another strand to enhance our link between industry and academia. We’re looking forward to our media mentors and mentees sharing their experiences here! LSFM Mentoring is a developing project, so your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. You can read a student-mentee story from the pilot mentoring here.
Meet the Graduates | Wed 29 Oct
Meet the Graduates is the School’s alumni event to bring together our graduates and students to share experiences, passions and make face-to-face contacts. It’s free, in-house on the 1st floor Minerva Building. 29 October 2014 from 2-5pm.
Between 20-30 alumni are coming along from the media and creative industries (work permitting!): acting … screenwriting … designing … music video directing … photography … TV production … local radio … presenting … promotions … working with effects … video production … indie filmmaking … managing media companies …
2pm: Ask what you’d like to know at the Graduate Question Time, so come prepared for the Q&A. 3pm: Mingle! You can make personal contact at the informal networking with any alumni you choose. See some alumni who’re attending here!
The countdown is on! Students please let us know you’re coming to MtG, see our Facebook page for the event and share. What’s not to like?! Graduates don’t forget to email you’re attending alumni@lincoln.ac.uk & follow LSFM graduates on Twitter. For the event use #MtGLincoln. Thanks.
Animation Luma St. | Festival Screenings in the USA and UK
Nice! Animation student Daniel Escobar’s Luma St. with creative team Alex Kirkwood, Alexander Stokes, Samuel Brierley, Adam Horsepool and music & sound by 2014 Audio Production Graduate Nathan James Lewis has been selected for Festimation – an International Animation & New Media Arts Festival, which is on this month in Montana, USA. Festimation is an event for screening and showcasing ‘up-and-coming independent, narrative, documentary and experimental animated films.’ Luma St. is summed up as a short that “revolves around the idea of people missing the beauty in everyday life.” LSFM Senior Lecturer Sultan Efe: It’s great to see that the organisers used snapshots from Luma St. as part of their poster for the festival. Daniel has sent the film to several animation competitions and festivals and I am sure we will be hearing good news in the next 12 months.”
Luma St. will be screened at Lincoln Shorts film festival along with a hugely diverse, eclectic and entertaining mix of locally-made short films at Lincoln Drill Hall on 18th October at 7pm. Admission’s £5 and you can book tickets online! And from Lincoln (UK) to LA because Luma St. will also be screened at ‘The World Animation Celebration, International Short Film Animation Festival‘ on 1st November. Continue reading
International Buddy Scheme | Student Engagement at LSFM
The Lincoln School of Film & Media’s International Buddy Scheme is the brainchild of Senior Lecturer Marcella Forster. The scheme was picked by the Student Engagement Innovation Fund at the University of Lincoln. It said the scheme’s “about facilitating the integration of international and home students in the LSFM through a collaborative media project and the creation of a buddy system of support for international students. It addresses the theme ‘engaging home and international students in building a sense of community and fostering integration’ and is a response to feedback from current international students.” Marcella’s update: “we recruited six student mentors for the LSFM International Buddy Scheme: Barney Oram, Ayodele Ogunshakin, Yiran Zhou, Josh Mathews, Laura Scott and Maz Jules. They were teamed up with our new international students at a breakfast event and I’ve posted a few photos. Continue reading
Steve Staff, Class of 2014 | Join a Screenwriters’ Circle
If you, like me, are an aspiring screenwriter you will know that our chosen profession comes with its fair share of challenges, probably the most prominent of which is the sheer mass of people who share our common dream of seeing the words we’ve written performed on the silver screen. In fact, I would be willing to bet that, much like Kevin Bacon, each of us alive today are never any more than six connections away from a screenwriter or their lowly cousin, the humble ‘aspiring screenwriter’(throw a tennis ball in your local Cafe Nero and you’ve probably got a 1 in 5 chance of hitting at least three of these). So I thought, why not use those numbers to our advantage? Because as I’m sure you know, another common problem for people of our ilk is getting things read, friends and family loath having a screenwriter in their lives, because it means they’re bugged, prodded and cajoled constantly into reading and reviewing every single thought that passes through our heads, of course we know what we’re writing is fantastic, but what’s the point if other people aren’t enjoying it too?
Which brings me round to my point, if you saw my previous post (re: my recent internship at Knight Hall Agency) you may have seen mention of a University of Lincoln (UoL) grad/student ‘screenwriters’ circle’ that I am going to be setting up; Continue reading
Ayodele Ogunshakin, Year 3 Student | work experience update
After working as a floor manager for BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Lip Dub event, I was fortunate enough to meet the event’s producer, Rosemary Richards. It’s over a year later and after reaching out and asking whether Rosemary was working on any new projects I found myself working with Rosa Productions for this year’s Gravity Fields Festival (was 24-28 Sept 2014).
It’s a Grantham based festival combining science, arts and heritage events. As a result there were many organisations and businesses involved in the festival and within the community there was a sense of excitement as to what this year’s plans would bring. As Rosa Productions deals with events, it has been extremely interesting to see just how much work goes into producing a community event. I spent the week working in the office, which involved completing general office tasks but also venturing into town to liaise with the venue organisers and even assisting in a large silk painting for display on one of the heritage walks. Continue reading
Media Mentoring Opportunity | Students can apply NOW!
We are proud that our LSFM Mentoring between industry professionals and our students will be running this academic year. HUGE thanks to creative & media-related pros for volunteering their time to be mentors, some who’re our alumni, we are half way there. So now we are looking for undergraduates who are in their final or second year of creative study to apply for our unique media mentoring …
… Just complete the student registration form here. Deadline for applications is 5th October 2014 via email to Louise Lawlor. Hurry not long to go! If selected, you must be available for the 1-hour induction on 22nd October from 4pm to 5pm at the Enterprise Building and also at 11.30am on 29th October for a chance to chat with your media mentor.
Our media mentoring is in partnership with the University of Lincoln Careers & Employability. LSFM Head Sarah Barrow said: This is a great opportunity for our Level 3 and Level 2 undergraduates Continue reading