Alex O’Brien, Class of 2014 | Work Placement at Azimuth Post

Alex-O'Brien_APGrad2014Recent audio production graduate Alex O’Brien shares her week’s work experience in London with Azimuth Post Production:  I found Azimuth on Twitter and have followed them for a good few months now. I don’t know why it took me so long to enquire about a work placement but I wish I’d done it sooner. I emailed on the Sunday and had a reply first thing Monday morning offering me a week long placement. So I spent the next how many ever weeks working hard as a kitchen assistant, saving every penny I earned.  What did I get up to? I spent my week as a runner. Making tea, coffee and toast, fetching the odd Starbucks and doing the odd lunch run round Soho. We’ve all heard the runner horror stories but I found it to be quite the opposite. I loved every minute of it.  

Azimuth’s clients are all lovely, busy people who found the time to talk to me. I was on more than one occasion greeted with “Oh, you’re new!” and the conversation started there. I was asked what I was doing, what I had been doing, what my interests were and where I wanted to be. The amount of advice I got from just 5 minutes with a client has been absolute gold and I can’t thank them enough for that.  Continue reading

Adam Deakin, Class of 2014 | Work at Portrait Salon Exhibition

AdamDeakin_2014CLMGraduate2014 Contemporary Lens Media graduate Adam Deakin is a creative fashion and portrait photographer. His work has been selected for the 4th Portrait Salon exhibition which kicked off at the Four Corners in London.  The print exhibition will be shown across the UK into the new year (dates and venues are below).

Portrait Salon 2014 said: “For the first time, we will be exhibiting prints which have been submitted to and rejected by the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Gallery Photographic Portrait Prize, in an exhibition which will tour the UK.  The Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize is one of the most prestigious photography prizes in the world, attracting entrants from professionals and amateurs alike. This year (2014) 4,193 images were submitted by 1,793 photographers, with 60 chosen to be in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. We seek to show the best of the rest.”

AdamDeakin_CLM2014Grad_PortraitSalon2014Adam’s selected image, pictured left, was chosen as one of 70 portraits out of 1,184 images. The Portrait Salon 2014 selection was made by Christiane Monarchi (Photomonitor), photographer Martin Usbourne (Hoxton Mini Press) and Emma Taylor (Creative Advice Network). The Print Exhibition will be on tour at:

Fuse Art Space, Bradford | 4 Dec – 27 Dec 2014

DATES FOR 2015 Continue reading

Daniel Escobar, Class of 2014 | Luma St. Animation Nomination

Daniel_Escobar_LumaSt_AnimationGrad2014Following on from recent screenings at film fests Luma St. has more good news. 2014 Animation graduate Daniel Escobar who created, edited and directed the short said: Luma St. has been nominated for the finalists in the International digital animation festival – Nagoya 2014 (it’s in Japan).  It’s also been accepted into the Reel Genius International Film Festival and for those of you who haven’t seen the film, it is in a public competition at the audience awards. So watch it and vote for us if you liked it: http://theaudienceawards.com/film/luma-st15951

Vote HERE for The Audience Awards. The Nagoya 2014 winner will be announced on 6th December 2014.   Continue reading

Animation Luma St. | Festival Screenings in the USA and UK

Luma_St_picNice! 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.”

LincolnShortsLuma 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

Royal Television Society Midlands | LSFM Student Nominations

RTS_logo_150wHead of Lincoln School of Film & Media (LSFM) Dr Sarah Barrow: Great news – we have 2 nominations for the Midlands Royal TV Society awards this year in the student category. Every year for the past 12 (roughly!) we’ve been nominated and most years we’ve won at least one award; one year we also clinched a national award. The team of graduates who made these 2 films are also those who went to China this summer.  

The student team were Thomas MckieAshley Wilks, Luke Winter and Alexander Whitcombe (and at the time the four were Wallbreaker Productions) who have been nominated for the 2014 Royal Television Society (Midlands) Student Awards. Their films are in the student categories: ‘Comedy & Entertainment’ for Facebook Anonymous and in ‘Drama’ for The Last Fisherman – in the latter, location sound and mixing was by visiting US student Rob Paulson.

NEWS UPDATE 30 Oct:  Facebook Anonymous did win an RTS regional award. Yay!  The satricial film will be put forward for the national RTS Award nominations (held next Spring in London). Here’s a clip of the students at the RTS regional awards:

Continue reading

Steve Staff, Class of 2014 | Join a Screenwriters’ Circle

SteveStaff_ in studioIf 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

Emily Cowlishaw, Class of 2014 | I’m starting my Master’s degree!

Emily-Cowlishaw_gradpicIt’s not rejection it’s motivation! The most unrealistic thing I thought would ever happen to me is about to begin… I am starting my Master’s Degree! Three years ago I was worrying if I had even made the grades to get into University (see my previous blog post for this journey!) and now I am sitting here with a First Class Honours degree and a scholarship to study for my Master’s.  [P.S Graduation was absolutely beautiful… as you can imagine! Here’s a selfie of my in utter shock I actually got through it all.]

What?! When did this all happen?  This story genuinely begins back in Level One Media Production where I applied to be a part of the Moorhead Exchange programme the University has with America at MSUM. I worked full time prior to University alongside my A Levels to fund this potential trip (I like to plan ahead!). I went into the interview as a shy and lazy fresher. I came out upset and angry at the prospect that I had not done enough, as there were limited spaces and a high number of applicants. And I was absolutely correct. That trip was not to be. Continue reading

Steve Staff, Class of 2014 | My Internship at Knight Hall Agency

SteveStaff_KnightHall-picTo the left you will see a picture of some books. More specifically a picture of some books on the elongated book case that makes up one wall of the Knight Hall Agency office space, each of which earned their place by having their screen adaptation rights picked up by the agency. All great reads I’m sure, but the reason I just spent the last month interning there was to get a glimpse of what happens behind those books, in the very cool hidden meeting rooms that lie beyond. Here is where Knight Hall’s four agents entertain noteworthy figures from all over the British (and occasionally American, French, Scandinavian) TV and film industry, as well as their impressive roster of accomplished screenwriters and playwrights.

Some of Knight Hall’s more recognisable names include award winning writers such as Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, Slum Dog Millionaire, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, A Behanding in Spokane) and Jeremy Brock (The Last King of Scotland, The Eagle, How I Live Now) I could go on but after seeing just one of these names I was quickly into my Yahoo account and firing off an email begging for an internship. A response came almost immediately (not a brag, they just happened to be checking through internship emails at the precise moment mine hit their screens) and after a quick interview I was offered a place. I spent the next couple months working in a shoe shop to save up (London is expensive, who knew?) and in mid-August I set off.  Continue reading

Class of 2014 | Graduation Day Photos

Barbara-Dickson_by-GeorgeBassCaptured! Our Class of 2014’s Graduation Day pics at Lincoln Cathedral courtesy of LSFM’s Alumni team and the School’s Senior Lecturers Chris Hainstock & Zara Healy. The photo (left) is by alumnus George Bass and it was the University of Lincoln’s picture of the weekHe said: honoured to share my Graduation day with legendary singer Barbara Dickson who was awarded a Doctorate of the Arts!” 

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The video of our 2.30pm Graduation Ceremony can be viewed here. We wish our alumni all the very best.  Please do keep us posted – let us know about your journeys and experiences.  Remember to share with us on this blog …

Congrats to our Class of 2014

GraduationDay_UoLCongratulations 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 TVSasha 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” hereSteve 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 Festivalstudent team (at Wallbreaker ProductionsAsh 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.

Thomas-Mckie_2014Grad

Tom’s camera work on The Last Fisherman has been shortlisted in the top six films for the Bill Vinten GTC University AwardsHe 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. Continue reading