Our Alumni | Your Invitation to Meet the Graduates | 29 Oct 2014

Meet_the_Graduates_150wAll graduates from the Lincoln School of Film & Media (formerly LSM, Media Production Department, etc.) are invited to join us for our graduate gathering to share experiences and mingle with students.  ‘Meet the Graduates’ (MtG) will be on Wednesday 29th October at the Brayford Pool campus. The popular Graduate Question Time followed by Networking are our main attractions. Both are great opportunities for our students to meet alumni from a range of media and related professions.

MtG_Email-invite_29Oct2014Our graduates should have got an e-invite to this academic year’s MtG event (if your details are correct with the University’s alumni team) and you can get in touch with our colleagues either by email: alumni@lincoln.ac.uk or you can tweet @LincolnAlumniUK  [Please confirm you are coming ASAP, to help the alumni team keep a tally for us on the graduates who’ll be attending, thanks.]

Graduates have said our alumni event is also a great way to keep in contact with us and each other, as well as have a nose around to see the School’s developments.

Looking China 2014 | Filmmaking Project Review | Marcella Forster

LookingChina2014_BlueLogo Following on from the post on Looking China 2014, our Senior Lecturer Marcella Forster reports on the filmmaking project she undertook in Dalian with LSFM’s four graduating student-producers: During Looking China 2014 we were each asked to sum up our experience in one word. I chose “illuminating”. For me, the scheme shed light on Chinese culture in general and the Dalian way of life in particular. Our young translators and the Chinese filmmakers introduced us to local eateries, locations and people we would not have been able to access as tourists, and for this reason I would recommend the scheme to anyone interested in modern China.

LookingChina2014_airportscheduleWe left Heathrow airport in London with little idea of what to expect in Dalian, other than what we had read on the internet and heard from other travellers. We anticipated good seafood, we hoped the weather would be fine and we wished for a warm welcome. Our hopes were answered, and our wishes were surpassed. A sea of people in lime-green shirts, waving Looking China 2014 banners and cheering, greeted us as we exited Dalian airport over an hour behind schedule (a typhoon had been threatening the city.)  We were whisked away to our accommodation in the postgraduate dormitory of Liaoning Normal University and then taken out for a carousel of dishes at the university’s cultural centre, including some excellent kung pao chicken. We were offered forks but opted for chopsticks. The next morning, wearing our own lime-green Looking China 2014 polo shirts, we attended the launch ceremony at the west campus of the university and had a chance to look at some impressive student work in fashion, animation and art. UK students were then allocated a Chinese producer and a translator and got to work on their projects. Continue reading

Looking China 2014 | Global Filmmaking Project by Uni Students

LookingChina_2014LogoFour of our graduating students, and two students from Cardiff University, along with the University of Lincoln School of Film & Media’s Senior Lecturer Marcella Forster undertook a 16-day filmmaking project in Dalian called Looking China 2014. Its aim was to enhance cultural communication between China and the rest of the world through the art of film.  Soon-to-be Class of 2014 Ash Wilks, Tom McKie, Luke Winter and Alex Whitcombe worked as media producers with fellow student filmmakers from universities in China, America, Australia, India, Singapore, South Korea and France.  

Participating students produced 10-minute films, which were screened at an exclusive ceremony earlier this month. Now the shorts will be shown accross China and worldwide from the USA to the UK. Marcella outlined our students’ short films: Tom displayed to us the architectural heritage and splendour of the city; Alex’s study of the spiritual focus in Dalian’s physical activities introduced us to some captivating characters; Luke captured the young people of Dalian and the fascinating phenomenon of Lightning Play; and you can see Ash’s film here, which brought home to us the care that Dalian workers put into their jobs and the pleasure they derive from them. [Ash, Luke and Tom have their own production company called Wallbreaker, see the services they provide here.]

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Steve Bernard, Class of 2013 | Audio Production Alumnus

Screen Shot 2014-08-18 at 11.30.54I’m Steve Bernard, a BA (Hons) Audio Production alumnus from the Class of ’13. Since I graduated, I’ve been employed at Cooz’s Recording Studio, in Oxford. My relationship with the studio actually began almost three years ago, after my first summer at the University of Lincoln, when I did a week long work experience there to enhance my CV. This led to an internship which I maintained around my degree, and I was offered a job at the studio after I finished my third year. (Photo: I’m with the director Kevin Cousineau, aka Cooz, mixing the Bad Company documentary.)

Working at the studio has been a great experience and I’ve recently found the most success as a Hip Hop producer – we were fortunate to have a break with a South African rapper called Rowan Groom, and his contacts and reputation in the emerging local Hip Hop scene has meant that business in this genre has skyrocketed. In the last 6 months, I’ve worked with a wide array of talent, producing mixtapes and EPs local rappers and singers such as Apt Ochiela, Carby, Manny O, Ellie Robbins and Rifle.

Getting business for my work relies heavily on word of mouth and networking. Continue reading

UNTITLED Independent Film Night by Quandary Productions

2009 alumnus Michael Henry is one of our inspirational media mentors and has posted about Quandary Productions first indie film night, last week, at The Angel Coffee House in Lincoln (UK):  

Michael-Henry_untitled-film-night_QuandaryProductions

Hosted by Quandary’s very own Tom Bridger, the night was a chance for low-to-no budget short films to be showcased to fresh audiences. When first starting out as a filmmaker it can be hard to get your work shown. This is something we appreciated and wish to remedy within the local area. The night consisted of several short films continue reading →

Photos on FB  |  Submit your short for September’s indie film night. Email: quandaryproductions@googlemail.com  |

Video As Above, So Below | International Drone Culture Colloquium

University of Lincoln Crestvideo about the Drone Culture research event on 24 May at the University of Lincoln (UK) was captured by graduating student Andrew West and 2010 alumnus Steve Young.  The international 1-day event was organised by the School’s Dr Rob Coley, Dr Dean Lockwood and Adam O’Meara.  It was hosted by the 21st Century Research Group at the University of Lincoln (UK) where academics, writers, artists and performers from across the globe discussed the social and conceptual implications of unmanned aircraft.   Andrew West, video producer: I hope this video shows to an extent the atmosphere of the international colloquium throughout the day, which was filmed by Steve Young and me (both from the Lincoln School of Film & Media). As a soon to be postgraduate student I personally took a lot from the event and whilst filming enjoyed listening to the various discussions, arguments and debates around drone culture.

Dr Rob Coley:  Dean, Adam and I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who attended or otherwise supported the colloquium on drone culture. Continue reading

Lewis Coates, Class of 2014 | Trailer for ‘Synoptica’ Short

Synoptica marks our final project completed at university and we’re very pleased with the outcome.  The final short film has been praised by many tutors and students at the degree show, put forward for an RTS award and sent to international film festivals.  We’d like to thank our LSM tutors and other lecturers at the University of Lincoln who have shared their positive views on the piece and have helped us along the way. Here is the trailer for our futuristic drama.


[Crew: Lewis Coates Director, co-writer, co-producer | Mikaela Smith camera, co-writer, co-producer | Jordan Chulk camera, editor | Matt Swinn sound, editor | Wing Hangg-Chung co-writer ]

Synoptica_crew&cast

Crew & Cast on set

We were lucky with the casting. The script captivated the attention of Nathalie Cox  [Exam (2009), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Double (2013)] who auditioned for the lead role. Actors Nathalie and Chris Grierson (Alice in Wonderland (2010), Holby City ‘Everything to play for’ (2011) both worked very well together on set and developed the lead characters extremely well.

We had to overcome many location and budget problems, which put major pressures on the production’s schedule and pushed shooting back over two weeks. Continue reading

Aleysha Minns, Class of 2013 | Website | Film, TV & Photography

Aleysha-Minns_20142013 graduate and freelancer Aleysha Minns, who is one of our inspiring LSFM mentors, is now officially self-employed and said: My website is finally live! What a long and interesting journey it has been. I think the mistake I made was starting to set it up too early, I was at a point were my work was still based around my student work and I was only just beginning my freelance career. I am still in the starting stages, but at least I have some credited work. Thank you very much to my web designer/developer Sam Kelham for putting up with me all this time. I definitely recommend him if you need anything like this done and can visit his website here.

This video is a showcase of some of my most recent work including work with Channel 4 and FyreUK. It shows my skills in a range of areas such as Production Management, Camera Operator, Producer and Director over different genres.

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Rachel Hagreen, Class of 2014 | I got the job (at VideoJug)!

Rachel Hagreen_cuI got the job! I am officially an office and production assistant at VideoJug. Meaning I’ll be leaving Lincoln and Halifax and moving to London in approximately 2 weeks time to start work on the 18th of August.

Thankfully it was my extensive CV that appealed to them and they were impressed with the amount of work I’d done alongside my degree (thank God it was worth it). I’m extremely excited to join the company, they’re getting around 50 million views on their website per month and this is constantly increasing, as is their list of clients. It seems like a really exciting place to work and I can’t wait to actually use the skills I’ve learnt whilst at university to contribute to such an established company.

The past 2/3 months have been an absolute nightmare. I have become the flakiest, most irritating person there ever was, trying to decide whether to go into employment or self-employment. Continue reading

LSM changes to LSFM | The University of Lincoln College of Arts

Lincoln School of Media 20th Anniversary From Friday LSM will become Lincoln School of Film & Media. LSFM will bring together Media Production, Audio Production and Film & TV with Animation and Contemporary Lens Media.

The School’s social media platforms will remain at the links you usually use like this blog, our alumni twitter and school twitter feeds. (We will be adding ‘film’ to our sites to reflect the new name, but rest assured it will still be us!)

The University of Lincoln announced ‘as of 1st August 2014 there will be an exciting new alignment of academic schools in the College of Arts.  It will provide an environment which engenders interdisciplinary research and innovative teaching and will enhance the student experience.’

The College of Arts will be aligned to five schoolsLincoln School of Film & Media (all LSM BA and PG programmes, plus Animation BA (Hons) and Contemporary Lens Media BA (Hons). Continue reading