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: Moving Image
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
Ash Knight, Class of 2009 | Update on Knightvisions Productions
2009 alumnus Ash Knight is busy as usual as a Media Producer and Director at Knightvisions Productions. It’s a video production indie and for the last few months Ash has been developing the focus of his company, as you’ll see at his updated KVP site. He said: I am motivated by producing unique, refined, artistic content that culturally educates and inspires my audience.
For example last month: “Knightvisions Productions provided camera-crew and production support to Ed Cole Photography on the mini-documentary Catching the Light … Ed seeks out what he considers to be the optimal conditions for catching a great photograph.”
Knightvisions Productions | Follow Ash on Twitter | Ash’s blog posts
Jordan Livermore, Class of 2009 | Update: Life in TV Production
Jordan Livermore, our 2009 graduate and one of LSFM inspirational mentors, has produced a series of TV coaching videos on Work experience; CVs; Degrees; and Lifestyle. They are based on his 5 years working in television because he said “I know how tough it was” and he wanted “to help newcomers to the TV industry. Anyone who is looking to move into, upwards and onwards in TV should start here.”
So where have I been!? Well if I remember correctly the last time I updated this blog was when I was out in Bristol, coming toward the end of my contract on Deal or No Deal as a contestant researcher. And what makes this industry so amazingly fun is also what makes it so petrifyingly scary at times … it’s unpredictability. So whilst this post might seem to flow like a well thought out, calculated journey, the reality is that I had no real idea where I was going to end up! Continue reading
Nick Loven, Class of 2001 | Screening ‘Tell Them of Us’ 8 Nov
2001 alumnus and indie filmmaker Nick Loven directed ‘Tell Them of Us’ by WAG Screen, which is a community filmmaking group. The film will be screened from this Saturday at The Collection. The “film aims to breathe life into the cold stillness of a war memorial. It is the story of one Lincolnshire family during WW1.” In fact, it is based on a true story about the Crowder family from unpublished archive letters.
The film’s title comes from an epitaph written in 1916: When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.
FREE public screenings: Auditorium at The Collection in Lincoln | 8th Nov at 2pm | 9th Nov at 11am & 2pm | 15th Nov 11am & 2pm | 16th Nov 11am & 2pm Continue reading
Daniel Escobar, Class of 2014 | Luma St. Animation Nomination
Following 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
Phil Stevens, Class of 2010 | Screening ‘The Road to Rome’ 4 Nov
Lincoln School of Film & Media will be screening The ROAD to ROME (2014). It’s a doco film directed by Phil Stevens, one of our industry mentors, and narrated by Sir Ian McKellen. LSFM Senior Lecturer Chris Hainstock posted the story and invites you to the University of Lincoln: Tue 4 Nov | 6pm – 7.30pm | EMMTEC MT007 | Brayford Pool | FREE ADMISSION
In the Summer of 2014 Filmmaker and LSFM Lecturer Philip Stevens directed a documentary which was as taxing for the filmmakers as it was for the participants. The Director of Photography was Stewart MacGregor who along with Philip is a graduate of the School of Film and Media from 2010 ( and in 2011 they won a regional RTS Award for Greasepaint). The Road To Rome, narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, is a feature-length documentary about three authors of historical fiction who walk from Naples to Rome dressed as Roman soldiers to raise money for charity. So far the walk has raised over £25,000 in donations for charities Médecins Sans Frontières and Combat Stress. You can see the trailer from Urban Apache Films.
Meet the Graduates | Snapshots
Meet the Graduates lived up to its name as our former and current students got together for the Graduate Question Time and Networking on-campus. Thanks to everyone for making it a memorable alumni event. There are more posts to come and clips from a student crew via New Media Lincs. These images are from LSFM mentee and third year media production student Rory McCarney. #MtGLincoln
Michael Henry, Class of 2009 | Screening ‘Time and Place’ 1st Nov
One of our creative media mentors is 2009 alumnus Michael Henry at Quandary Productions who’ll be at ‘Meet the Graduates’ network event this Wednesday to share advice about indie filmmaking and opportunities. Timely because he’s just completed the final cut on his latest film ‘Time and Place‘ (2014). There will be a free public screening on 1st November in Lincoln (UK) and the film will be released with ‘Pay-What-You-Want’ On Demand. The production team said ‘it’s the best thing we’ve ever made’. Mike said he’s excited in his latest posting:
Finally, the time has come! After months of hard work ‘TIME AND PLACE’ is finalised, exported, and sent off for DVD batch production. We premiere the film in one week, crowdfunders can expect their DVDs a day or two earlier next week, and we’re very excited about the ‘Pay-What-You-Want’ release on November 1st – same date as the free screening at The Collection in Lincoln. ‘TIME AND PLACE‘ took a good nine months to write, three to shoot, seven months of editing and will no doubt be months before I consider it entirely over, once all the promotion is done and festival fates are sealed. We’re trying something a little different this time – audience members will have the choice of how much they pay to see the film. So what’s different about our On Demand release? Continue reading