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

Posted on August 11, 2014 by RW

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 ]

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 →

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

Posted on August 4, 2014 by RW

I 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 →

Richard McCormack, Class of 2009 | Red Bee Media’s BBC Four Doco

Posted on July 17, 2014 by RW

I’m a graduate of 2009 and I work as a creative for Red Bee Media. It makes content, promos and designs branding for a range of clients. However Red Bee is probably most well known in the industry as being the BBC’s creative agency. You know the swimming hippos on BBC1? Red Bee did that. However this post isn’t so much about me; rather it’s about my creative director, his co-producer and a ten year project. It turned into a documentary ‘100 seconds to beat the world: The David Rudisha Story’, which is a co-production with Hill Ten film. The doco will be on-air 22 July at 10pm on BBC Four. Here’s the trail.

A decade ago Jim and Ed set out to make a documentary about Brother Colm, an enigmatic Irish teacher who has also coached many of Kenya’s most celebrated athletics including Wilson Kipketer, Matthew Birir and Peter Rono. Jim and Ed wanted to discover why a man without any professional training or athletic experience had managed to consistently develop gold medal winning athletes. However on 9th August 2012 the subject of the documentary changed, when David Rudisha ran the fastest 800 metres in history and took gold at the London Olympics. Jim and Edward looked back at their rushes and realised they had a range of footage and stills of David as a shy teenager developing into an athlete. So the documentary was refocused on David.

I came on board over the last year or so when Jim asked me to film an interview with Lord Seb Coe for the documentary. One bleak Tuesday morning, I met Jim outside Coe’s offices in Victoria armed with a Canon 5D, a Canon XF305 and a bed sheet for a backdrop (which Jim had spent thirty minutes the night before ironing). Continue reading →

Andrew West Reflects on Post-Uni | What are you going to do now?

Posted on July 15, 2014 by RW

LSM’s graduating students, Class of 2014, will no doubt get asked what’s next? Soon-to-be alumnus Andrew West – a freelance camera operator, editor and award-winning photographer – shares his thoughts on that question and writes: refrain from asking what I’m going to do in the future … simply ask me what I’m doing in this moment now.

For hire!

The last three years of University has been the greatest learning experience of my life so far and I’m due to graduate in a few months time. I feel like this requires a fresh blog, a new way of presenting what I’m doing and building on a foundation of experiences which have taught me a lot about who I am and what kind of person I want to be. It’s a really strange feeling, having had so much direction over the last 21 years of my life to suddenly be hit with the thought suspending question by many of ‘What are you going to do now?’, the answer to that, as I have realised over the last few months is that it doesn’t really matter. I don’t need to lead a life permanently set in stone, to immediately settle down in a continual routine, to become another brick in the wall. I’m lucky to be in a position in which I have liberty to wander in whatever direction draws my energy towards, so intend to do precisely that. Continue reading →

Ashley Turner, Class of 2013 | BBC TWO Floor Runner ‘Wolf Hall’

Posted on July 10, 2014 by RW

Congrats to all Lincoln School of Media third year graduating students who will be Class of 2014! The School hope you’ll keep us posted on your job-hunting, experiences, tips and advice, like last year’s alumnus Ashley Turner.

I graduated from the University of Lincoln last year as part of the first group of students to take the Film & Television course. Just before I left Lincoln, I was accepted onto the BBC’s Production Talent Pool, which I took to be a guarantee of a kickstart as a TV runner. I moved to Bristol, where I began to pick up occasional runner jobs, working on the odd day here and there on programmes like Flog It, The One Show, Rip Off Britain and others. However, the desired long contract proved elusive. Thanks to uploading my CV to a number of websites, I worked as a runner on the open auditions for the upcoming Star Wars films, which was a very exciting opportunity, and things began to build up from there. Eventually I semi-moved to London, working on The One Show as a studio runner, as well as on a BBC Three comedy pilot, a BBC Two panel show and the recent Our Gay Wedding: The Musical.

Having built up this solid range of runner experience, I was asked to come in to interview for a long-term runner job on a high profile BBC Two drama, and succeeded! So since April, I have been a Floor Runner on the BBC’s adaptation of Dame Hilary Mantel’s best-selling period drama Wolf Hall, which I’m thrilled to be a part of.

My main piece of advice to fellow graduates of Lincoln School of Media who’re looking to get into TV? Never work for free. Continue reading →

Class of 2012, Michael Hankinson | Camera Operator

Posted on July 7, 2014 by RW

Hi LSM! It’s been almost 2 years since I last posted on the alumni network and since then a lot has happened. My ambition all the way through university had been to work as a DOP (Director of Photography). After leaving I quickly realised that it wasn’t going to be easy to just walk into a job like this. When I graduated in 2012 with a BA (Hons) Media Production degree I worked for free and for expenses on multiple low budget features, shorts, event videos, etc. to try and get my foot in the door and more importantly learn, both while at university and after leaving. I took a part time job at Asda (it’s not fun paying bills) and on my days off applied for jobs. I got to work on some exciting projects as a camera assistant and camera operator through this while learning from some great people in the industry including a DOP who had previously worked on a BAFTA winning film, however the pay was little or none in most cases.

I was then successful in an interview and started as a junior camera operator at a production company in Essex called iSite TV (I was quite surprised to meet two other LSM alumni among the staff). So I left my job at Asda and moved down to Essex. The company creates online advertising and product videos for some of the biggest companies and retailers in the world including; Panasonic, Sennheiser, Currys/PC World, Beko, LG, VTech, the list goes on and on. I’ve worked at iSite for a year now and the time has flown. Continue reading →

Class of 2009, Michael Henry | ‘Time and Place’ Trailer

Posted on June 23, 2014 by RW

Passionate filmmaker Michael Henry set up Quandary Productions. He said members of the indie production team “strive to make both short and feature films of a professional quality, on the slimmest of budgets.” The latest ‘low budget epic film’ is called a Time and Place, which is due to be screened in October 2014. In the meantime, Mike said you can see the official trailer:

We’ve finally been able to release the Official Trailer to the film, which we feel captures the tone of the intense dramatic moments and the surreal comedic moments. So far, feedback is looking great, with a lot of people eager to watch the film upon release.

‘TIME AND PLACE’ is our fifth feature film. Having crowdfunded nine months ago, shooting wrapped in March this year, and we are currently working on Post-Production. Continue reading →

Class of 2010, Jack Shelbourn | Freelance DoP

Posted on June 16, 2014 by RW

I studied my MA in Media Production between September 2009 and September 2010. I graduated in 2011 with a Distinction. Since then I have moved into a career as a Director of Photography. I’m very excited that HIDEAWAY, which is a new short film (written by Gabriel Henrique Gonzalez) that I shot and co- produced, has been selected for the No Gloss Film Festival in Leeds.

Another short film, FRAMEd (shot in Italy and London) was recently nominated for Best Short at the London Independent Film Festival. Continue reading →

20 Grads for 20 Week Advanced Film Course | Lincoln Film School

Posted on June 13, 2014 by RW

An exciting new industry-backed Lincoln Film School (LFS), based at the Twickenham Film Studios in South West London, is being run by the LSM for passionate filmmakers.

Over twenty weeks, from 22 September 2014 to 28 February 2015, you’ll learn advanced film production with industry professionals. The course fee is £9,500 for the 3-terms and LSM graduates or University of Lincoln alumni can apply for a 10% discount. Leading the new LFS is Lincoln School of Media’s Senior Lecturer Brian Hall, a Cinematography pro, who said that places are limited to 20 graduates at TW1, so get in touch with him ASAP! Here’s Brian’s official LFS Invitation to Graduates (both graduating students and alumni):

“The University of Lincoln School of Media is delighted to be able to offer you the opportunity of a place on our industry-sponsored advanced practical film making course, delivered by LSM via the Lincoln Film School and based at the famous Twickenham Film Studios (TW1). Continue reading →

LSM Showcase | Final Day | MHT Building | University of Lincoln

Posted on May 30, 2014 by RW

LSM’s student Bradley Hart’s captured images, so far, of LSM Showcase and you can find his photos on Flickr here . Today’s schedule at the LSM Showcase 2014 is from 12-noon to 5pm. The organisers of Lincoln School of Media’s end of year degree show said:

It is your last chance to come down and see what amazing projects have been created by the LSM Class of 2014! A display of some of the most cutting edge and forward thinking work you can imagine. Feel free to come along at any point. LSM Showcase | @LSMShowcase | FB |

The public can enjoy a range of artwork, multi-media production and live performance across the College of Arts, which has a two-month exhibition programme to celebrate the work of final year students. More at the College of Arts Degree Show site.

Lincoln School of Film & Media Network

LSFM at the University of Lincoln (UK) celebrates 25 years of our students into graduates

Category Archives: Moving Image