Category Archives: Media

Sophy Taylor, Class of 2014 | Executive Videographer

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Sophy-Taylor_2014GradSophy Taylor can’t be at our Graduation Day in Lincoln (UK) tomorrow because she is working – in Ibiza. Later this month she’ll be heading off to LA to undertake a postgraduate course.  Sophy said: I hope this update isn’t mistaken as a boast but more of a recognition of the lessons LSM (now LSFM) has taught me! 

My application for the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles has been officially accepted, and all that is pending now is my visa! If all goes to plan, I will be moving to L.A. (my campus is based there) a week before my start date of 1st October. I will be there until the following September provided everything goes well!

Unfortunately however I won’t be attending Graduation (9 September) for two reasons; one is that my parents are away and I don’t want to attend without them but the main reason is that I will still be working out here in Ibiza!  I moved out here at the start of June with just my camera and have been working my socks off and networking with every Tom, Dick and Harry and am very proud to say I am the first Executive Videographer for a new company called IBZ.TV.  You can check out my work on YouTube. I am also a photographer on the Pukka Up boat parties which I do three times a week and its absolutely amazing. Continue reading →

Jonathan Sidwell, Class of 2007 | 1st Assistant Director

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Jonathan-Sidwell_2007GraduateSince leaving Lincoln I have worked my way up the Assistant Director ladder and I am now working as a 1st Assistant Director predominately in Commercials and Music Videos.  I’m now in Chiapas, Mexico in the jungle shooting a show for discovery channel for a month… I’ll try and send an epic picture while I’m out here too!

Top Commercial Credits include: Sony, Racing Post, Diet Coke, BBC iplayer, The Ashes Cricket and Oreo.  I have also worked on music videos for many chart topping acts including One Direction, The Kaiser Chiefs, Rudimental, Twin Atlantic and The Wombats.  Recently I combined my passion for Rugby and my profession to work as a Rugby Consultant and 1st Assistant Director for the worlds 1st 3D Oculus Rift Experience for 02 & The RFU with the England Rugby Team  – ‘Wear the Rose’ which was available to experience at Twickenham stadium.

I would love to help out as a media mentor at LSFM.  For now, my advice to students: Try and learn as much as you can about the basics and keep up-to-date with technical advances and how they affect the digital workflow. Work experience is key – try and get as much as possible in your holidays!

If you are a media professional and would like to be a Lincoln School of Film & Media mentor, for one of our students, please do get in touch. Email: rawright@lincoln.ac.uk. Our alumni can send us a tweet – thanks.  

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

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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

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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

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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.]

Continue reading →

UNTITLED Independent Film Night by Quandary Productions

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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

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University of Lincoln CrestA video 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

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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

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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.

Continue reading →

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

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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 →