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

International Buddy Scheme | Student Engagement at LSFM

Marcella-ForsterThe Lincoln School of Film & Media’s International Buddy Scheme is the brainchild of Senior Lecturer Marcella Forster. The scheme was picked by the Student Engagement Innovation Fund at the University of Lincoln.  It said the scheme’s “about facilitating the integration of international and home students in the LSFM through a collaborative media project and the creation of a buddy system of support for international students. It addresses the theme ‘engaging home and international students in building a sense of community and fostering integration’ and is a response to feedback from current international students.” Marcella’s update: “we recruited six student mentors for the LSFM International Buddy Scheme:  Barney Oram, Ayodele Ogunshakin, Yiran Zhou, Josh Mathews, Laura Scott and Maz Jules. They were teamed up with our new international students at a breakfast event and I’ve posted a few photos.  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

Ayodele Ogunshakin, Year 3 Student | work experience update

Ayodele_pic1After working as a floor manager for BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Lip Dub event, I was fortunate enough to meet the event’s producer, Rosemary Richards. It’s over a year later and after reaching out and asking whether Rosemary was working on any new projects I found myself working with Rosa Productions for this year’s Gravity Fields Festival (was 24-28 Sept 2014).

It’s a Grantham based festival combining science, arts and heritage events. As a result there were many organisations and businesses involved in the festival and within the community there was a sense of excitement as to what this year’s plans would bring.  As Rosa Productions deals with events, it has been extremely interesting to see just how much work goes into producing a community event. I spent the week working in the office, which involved completing general office tasks but also venturing into town to liaise with the venue organisers and even assisting in a large silk painting for display on one of the heritage walks. Continue reading

Media Mentoring Opportunity | Students can apply NOW!

We are proud that our LSFM Mentoring between industry professionals and our students will be running this academic year. HUGE thanks to creative & media-related pros for volunteering their time to be mentors, some who’re our alumni, we are half way there.  So now we are looking for undergraduates who are in their final or second year of creative study to apply for our unique media mentoring …

StudentMentoring-form

… Just complete the student registration form here.  Deadline for applications is 5th October 2014 via email to Louise Lawlor. Hurry not long to go! If selected, you must be available for the 1-hour induction on 22nd October from 4pm to 5pm at the Enterprise Building and also at 11.30am on 29th October for a chance to chat with your media mentor.

Our media mentoring is in partnership with the University of Lincoln Careers & Employability.  LSFM Head Sarah Barrow said: This is a great opportunity for our Level 3 and Level 2 undergraduates 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

Lincoln Shorts | Film Festival | Submissions by 3rd October 2014

Will-King_2007Grad_LincolnShortsHi I’m Will King – a 2007 grad from this School and I’m involved in organising the Lincoln Shorts 2014 film festival. It’s a relaxed, yearly showing of short films (5mins or less) that are connected to the city in some way, whether they were produced here or made by people who live or study in Lincoln. The content ranges hugely from thought-provoking documentaries to CGI snowball fights, so everything is welcome!

Anybody in Lincolnshire with anything worth watching is encouraged to submit what they have – it doesn’t matter whether it’s amateur or professional, filmed on a phone or DSLR – if others might enjoy seeing it, send it in. This co-production was from 2013, which was the first collaboration between Ormeson Films and Short Cut Films.

A hugely diverse, eclectic and entertaining mix of locally-made short films will be on the big screen at Lincoln Drill Hall on October 18th 2014. Everyone is welcome to submit their footage NOW! 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 …