SIX prestigious award nominations for Staffordshire film-makers

Six films produced by film-makers from Staffordshire University will contend for the region’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Films produced by students and graduates on the BSc(Hons) Film Production Technology Course and the BA(Hons) Media (Film) Production Course have been nominated for the Royal Television Society Awards due take place in spring 2012.

The successful nominations are:

• MEWS, a music and entertainment news pilot produced by BSc(Hons) Film Production Technology students, which is nominated for the Best Entertainment award.

• ‘Zero-G’, a stop motion animation about one man's ambitions of flight produced by BSc(Hons) Film Production Technology graduate, James Wilkinson and BSc(Hons) Film Production and Music Technology graduate, Sam Renton, which is nominated for the Best Entertainment award.

• ‘Last Few Words’, a film about loss and grief produced by BA(Hons) Media (Film) Production student, Alex Mallender, which is nominated for the Best Factual award.

• ‘Yoko’, a music video produced by BA(Hons) Media (Film) Production graduates, Sam Piggott and Nathan Pascoe, which is nominated for the Best Entertainment award.

• ‘A/S/L’, a short experimental drama highlighting the dangers of online grooming produced by BA(Hons) Experimental Film Production graduate Roberta Spain, which is nominated for the Best Entertainment award.

• ‘In The Deep’, a portrayal of a breakdown in relationship between father and son produced by BA(Hons) Media (Film) Production graduate, Ben Williams, which is nominated for the Best Fiction award.

James Wilkinson, co-producer of Zero-G, who since graduating has launched his own production company called Tentacle Media with fellow graduate and cousin, Sam Renton, said: “Zero-G has had great support especially back in our home county of Lincolnshire where school kids have absolutely loved it.

“We're in the middle of a number of jobs ranging from on-line coffee adverts to inspirational films for a national awards ceremony and in the early stages our next ambitious stop motion project.”

Staffordshire University has an illustrious record at RTS awards with past graduate winners scooping the Best Drama award in 2007 and 2009.

Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Media and Design, David Wheeler, who organised submissions, said:  “In addition to the RTS awards, our students have successfully screened and won awards for their films at various national and international short film festivals, from Encounters in Bristol to The Yallah Film Festival in Paris.”

Colleague, Dan Hopkins, Senior Lecturer in BA(Hons) Film Production said: “Staffordshire University has been nominated every year since 2004 and this continued acknowledgement from the industry is a great record in itself.”

Fiona Graham, Senior Lecturer in BSc(Hons) Television Production Technology, added: “The standards attained at Staffordshire University improves year on year and our students are deservedly being recognised by industry for all their hard work.”