Media student gets film career kickstart
News release
15th April 2011
An innovative internship scheme has given media students from Lincoln the experience of working on professional film shoots before they graduate.
Darren Mitchell from Worksop was one of five media students from the University of Lincoln who have benefited from placements arranged and part-funded by EM Media, the screen agency for the East Midlands.
He has just completed a three-week work placement in North Yorkshire working as a production assistant on Entity, a low-budget horror film being made by Nexus DNA and starring Dervla Kirwan.
Through its Kickstart scheme EM Media, the screen agency for the East Midlands, and the Lincoln School of Media chose five final-year students to work as crew on productions shooting between November 2010 and May 2011.
“It was a really useful experience and very good for my future career to work on a film set and see how the industry works,” said Darren, who will graduate this summer with a degree in Media Production from the University of Lincoln.
“I made some great contacts for the future and I hope to start making a film of my own later this year.”
Marcella Forster, Senior Lecturer in Script and Screenwriting at the University of Lincoln, came up with the proposal to place students on feature film productions after six Media Production students worked as runners and sound assistants on her award-winning short film The Lamb and Flag.
Working with colleagues Janice Kearns, Dr Sarah Barrow and Dr Tony Daniels, Marcella successfully bid for £10,000 from the university’s Innovation Fund to cover expenses and mentoring for up to five interns. EM Media then secured match funding from Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the creative industries.
Dr Sarah Barrow, Head of the University of Lincoln’s School of Media, said: “We’re committed to providing as many opportunities as we can for our students to gain experience of working in the media industries.
“Kickstart offers students a fantastic chance to work with top film-makers, to develop their creative and technical skills and to get their foot in the door of an increasingly competitive world of work.”
Jez Ashberry
Shooting Star PR
01522 528540
jez@shootingstar-pr.co.uk
www.shootingstar-pr.co.uk
t: @jezashberry
Tags:
