CONTACT: Admissions Tutor: Mr Brett Aggersberg- b.aggersberg@tsd.uwtsd.ac.uk

Develop the skills and confidence to work creatively in the film and media industries

connectBA Film and Visual CultureBA New Media Production

This Summer 2014 issue of Connect arrives as we complete our first year in our new state-of-the-art facility on the Carmarthen campus of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

SUMMER 2014

Welcome

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David has revealed its delight as the S4C Authority announces its intention to relocate the channel’s headquarters to Carmarthen.

The University has led the bid on behalf of the region to attract S4C’s headquarters to Carmarthenshire, with Carmarthenshire County Council being the main partner. The proposal has been welcomed with great enthusiasm in South West Wales.

Professor Medwin Hughes, UWTSD Vice-Chancellor, said: “We are all delighted that S4C has decided to establish a new headquarters for the channel in Carmarthen”.

“It is vital to Carmarthenshire’s economic development, creating new opportunities and new jobs in the area. Indeed, it’s a very important catalyst for the general development of the whole region.”

Gwilym Dyfri Jones, Provost of UWTSD’s Carmarthen campus said:

“The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is extremely proud of the success of our bid and we thank our partners and the thousands who have shown their support. The University now looks forward to working with S4C to create Canolfan S4C - an exciting and vibrant home for the channel in Carmarthenshire”.

This has been a really exciting year for the department with lots of interesting new partnerships and developments. The development we are most excited about is of course the decision of S4C to relocate its headquarters right next door to us in Carmarthen. This has already created access to the expertise of the company and will generate many exciting opportunities for our students in the future. It is envisioned that this move will create a film and media production hub in Carmarthen, with many other media companies also set to establish a presence in the new building and studio complex which you can see the architectural plans for opposite. Read on to see what our students have been up to this year!

www.uwtsd.ac.uk/ba-film-visual-culturewww.uwtsd.ac.uk/ba-new-media-production

As an entrepreneur, recent Film and Media graduate Steven Clarey has worked with companies such as Drift Innovation, and FIA World Rally Cross.

Last summer Steven toured Europe promoting Drift’s latest HD video camera, and produced industry standard photography and film work for extreme sports teams along the way.

In 2014 he is working with FIA World Rally Cross as part of the IMG media team, and saw his work showcased in front of live sports channel event coverage as well as interviewing racing legends David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve.

This semester, current students benefited from a guest lecture from Steven, where he gave advice on getting into the industry and discussed his route to success, which started with a Film and Media course at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Recent Graduate News

St. Ives in Cornwall Hosts the 2014 Celtic Media Festival

The festival awards the best industry work from the Celtic Nations.

An amazing location for a festival.

Student Jacob Ibbotson practising with a BBC camera.

Staff and students at the Celtic Media Festival 2014 in St. Ives

This year saw the Celtic Media Festival visit St. Ives in Cornwall. As with previous years, the festival was attended by delegates and companies from all areas of the Celtic media industries, and offered a broad spectrum of insights into working in film and media production.

Our students attended workshops, awards ceremonies and talks, featuring leading professionals such as Line of Duty’s writer Jed Mercurio, Channel 4’s Commisioning Editor Emma Cooper, Production Designer Mark Leese (This Is England, The Escape Artist, The Magdalene Sisters), and Charles Wace (Director of Boom Pictures). Students found that having such immediate access to award winning professionals gave them a real insight into what is required to succeed in their chosen field in film and media production.

The location of St. Ives was picture perfect, and we all enjoyed our four days in Cornwall hugely. We look forward to returning to the festival in coming years!

Last weekend our students enjoyed the opportunity to visit the nature reserve on Skomer Island off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, home to breeding colonies of Puffins, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, and many other species.

The trip was led by Dave Welton, whose production company Animality specialises in wildlife cinematography.

As the shots below show, students were able to get incredibly close to the wildlife,

and with Dave’s help, achieve some stunning shots. Dave helped students to capture slow motion detail of the birds feeding their young with sand eels, flying in and out of the sea, and generally bickering with their neighbours!

On the return boat trip leaving the island, everyone agreed that we couldn’t have had a more spectacular day in such a stunning location! This project is just one of the many examples of how our students are working with the natural environments of our location in West Wales.

Students@work

Adam Deacon worked with Ledwood in Pembroke Dock as part of his Live Project, making a 10 minute film for the company.

Students getting up close and personal with monster trucks during this year’s Welsh Xtrem event!

Staff and students meet with major broad-cast industry companies in London at this year’s BVE (Broadcast Video Event).

Continuing our support of Dinefwr Literature Festival students filmed events for a promotional film and screened their work in the cinema room at Newton House in Carmarthenshire. The festival was headlined this year by Ade Edmondson and Charlotte Church.

Students linked up with Wildlife film maker Dave Welton of Animality Productions to film and photograph the birdlife on west Wales Skomer Island.

Skomer Island

This year the School has continued to develop its links with Adobe, who create software such as Photoshop, Premiere, and Dreamweaver. Staff were delegates at the annual Adobe Education Summit Conference in Barceclona. Recently, lecturer Brett Aggersberg was awarded Adobe Campus Leader status, further strengthening Adobe’s and the department’s relationship between technology, creativity, and education.

Skillset’s Creative Provision is a 2-year pilot programme to develop the industry relevance of courses in further and higher education, helping facilitate success in Wales’ Creative Industries. We have been working with industry specialists this year to continue to ensure that our BA Film and Visual Culture and BA New Media Production are as industry relevent and contemporary as they can be.

Two of our students were lucky to have places on an intensive BBC production training event this Autumn. They couldn’t believe they were rubbing sholders with heroes such as Steven Moffat (Sherlock, Dr Who)!

Working with the Tangled Parott record shop and music venue has enabled students to produce short films of live performances, photgraph bands, create content for the Parrot website, and showcase their own film work to the public through Ty Ffilm (a film club run by our students).

Our new first year students were able to get to know one another before classes began in September thanks to a number of trips and activities. We visited the set of Da Vinci’s Demons, a major Fox american production, which is filmed in a major studio in Swansea. Students were given a talk on working life in such a vast studio, were able to explore the sets ranging from Mayan temples to Renaissance Italian streets, and to meet with production staff. We had a photography trip to the National Trust property at Dinefwr Country Park, and students created short films from their work - everyone felt much more confident after seeing what they could achieve with a little help and team work!

Adobe Education

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