2014 Graduation Showcase at BAFTA

Bun OvenJanJanet is nine months preg-nant, and a workaholic recy-cling industry hotshot. So when shes fired on the pre-text that shes an alcoholic, is there a more sinister reason?

ChalkTwo sisters try to rebuild their lives after a tragic inci-dent has torn them apart, only to find history repeating itself.

Sunday, Before Midnight Three siblings restage the last few days spent with their mother in hospital. Whilst trying to unravel their conflicting memories, they begin to question their last- ing image of her.

June 2014 once again saw BA Film and Television Production graduating students hold their end of year showcase at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly. The stu-dents and their parents were joined by alumni, staff and industry guests for the evening. This year saw a really diverse set of graduation films: psy-chological drama Splitting Hairs; buddy comedy Bun Oven; period drama Chalk; the unconven-tional Sex Line and a challenging studio-shot doc-umentary Sunday, Before Midnight.

The evening began with a drinks reception in the David Lean Room, before a move upstairs to the Queen Anne Theatre for the screening of the five graduation films, along with the second year drama Lily and the Revolution, and two third year documentaries. The Wolf, The Ship and the Little Green Bag directed by Kathryn MacCagorry GrGray, mixes documentary and animation, and Black Sheep, directed by Christian Cerami, fo-cuses on a young member of the EDL on his first demonstration in Bradford.

Steve Clark-Hall, producer of Guy Richies new film 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E., had one particular favorite: “Bun Oven was both technically ambi-tious, funny and featured the most extraordinary "pitching" session I have ever watched!” Director Jon Sanders (Back to the Garden) thought it was “a fabulous show … the one that really got to me wwas the Bradford ducumentary, a real honesty about it, the sadness and confusion ... brilliant.” Peter Weitzel of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, added “It is so pleasing to see that the industry is gaining such gifted people capable of working across all disciplines...”

Sex Line was shot on Kodak 16mm film; Bun Oven and Chalk chose the ARRI Alexa; Splitting Hairs the ARRI D21, and Sunday, Before Mid-night a Canon C300, kindly loaned to them by Canon UK. The films were graded at The Farm, Glassworks and Creativity Media.

Splitting Hairs“1.25am: The subject shows little remorse.”A twisA twisted femme fatale and her acolytes try to cure Frank of his fetishistic urges.

Sex LineIsolaIsolated in a new city, a young woman flirts with a stranger over the phone. But as the conversations become more important to her, jealousy and paranoia take hold.

Graduating students celebrating at BAFTA (L-R): Donna Nguyen, Nathalie Abbott, Diana Tatarca, James Harding, Filipe Marques, Matt Tume, Rob Beck, Elizabeth Lillycrop and Esme Buxton Photo by Hasan Matar

Formerly BA Film and Television ProductionAutumn 2014BA Film Production Newsletter

WESTMINSTER FILM SCHOOL AUTUMN 2014

Third year documentary 'The Wolf, The Ship and the Little Green Bag' and first year short 'Jeff and Caroline' were selected for the Nahemi pro-gramme at the Encounters festival, which ran from the 16th - 21st of September in Bristol.

'The Wolf' is a poignant evocation of memories of childhood and adolescence, using documentary and animation to tell the coming-of-age stories of three remarkable old ladies, from recollections of the second world war to a lost school bag. 'Jeff & Caroline' is a short comedy about a relationship gone sour, directed by Plum Stupple-Harris, and shshot on 16mm film on a Bolex.

2014 Graduation film 'Splitting Hairs' has been se-lected in competition at the International Student Film and Video Festival of Beijing from 19th to 25th October; director Nathalie Abbott has been invited to attend. The film is a surreal depiction of 1950s Britain, where a man goes on the run after stealing his girlfriend's hair. But is there a darker mmotive, and can he be cured of his fetishism? 'Split-ting Hairs' has also been selected in competition at the Munich International Short Film Festival in No-vember, which writer and producer Diana Tatarca hopes to attend.

2013 Graduation films 'Butcher and Sons', 'Moon-lighting' and 'King for a Day' have all been selected to screen at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, which takes place between the 6th and the 9th of Novem-ber, in York.

A commercial for COAP (Children of Addicted Par-ents), directed by Vicky Harris and produced by Don Nguyen, has been selected as a top ten finalist at the Porsche Commercials Awards in Germany in Novem-ber, and is a contender for a cash prize of 4911 Euros.

Second year short 'Charity' will be shown at the No Gloss Film Festival in Leeds, and has been nominated for the best writer award at Underwire Film Festival in London, in November.

Autumn Festivals 2014: Bristol, Beijing and beyond2

Ed Cooper-Clarke and Nathalie Buscombe in Splitting HairsPhoto by Adam Cross

The Wolf, The Ship and the Little Green Bag

King for a Day

Charity

Autumn 2014BA Film Production Newsletter

3

The cThe crew of graduation film Bun Oven entered a 60-second-commercial competition for mobile phone company Lycamobile in the hope of raising money for their production budget. I Got It, writ-ten and directed by Ben Sullivan, was shot in just four hours in the Green Screen Studio on campus. The team were thrilled to win first prize, and re-ceived a cheque for £3000 towards their budget!

Students find creative ways to fund their graduation film!The The Kodak/Nahemi student commercial awards

have launched many high profile careers over the years. This year they were presented by director Sir Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Mississippi Burn-ing), in a ceremony held at Westminsters historic Regent Street building. Two film schools dominated, winning six awards each: the postgraduate Nation-al Film and Television School and Westminsters un-dergraduate Film students.

Dont Cope Alone, directed by Vicky Harris and produced by Don Nguyen for the charity Children of Addicted Parents, was 3rd in brief; The Bear who took a Break, produced by Genia Krassnig and Alex Sedgley and designed by Ben Sullivan was second in the Butlins brief and won the Techni-cal achievement award, and More than just a RRoof for the charity Shelter from the Storm was 3rd overall, 2nd in brief and won the award for Casting and Performance. Nathalie Abbott directed and Diana Tatarca wrote and produced.

Kodak Student Commercial Awards

22013s graduation films have been finding audi-ences the world over. Butcher and Sons, a dark comedy set in Yorkshire and Moonlighting, a tense family drama, were selected in competition at inter-national festivals in Beijing and Moscow. Butcher director Simon Wade and Moonlighting producer Wilf Speller both travelled to Moscow as a guests of the festival.

Moonlighting was also selected for international festivals in Munich and Tel Aviv, and Wilf, together with director Jonas Zimmermann, were invited to Israel, where they took part in masterclasses by pro-ducer Steve Tisch, the Dardenne Brothers and Lars Von Triers editor, Molly Malene Stensgaard. They were hosted by students from the Film School in Tel Aviv during their weeks stay, giving them a real in-sight into the city and the students lives.

Moonlighting won the award for Best Undergrad-

Festival Highlights 2013-14: Moonlighting and Butcherand Sons production teams tour the world

Editor Hannah Jayawardene recieves a cheque for £3000

uate Fiction at the British Universities Film and Video Councils awards at the BFI South Bank in April 2014. This is the third consecutive year that Westminsters film students have won the prestig-ious award. Butcher and Sons was also nomi-nated for this award.

Sir Alan Parker with some of the team from The Bear Who Took a Break: Genia Krassnig, Christian Cerami, Alex Sedgley

Jonas Zimmerman and Wilf Speller collect the award for Moonlighting from TV presenter Lucy WorsleyW

ESTMINSTER FILM SCHOOL AUTUMN 2014

Autumn 2014

more and get involved, visit

the Heritage Lottery Fund, private donors, and the University itself. The cinema, as well as being open to the public for film screenings, masterclasses and

supported

Regent Street Cinema Relaunch

British Film: The Italian Diaspora