Filmmaking BA(Hons): Student achievements

What better way to gain experience on a filmmaking course than to have an internship at the renowned British Film Institute? 2009 saw two of our students,

Elina Street and Dan Jones, take part in our internship partnership with the BFI. Elina worked in the Exhibitions Department for three days a week for two months and Dan worked in the Archives Department for two days a week for two months. Both programmes were the first of ongoing, annual internships in these two British Film Institute departments.

Most recently, two of our current students, Natalia Remfeld and Gillian Hathaway, participated in a BFI/Tate initiative, co-commissioning video art works by young filmmakers. The commissions, that took place in summer 2011, culminated in an exhibition in the atrium space at the BFI.

Hero was supported by The European Cultural Fund, BFI, Tate and Kingston University. The project was co-ordinated by Noel Goodwin of the BFI.

Read more about our links with the BFI.

The video art bursary by the British Film Institute (BFI) is a collaboration between BFI Future Film and Young Tate Online. Six of the most promising moving image artists were selected to win a production bursary of £400 and were mentored over a three-month period by professional artist and filmmaker Phillip Warnell, who is also the course director on the filmmaking course at Kingston University. This is part of the DocNext project which is funded by the European Cultural Fund, which included a BAFTA screening of all of the winners' films at an event on 23 September 2011.

Of the six bursary winners, two were from Kingston University including Filmmaking BA(Hons) student Gillian Hathaway. Discussing her work Gillian explains: "I thought this experience – undertaking a BFI video art commission – was a good way to meet other passionate film makers like myself, but mostly I was excited in having this chance to have private mentoring and a budget to hire experienced actors, studio and equipments.

"We were given the theme of 'local heroes' by the BFI and what interested me about this theme was that the identity of a 'hero' could change depending on a person's point of view. My film consists of seven characters of different race and age, and the camera explores and examines them, portraying and emphasising each character's unique appearance. It is up to the viewer to judge whether or not they are heroes. However, it is the technique employed and use of cinematography that affects and guides this judgement."

Filmmaking BA(Hons) graduate Aidan Sheridan has won his local heat of the Film London in 90 Seconds: Capital Tales competition. The competition aims to encourage filmmakers living or working in one of the participating boroughs. Aidan submitted a short film about his borough (Sutton) and was delighted to win.

Aidan explains: "I saw an advert in a local newspaper for the 'Film London in 90 Seconds' competition – you had just 90 seconds in which to tell a story about your area of London, in my case Sutton. When thinking about the theme, I kept coming back to those eccentric individuals often seen around the Borough, such as the so called 'wizard man' or the 'Jesus man'.

"The tendency is to judge by appearances – but we should not judge a book by its cover. Hence my idea for The Lunchtime Cowboy – a simple idea and a simple story. One thing I learnt from Kingston (through trial and error) is not to cram in everything into your film just because you can as you will lose the backbone and story.

"I started production using Tom Woodman (a fellow graduate) as cameraman, Phillip Keiman (an actor who worked on my final degree project), Lesia Anna (an actress that applied to a posting online) and Fiona Cressey (a friend available on the day). The shoot took a couple of hours to film at a local park and went as smoothly as any shoot can go... they were laying tarmac on the path further down the park and gradually closing in on our shooting location.

"I edited the film in a couple of weeks and, after managing to find somewhere to burn my DVD, I sent it off to my local borough. A few short weeks later I found out I'd won, which meant I would receive £500. More importantly, someone other than my parents liked my films!

"Now I go on to compete against the other 11 winning boroughs' entrants at a BAFTA event in September 2011, which will be a great experience. The money will go towards my next film, which helps to build up my portfolio and help me reach my goals."