College hosts Olympic film competition

North West Regional College’s Foyle Theatre recently played host to the launch of a national film competition which gives budding scriptwriters and film makers from Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK the opportunity to produce short films which will be viewed during the forthcoming Olympic Games.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th May 2012, 12:43 BST

‘The Big Voice’ was created by BT as a national competition for students from schools and colleges to work together as part of the education programme in support of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. The competition involved devising a concept and script for a short film which concerned a local community issue or topic, with the winning entry being selected for production and screening throughout the United Kingdom during the Olympics.

The winning treatment was devised by students by Regent House Grammar school in Newtownards, whose entry ‘The Big Clean-Up’ was judged to be a stand-out piece, and chosen to be made into a film. Their concept was then shared with the media students from North West Regional College who were selected to transform the ‘treatment’ into a short film for public viewing.

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Co-ordinated by College Lecturer Faustina Starrett, the students from the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Media course - Claire Gallagher, Ryan Burns, Francine Hammon, Matthew McDaid and Emma McCance – worked together to deliver a professional client brief to Regent House including storyboards, script and shooting schedule to clear contractual deadlines. Once this was agreed, the NWRC team then travelled to Newtownards to shoot the film, which they edited and presented to Regent House for final viewing.

A spokesperson for North West Regional College added: “The ‘BT Big Voice’ competition provided a wonderful opportunity to engage with an industry brief from a fantastic media company which was supported professionally by Tom Osborn, a mentor from the established communications company Dialogics, and funded by BT with a budget for film production of £1,000. The collaboration and partnership between the schools was a great experience for all the students and staff concerned in the project. We all had the opportunity to experience different types of learning, and we were rewarded with a very worthy final product screened at a special launch of the BT Big Voice film event in our new Foyle Theatre at Strand Road Campus.”

The film will now be among the 36 films screened on large outdoor public screens in a range of UK venues throughout the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games. The film is also part of a UK People’s Choice Competition and can be viewed and voted for by visiting www.bt.com/bigvoice/filmevent

Related topics:CollegeNorth West Regional CollegeNorthern Ireland