Eight SSAW students attend Celtic Media Festival in Galway

SSAW was invited to send eight students to attend ‘Exposure’, an exciting new dimension of the Celtic Media Festival, Galway, from 16 – 18 April 2008.

The Celtic Media Festival is an annual three-day celebration of broadcasting, film, talent and media excellence from across Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. The aim of the CMF festival is to promote the languages and cultures of the Celtic countries on screen and in broadcasting. This year’s event in Galway included ‘Exposure’, a new dimension of the CMF, to provide students with exposure to those who have made a career in the media. The event also offered students a significant platform to showcase their talent.

Creative Loop (a Skillset Academy in interactive media and TV production), in association with Adam Smith College, was the main sponsor of the ‘Exposure’ event. Through ‘Exposure’ 50 students from across the Skillset Academies and Skillset Screen Academies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales attended the festival.

There was a library facility so that submitted films were available for viewing throughout the festival.

The festival had a number of guest speakers including Arthur Lappin (producer of My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, In America), Mark Herbert (producer of Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England), Phil Edgar Jones (Endemol executive and Big Brother producer) and Jon Cassar (producer/director of 24).

There were also panel discussions with a group of key artists and crew members (production design, production management, sound, make-up) as well as a vital discussion on funding routes in each of the Celtic nations. After each of these there were ‘clinics’ – a time set aside where students were free to meet with the panel speakers on a one-to-one basis in order to ask questions specific to themselves.

In addition to this, American writer/producer Janet Dulin-Jones conducted a session each day, beginning with a discussion on screenwriting, considering in particular creating an appealing, saleable idea, as well as thinking carefully about writing a script that could be produced for little or no money (two avenues that attending students will no doubt be considering). She developed this in a session on Thursday looking at script development, discussing such aspects as character development and structure. This culminated on Friday with a Pitching Workshop, where students were lead through the dos and don’ts of pitching and then, in groups, were encouraged to pitch an idea (either the story they have been formulating in the previous sessions, or a fresh script idea of their own) to their peers. Each group had an industry professional join them in a mentoring role, to comment and feedback to them (on their pitching style, rather than the content of their idea).

Dymphna D’arcy (MA Film) said: “This festival really impressed me; it was extremely well organised and focused very much on the needs and requirements of students and those new to the film industry”.

Noel Twomey (MA Film) also commented: “It was good to meet the commissioner and also to develop ideas and to confirm which way to go in the future”.