One Minute Movie Results 2023

Students, staff and alumni gathered in The Carroll last night to celebrate the Department of Film & Creative Writing’s first in-person One Minute Movie Competition results since 2019.

Entries on the theme of ‘transition’ had been received from across the University and prizes were awarded by Dr Richard Langley, following an anonymous judging process.

The winners were:

• Alumni category: ‘Berocca’ by Kavisha Mandalia (MBChB Medicine & Surgery, 2021)
• Runner up: ‘Foe’ by Claire Wallace (MA Film & Television)
• Technician’s choice: ‘Jump Cut’ by Ally Asante and James Gordon (BA English & Film)
• Overall winner: ‘La Tête Parlante’ by Klaudia Kirkpatrick (MA Film & Television)

Congratulations to everyone involved, and all the entries can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10240689

‘Flat-packed’ myself for a film festival!

On Wednesday 1st November, we were glad to attend a workshop held by Amy
Smart, the Assemble Project Manager of Flatpack Film Festival. A fresh and
deep insight of operational issues and practical experiences was given to the
new cohort of FTV students.

Cannes, Berlin, Venice and London are the heart of where film festivals live, but apart from those renowned ones, hundreds and thousands of film festivals emerge at every corner of the world, including Birmingham’s Flatpack Film Festival. Have you ever considered building your own film night? I admitted I did. Thanks to Amy for giving me a chance to have a glimpse of holding a film festival, helping me shift my mindset from a participant into an organizer.

When you are going to hold a film festival, what factors are needed to take into consideration? Amy answered this question in the morning by sharing her experience. We digested lots of advice including different parts of curation, whether a license is
necessary, how to choose the best venues, how to deal with technical issues, some thoughts about PR and promotion etc.

What made the biggest impression on me was the selection of the venue. Basically when I think about choosing a venue, some places where they are already prepared for screenings are my first thought, namely, cinemas. However, within the brainstorming at this workshop, Amy challenged us about how to choose a venue which could be more attractive to the audience. For example, cafes, church halls, and warehouses are lovely places for screenings if they are accessible to audiences. Besides, keep turning over the event of the day in mind because details are the key of success: if something unexpected happens but no preparations have been made, the only 1% possibility could become 100% disaster. As Amy presented, no matter how amazing your film festival is, if the toilets are awful on the day, that will be the only thing the audiences remember!

After enjoying shorts that have appeared in previous Flatpack film festivals, we were divided in groups, discussing a project which could contribute to the Flatpack Festival in 2018. I really enjoyed coming up with new ideas, and what could be more exciting is the possibility of incubating our thoughts into a real project!

Just cannot wait to contribute to the film festival!

Cheryl Li

Tour of Birmingham’s Media and Arts Centres

In welcoming the new cohort of FTV postgraduate students to the University of Birmingham, the course leaders and Professor Roger Shannon scheduled an afternoon tour across the ‘second city’ for a glimpse at its various media and art centres. Samuel James shares his experience of the day.

Taking place in Week 1, on Friday 30th September 2016, Professor Shannon met with all the students inside Birmingham New Street train station at 1pm. He provided us with introductory leaflets about the city’s media and arts before explaining where we’d be visiting on the scheduled tour: the famous Electric Cinema, BBC Birmingham, Everyman Cinema, the Ikon Gallery and local chains at Cineworld and Odeon.

The first stop was the Electric Cinema, the nearest to New Street station and the oldest running cinema in the United Kingdom. Upon our arrival at the Electric, Roger took a number of group photos outside before going inside and introducing us to Sam Bishop, the cinema’s duty manager.

Sam presented us with an insight into the history of the Electric Cinema, provided resourceful advice on working in the film and TV industry and discussed what the Electric offers customers. He even mentioned private screenings and suggested that FTV students organise one after completing audio-visual dissertations. For more information on the Electric Cinema, be sure to watch the documentary about it called The Last Projectionist.

We then began our stroll through the city centre before eventually passing through the Mailbox and finding the current offices at BBC Birmingham. After another group photo, Roger guided us inside and we lovingly observed BBC sets and props of its famous TV shows, including costumes from Peaky Blinders. We also had some fun with the BBC Weather equipment.

Upon leaving, we arrived at the Everyman Cinema just round the corner. Similar to the Electric Cinema, their duty manager showed us around and presented some factual information about the company. He also briefly guided us into an auditorium and allowed us to sit on their newly allocated sofa seats.

Taking a few steps outside of the city centre, we passed by the Ikon Gallery. There was no official tour as we passed through like customers, but it gave us a further insight into the city’s art outside of cinema and media.

At roughly 3pm, we moved onto mainstream cinema in the industry by visiting the Cineworld chain at Broad Street and Odeon at New Street. Supervisors from both industries gave us a thorough tour around the building, discussed the growing changes of cinema and, at Cineworld, showed us the projectors.

We finished the tour at approximately 4pm. Although some students went home afterwards, others stayed in Birmingham for some drinks at a nearby pub which Professor Shannon previously recommended. Therefore, the FTV students of 2016-2017 considered this as not only an insight to Birmingham’s media and arts centres, but an icebreaking afternoon to build friendships and potential film and TV partnerships.

Thank you to Roger for showing us the city!

Samuel James