Mike Andrews, Class of 2008 | Nintendo: digital media creation

MichaelAndrews_MPGraduate As most people would probably agree, 2008 (the year the financial crisis started to hit) was a pretty bad time to be looking for a job. That was the year I graduated from Lincoln, getting my BA in Media Production.

I needed a job badly and wanted to get out of Lincoln. I actually fell pretty lucky. Not that I got a job in my field of study. Nothing quite so glorious. A friend I’d worked with some years earlier was now a manager. He needed somebody, because a person he’d hired had pulled out. So, I returned to the company that I’d left because I’d gotten bored of it and wanted to study. But eating is far more important than staving off boredom.  I spent the next year or so scouring job sites, trying to find something that would fit my skill set and interests. Months went by, applications went off, and I never even received a call-back. Needless to say I was pretty fed up. To give myself a leg up on the career ladder, I applied (and was accepted) on a Masters programme at Sussex. All was set. And then I saw a job advert, that I wouldn’t have seen had it not been for my friend’s offhand comment about how I “should work for Nintendo”. Continue reading

Ellen Jackson, Class of 2011 | Wedding Industry Experts Award

Our alumna Ellen Jackson pulled in the public vote to win Most Popular Cinematographer/ Videographer at the Wedding Industry Experts 2016 Awards. She’s one of our Industry Mentors and reflects on her career with this update:

With more than five years’ experience in the videography business things have really started to progress for me and my business. I have had some brilliant opportunities and been able to work with some really amazing people, locally and nationally. The corporate side of my business is thriving; with work under my belt for all different types of businesses and events.  In 2013 I launched the wedding side of things, and since then it’s all gone mad! So mad that this year I won the award for the most Popular Cinematographer in the UK, and second popular in the world!


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Ayodele Ogunshakin, Class of 2015 | Blue Peter Studio Runner

I’m currently working at the BBC as a CBBC Blue Peter Studio Runner. I studied Media Production at the University of Lincoln School of Film & Media and graduated in September 2015. I also completed a semester abroad at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where I studied Mass Communications. Ayodele_May2016

After graduating, I contacted a BBC Children’s Talent Manager and he agreed to see me for a meeting.  Following the meeting, my CV was put forward to the Production Manager for a job within the Blue Peter ‘Badge Team’. I came back two days later for an interview and a couple of weeks later I started working as a Correspondence Assistant. Throughout my time in the badge team, I volunteered on other BBC productions as a runner in my spare time. Continue reading

BAFTA TV Awards 2016 | LSFM Alumni on Wolf Hall and Big Blue Live

BAFTA-TV-Award2016_BigBlueLive_JackJohnstonBritish Academy TV Awards, last night, was celebrated by LSFM alumni who worked in the production teams of BBC shows. Well done to BBC One’s Big Blue Live, winner for Live Event. Part of the team were our 2002 graduate, producer/director of wildlife TV shows Joanne Ashman said it was “the hardest, and the best job I’ve ever done. So proud to be part of the team” and our 2009 Media Production alumnus who is a freelance editor, specialising in wildlife documentary, Jack Johnston (pictured with Dan Wardle) said: “such an amazing team and such an amazing production!” Jack is one of LSFM’s Industry Mentors. You can read his archive post on this blog when the BBC Springwatch team won an inhouse Production Award in 2015.

WolfHall_BAFTA-TVawards2016

Congrats to BBC Two’s Wolf Hall – it picked up two awards: Mark Rylance for leading actor and also won in the category for Best Drama Series. Our 2013 Film and Television graduate Ashley Turner was “thrilled” to work as a floor runner on the BBC’s six part historical drama series and shared from experience how to get work as a runner – from the BBC’s Production Talent Pool to the adaptation of Dame Hilary Mantel’s best-selling period drama Wolf Hall. Read 2014 blog post