Sean Strange, Class of 2013 | 360 Film Production, Mission Room

SeanStrange-360FilmProduction&delivery I graduated in BA (Hons) Media Production in 2013. I currently work for Mission Room Ltd as a specialist in 360 film production and delivery. I have produced films for Network Rail, Transport for London, a number of Universities across the country and recently created the new visitor experience in Cheddar Gorge, ‘Beyond the View‘.

I also freelance as a videographer and photographer for The Lincolnite. I was awarded an Associates of the Royal Photographic Society distinction for my work this year.  Continue reading

Dani Moseley, Class of 2007 | Multimedia Career update

Actors HeadshotsDani Moseley’s creative career has clocked up ten years from acting (film & TV) to award winning script writing, as well as modelling and facilitating workshops, after graduating in media production. She’s one of our inspirational industry mentors and also, er, our annual blogger! It’s nearly been a year already since I last posted in … Meet the Graduates was great. Lovely meeting some of you and my mentee, who I have been in contact with all year and glad to hear she’s applying for as many things as she sees fit regardless of the outcome, as you just never know.

LA and New York were amazing. Got management out there before I even landed, which was cool. It was just nice to be there, by myself, seeing how life could be. It was the first time in a long while that I got to solely focus on my acting and it was heavenly. Did a few auditions, signed up to a few casting sites out there, caught up with my agent who I met early that year and we’re still very much in-tune with each other which is great. Continue reading

LSFM Alumni Success | 2017 Lincolnshire Digital & Tech Awards

Lincs-digital&techAwards2017-SteveSmailesphotoCongrats! LSFM Graduate success was at the Lincolnshire Digital & Tech Awards 2017 category: Best Use of Multimedia. Visit Lincoln won for its brand campaign created with Wallbreaker – a video agency run by LSFM 2014 media production alumni Thomas Mckie, Ashley Wilks and Luke Winter who said: We’re chuffed! A lot of hard work went into that campaign. Ash is pictured left of Lydia Rusling, Head of Visit Lincoln.

Runner-up in this category was epix_media, a company set up by 2007 alumni who’re co-directors Zoe Easey and Will King. Story about the awards is in The Lincolnite where images were taken by 2012 graduate Steve Smailes a freelance photographer and he is one of our inspirational LSFM Industry Mentors.  Watch Visit Lincoln: Heritage video from Wallbreaker Productions.

Wallbreaker posted on its site that Visit Lincoln: commissioned the creation of three individual videos that would be used as social media marketing tools, with an aim to encourage people to consider Lincoln as their next possible place to explore.  Continue reading

Steve Smailes, Class of 2012 | Freelance Photographer

SteveSmailesHello I’m Steve Smailes. I am a freelance photographer specialising in editorial, commercial, events and wedding photography. After graduating from the Media Production course in 2012 I stayed put in Lincoln and never left! The work was here and the base of contacts I’d built up while at university was paying dividends, so why leave? Now over 4 years on, my partner and I have bought a house with our dog Benny. I work under my own name for clients big and small, mostly in Lincolnshire. Most notably The Lincolnite and its sister publications Lincolnshire Business and Lincolnshire Reporter which is a large chunk of the work I do with my images seen by over 500,000 readers a month! I’ve also worked with the Lincolnshire Showground, Macmillan Cancer Support, Visit Lincoln, LIVES, Relentless Energy Drink and even the University of Lincoln itself.

I also find time to help out students in my own time. I’m part of the university’s mentoring scheme that links students with industry (at LSFM many mentors are working graduates) to offer advice on life after uni course work and business advice. LSFM Mentoring is a really rewarding scheme for both parties and my mentee Emily has got to come on a few jobs with me, which I hope was a real boost for her work experience. I often go for coffee chats with her, and also students from Lincoln College too and have given talks to level 3 students and local camera clubs. Continue reading

Jo Ashman, Class of 2002 | Freelance TV Producer/Director

JoAshman-pic1It seems almost unbelievable to me, that’s it’s been around 15 years since I graduated from Lincoln. 15 years was once an impossibly long time frame, and being 35 … well let’s face it, who wants to think about being in their mid-thirties when they’ve just graduated?!  Well I can honestly say, now I’m here, I’m loving it.  I’m currently a freelance producer / director, based in Bristol, doing the job of my dreams.

I just about scraped a 2:1 degree, BA (Hons) in Media Production.  We were the first graduates to do the course and have University of Lincoln on our certificates. I knew it would be tough to break into the industry, and I think I sent my CV to almost any company I could find.  In those early months I did my fair share of work experience and runner jobs, just to get any experience under my belt.  But for me, I desperately wanted to go into wildlife filmmaking, and to do that was going to be even harder.  Several conversations had left me under no illusions that the only people who were successful in this field, were those with a scientific degree, not media…   I was getting frustrated and despondent by the whole system, so when a friend called to say he was going to trek to Everest Base Camp, I jumped at the chance to join him, and spent the next few months travelling across Central Asia and Russia.  I’d recommend time out travelling alone or with friends to anyone, it certainly gave me the time to really evaluate what I wanted.  Strangely it also taught me to trust my instincts, and that’s something I still completely rely on in my job today, particularly in stressful filming situations. Continue reading

Aleysha Minns, Class of 2013 | Pinewood Studios & BAFTA Crew

AleyshaMinns_2016As September has come and gone again, seeing my 3rd LSFM media mentee with her graduation photos, it just reminds me of how long ago 2013 feels. The past 3 years have been a bit of a rollercoaster, with the past 12 months being some of the most difficult but incredible of my career so far. 

The last half of 2015 was tough, finding work was a nightmare and I was ready to give up on the whole thing. That was until February of this year, when I got to live out my childhood dream of working at Pinewood Studios on my first big budget film, taking the leap from Production to the Locations/Studio department as a trainee. Confidentiality surrounding these types of films mean I can’t say anything about it until release, but I spent up until August there and has been the lift that I needed. Since then I’ve been working on commercials and have been accepted into BAFTA Crew 2016, which is a huge honour and made it on to the list on my 2nd attempt. To top off the year, Beautiful Devils (2015) premièred at Cannes Film Festival to a great reception and my first ever film credit on ID2:Shadwell Army (2016) recently came out in cinemas and DVD. 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!


Continue reading

Gemma Lowe, Class of 2012 | Career Update

It’s been almost a year since I last wrote anything for the LSFM alumni blog and sitting down to write this has made me realise just how much has happened in that time. In my last post I spoke about why I was enjoying my career which, although different from the one I set out achieve with my degree, was rewarding and used many of the skills that the University of Lincoln had taught me. Not long after writing I was offered the role of Press and Media Content Officer for the Lincoln College Group, an opportunity that I was excited to get stuck in to. I have settled well into the role as part of the Marketing and Communications Team working across Lincoln, Newark and Gainsborough Colleges and I am enjoying putting the variety of skills I picked up during my degree to use.  Continue reading

Industry alumni on-campus | Mondays 10 Nov-1 Dec 5-6pm | EMMTEC

Our alumni networking with students at Meet the Graduates is a main event at the Lincoln School of Film & Media. But LSFM have alumni coming on-campus all year to share their experiences with students. Senior Lecturer Dave McCaig  has organised graduates from industry on Mondays: 10, 17, 24 Nov and 1st Dec. He said: these alumni demonstrate the strength of the multi-disciplinary degrees at LSFM. With a strong background in media practices during their degrees and a combination of hard work and ambition, these guest speakers have shown that the School’s highly valued in the media industries. We are very pleased that our graduates have returned to pass on their knowledge. Monday in EMMTEC 5-6pm:

Sean StrangeMon 10th November Sean Strange, Class of 2013:  As well as doing his own freelance work Sean is currently a staff photographer at F/stop Event Photography. His previous experience includes, events photographer for The Imperial War Museum and press photographer for RAF Waddington.

Alumni guest talks coming up:

  • Mon 17th November Aleysha Minns, Class of 2013:  AV freelancer with experience at Revolver Films, C4 and C5 amongst others. Also one of LSFM inspirational industry mentors. She said: what do you want to know about the world of TV? Send me some suggestions to include (on 17th)!
  • Mon 24th November Joel Murray, Class of 2011: Digital marketing co-ordinator at Lincoln BIG and Visit Lincoln.
  • Mon 1st  Dec Darren Scales, Class of 2008: Indie Filmmaker at Backyard Productions. His latest community project on a £5000 budget was The Drift film.  It was created with the help of volunteers and LSFM media students & graduates.

ALL are welcome at the talks on Analysing and Working in the Media Industries.