media_arts plymouth: March 2010

Friday, 12 March 2010

Student Film used by Police and reviewed in Plymouth Herald

A FILM highlighting the dangers of hoax calls has been made by 3rd Year Media Arts student Joe Plant with the help of city school pupils.

It came about after the conviction in January of teenager Rea Bothma who admitted making more than 20 hoax calls to police about fights in Honicknowle.

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order on Bothma under the supervision of the probation service.

PCSO Kate Stanley, Honicknowle neighbourhood officer, said she wanted to highlight the risks and dangers hoax calls created and contacted Plymouth University for help.

She said: "It's all grown from an acorn of an idea. We called up the university to put us in touch with a student, Joe Plant, who was studying media and wanted to make the film as part of his dissertation.

"With our help he linked in with students from St Boniface school who did research about hoax calls in the country and they've gone on to create some impressive posters.

"The idea was to give information to youngsters, warning them about hoax calls and find a way of getting it across to them.

"The young people understand the kind of media message they want, rather than it being imposed upon them by adults.

"It's a very good film – it's very impactive. I think it's dark enough not to be scary, but enough to hold young people's interest.

"The main thing is I think it will get the message across.

"It's all well for us to tell youngsters about this, but I think because this has been made by youngsters they will connect with it better."

PCSO Stanley said she plans to get the short film screened at The Vue cinema at Barbican Leisure Park in the near future.

The film will then be launched on Devon and Cornwall police's YouTube, Bebo and Facebook site.

Link to article in Plymouth Herald

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

University of Plymouth Student Enterprise Film

This film has been made by third year Media Arts students, Andrew Elliott and Louis Doran (and contains examples and interviews with a number of other Media Arts students)

Thursday, 4 March 2010

SWIMMING SCULPTURE INSPIRED BY OLYMPIC GLORY IS SET TO MAKE A SPLASH IN MANSFIELD

Olympic double-gold medal winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington has inspired an important new piece of public art that’s going to extraordinary lengths to put a swimming centre firmly on the map.

Two Devon-based ‘swimmer-artists’ have created a body cast of a female swimmer to be placed on the outside of the newly redeveloped Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre in Mansfield, Notts. Kari Furre and Amanda Bluglass are both keen swimmers and beat off competition from seventeen other artists to win the commission. They say their passion won them the commission – as well as inspiring the work.

One of the artists, Amanda Bluglass says: “We absolutely love being in the water, and we want the work to reflect the beauty and strength of the swimmer’s body. Rebecca’s success has made swimming very current and we hope our sculpture will help keep that momentum going. We want people to visit the building and be really enthused and fired up by the power of the artwork on the outside.”

The sculpture is a massive 4.5m long and had to be put on a special sledge to be moved during the height of the country’s recent snowfall. Delicately hidden within the main piece is a ‘visual puzzle’: the body of a female swimmer making her way across the wall. The artists worked with a fellow swimmer to cast her body, capturing authentic musculature and movement. The sculpture is made of fibreglass resin. Once completed and mounted on the outside of the pool it will glitter with gold mica flecks. At night it will be also be illuminated from within by blue LED lights.

Councillor Eddie Smith, Portfolio Holder for the Environment at Mansfield District Council, commented: "Our newly redeveloped swimming centre, dedicated to Mansfield’s Olympic heroine looks stunning internally. We wanted something that will look equally stunning outside. The design by Furre and Bluglass perfectly captures our pride at Rebecca’s double Gold medal success at the 2008 Olympics and we hope will inspire future generations of swimmers to achieve success. We are thrilled with the design and we are sure Rebecca will be too when she performs the official opening in February.”

Aesthetica Film Competition

Aesthetica Short Film Competition

The Aesthetica Short Film Competition is now open for entries! Leading the search for filmmakers who are driving the genre of short film forward through inspirational and innovative works the competition provides an opportunity for both new and experienced filmmakers to have their work broadcast to a wider audience. All genres of film are being accepted: drama, documentary, music video, animation, satire, comedy, artists' film and anything else you can think of! This is a great opportunity for students to get creative on a film project and a chance to get their work showcased nationally. I do hope your film and media students will be interested in getting involved, as it is a great way to enhance their reputations as filmmakers.

This award offers winners and runners-up a fantastic prize package, including:

Screenings of your film at: The National Media Museum (Bradford), Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival (London), Glasgow Film Festival, Kerry Film Festival (Ireland), Glimmer: Hull Film Festival, Project Space Leeds and on the Aesthetica website.
£500 first prize, £250 runner-up.
12 months membership with Shooting People.
Weekend course with Raindance.
Collection of film books from Wallflower Press.
Winner and 10 runners-up to be included on a DVD that will go to all Aesthetica readers.

Films should be up to 25 minutes long.
For detailed guidelines and entry visit http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/film_submissions.htm
Deadline: 30 April