Ten of the best British and American film-makers have visited the NFTS to give Masterclasses in the past 10 days!
Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter, Four Weddings and a Funeral), L.A based British Producer Colin Vaines (Coriolanus, Gangs of New York, My Week with Marilyn), Writer Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, How I Live Now, Red Riding) Production Designer Paul Kirby (Captain Phillips, Batman Begins, Captain America), actor David Morrissey (Walking Dead, State of Play), VFX Supervisor Tim Webber (Gravity, the Dark Knight, Avatar), Composer Nathan Johnson (Brick, Looper), Pawl Fulker previs (Skyfall), Jake Wynne editor and music vid director, Director Destiny Ekaragha and Writer Bola Agbaje (Gone Too Far) have all come to the NFTS to help train a new generation of film-makers.
And very special guests Lenny Henry, CBE, the actor, writer, comedian and television presenter, co-founder of charity Comic Relief visited the School to speak to the young film-makers about the need for greater diversity in the British film and television industry.
Their Masterclasses were part of the two-week long BFI Film Academy Craft Skills Residential delivered by the NFTS, which this year has trained 66 of the country’s most promising young film makers aged 16-19 today.
This is the second year that the NFTS has run the scheme aimed at hothousing the filmmaking stars of the future. During the two-week residential, the teenagers specialise in Directing, Producing, Production Design, Editing, Cinematography or Sound Recording and form teams to make 6 short films from scratch using the NFTS’s film studios and world-class facilities.
The Academy culminates in the premiere of the 6 films at the BFI IMAX, London on Thursday April 17th in front of an audience including film industry and family guests.
This year, the participants also wrote their own scripts during a screenwriting weekend also hosted at the NFTS. Previously, scripts written by NFTS Screenwriting MA students had been used for the films. In addition to the Masterclasses, the intense and unique learning experience includes training with some of the UK’s best tutors and Masterclasses with Craft Tutors including Cinematographer Brian Tufano (Trainspotting, Billy Elliot), Producer Lee Thomas (Road to Guantanamo), Producer Michelle Eastwood (In our Name), Sound Recordist Fraser Barber (Silent Witness, Full Circle with Michael Palin), Editor Robin Sales (Johnny English, Miss Potter, Mrs Brown, Topsy-Turvy), NFTS graduates including Grierson winning Director Adeyemi Michael and Shola Amoo plus tailored industry support from BAFTA and visits to the National Gallery, The Imaginarium Studios – actor/director Andy Serkis’ studio specialising in performance capture.
Pictured is actor David Morrissey with BFI Film Academy film makers at the NFTS.
