Media staff films featuring in multiple lauded premieres

Four acclaimed feature films written, produced, and edited by academic staff hit big and small screens this summer—with crucial strategic contributions from undergraduates working on placements.

'Bypass', produced by Senior Lecturer Samm Haillay, 'Blood Cells' co-written by Principal Lecturer Ben Young and produced with Haillay, and 'Addicted to Sheep', edited by Senior Lecturer Matt Dennis, have followed world and British premieres with wide UK and international releases. Esther May Campbell’s ‘Light Years’, also produced by Haillay, recently secured a premiere slot in Critics’ Week at the 2015 Venice Film Festival.

'Bypass' premiered at the 2014 Venice and London film festivals and is now available worldwide. 'Blood Cells' premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and is in the midst of its ongoing theatrical release ahead of worldwide distribution across platforms including Netflix, BT TV, Curzon Home Cinema, iTunes, and 40 US cable providers. 'Addicted to Sheep' recently held its world premiere to high praise at the 2015 Sheffield DocFest.

Through development, production, post production, and distribution, these projects have all involved multiple students on paid placements.

'The interesting thing I think is that we don't just have superb research informed teaching in the Media Section,' said Ben.

'Students are active participants in our practice-based research projects. Just last week one of our overseas students who is home in Beijing for the summer was doing some paid freelance work with the Chinese distributor of ‘Blood Cells’. That gives you some idea of the extent of staff/student collaboration.'

Central to this integration is the Media Section's Placements and Projects Officer, Clare Fletcher.

Ben said: 'It's important to emphasise that connecting students with staff practice based research projects is only one small part of what Clare does for students. Over the past two years alone she has helped hundreds of students to find meaningful work experience opportunities that launch them into media sectors and all sorts of other related fields.’

Liam Beard, a 2012 Television and Film graduate whose placement work on ‘Bypass’ led to a Skillset camera traineeship and work on the camera teams of high profile films including ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass and the new James Bond film ‘Spectre’, said: ‘Being able to start out in the Locations department of a film my lecturer was producing was a huge help. The fact that Teesside is a Skillset academy made the traineeship accessible and since then it’s been amazing—I’ve been all over the world doing something I love.’

As part of the Teesside theatrical release of Blood Cells, Samm Haillay and Ben Young will be holding a Q&A after the first screening at Stockton ARC Cinema on the evening of 7 August.

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Tickets available here