Screen and Film School Brighton students and graduates team up with industry partner Be The Fox

27 November, 2020

Screen and Film School Brighton students and graduates recently teamed up with one of our industry partners, Be The Fox, to shoot a promotional video for the film school.

Here at Screen and Film School, we love nothing more than watching our students and graduates get stuck in to real life filming environments. Through our industry engagement programme, our partners often come directly to Screen and Film School in order to fill junior roles within their companies. Shortly before the second national lockdown, industry partner Be The Fox assembled an amazing crew of our students and graduates to create a promotional video for our Brighton college, highlighting the wonderful city we call home, and their journeys as filmmaking students. With the Be The Fox team headed up by James Honess and Chloe Kelly- both graduates of Screen and Film School Brighton- we knew both the shoot and the crew were definitely in safe hands!

 

 

We caught up with a few members of the crew to get their thoughts on the experience.

James Honess: Production Assistant at Be The Fox

We have had a blast working with Screen and Film School Brighton over the past couple of months making the school’s new promo film. Our approach was to make it totally student-centric, so we enlisted the help of some very capable pairs of student hands to work directly alongside the team at Be The Fox.

During pre-production we had the support of Louise and Tom in the roles of Production Assistant and Edit Assistant. They worked closely (albeit mostly from home) with Be The Fox’s editor Chloe and myself (both alumni of the school, of course..!) to organise the studio shoot day, and develop our overarching fresh, textural and enticing style that we wanted for the videos.

For our action-packed studio day, we recruited six amazing students as our production crew, throwing them in at the deep end – huge thanks to the very impressive René, Ben, Lucy, Ewan, Josh and Joe.

We knew it was crucial to interview a handful of students and find out first hand what it’s like studying at the film school. So we had a brilliant time chatting to the lovely Amy, Cerys, Jimmy and Jamie – then asking Ben and René to jump in front of the camera too!

And finally, we relied on another set of talented filmmakers from the second and third year to head out onto the streets of Brighton and shoot some emotive B-Roll. They were briefed to capture those moments which we all come to Brighton for – the people, the setting, the culture. Again big thanks to the talents of our shooting-directors Dylan, Bailey and Noël, and our producers Grace, Cerys and Jamie. Recent graduate Curtis even popped out with his camera, bringing us back some stunning footage.

Another ‘students to the rescue’ shoutout has to go to Ben and Noël for kindly supplying us with self-shot footage from various events they’ve attended in Brighton – those little moments really added loads to our final film.

It was then down to Be The Fox’s in-house editing whizz Chloe to cut everything together in the unique and memorable style you see in the final films.

Without the hard work, creativity, adaptability and enthusiasm of all these students, the films wouldn’t have been so impactful – and we’re so grateful for their input. What would a film school promo be without input from those who spend the most time there? Hopefully you’ll agree the films capture the spirit and charm of the school, and of that city we all love – Brighton.

Tom Zini: Graduate

Three weeks ago, I was given the amazing opportunity to work at Be The Fox as an ‘Editing Assistant’ for their project with Screen & Film School Brighton. My role consisted of gathering shots to be used for the final product and brainstorming ideas for the edit! I worked very closely with a few members of the Be The Fox team and was able to gain some amazing experience from it. I was also amazed by how friendly and inclusive every single person was within the company! From the first minute I walked through the door, everyone made me feel a part of the team and were so eager to help. Working at Be The Fox is something that I would love to do again!

René Lorraine: Graduate

During the shoot, I took on the role of the shadow director which was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. It was my first time working alongside an industry partner on set and also my first time on set in months because of Covid, which meant the whole day was just brilliant! My role meant I shadowed Diana throughout the day and she made me feel heard which I am so grateful for – she constantly asked for my opinion, encouraged me to put forward ideas and when I did put something forward, she actually made sure we gave it a shot. And she even let me carry out half of the interviews! Not only this but we spoke about the current stuff I am working on and she gave me advice and her insight which I found very valuable.

Josh Bainbridge: Second year student

This was an amazing opportunity to play with a large variety of unique lighting setups and create some amazing looking visuals that really popped on camera. I was a gaffer on this shoot and it was a great experience for learning and working with such a brilliant crew- it’s been awhile since I’ve last worked on a project! I would love to work with them again.

Jamie Neagle: Second year student

I am a second year student, specialising in directing and producing. I was involved in the project in several capacities, as a contributor and producer on the outdoor shoots. Working with Be the Fox was a great experience for me because they really let us loose with equipment and gave us a platform to tell people how we see Brighton and how the film school has helped us on an individual level. It was really great to get into that working environment and help create some beautiful content with a working production company, especially after the year we’ve all had! It was also a wonderful experience networking with both fellow students & graduates as well as the working professionals from Be The Fox.

Joseph Graham: Second year student

I really enjoyed the day I spent filming with Be the Fox and feel I’ve gained valuable knowledge of working on an industry set. They were all very easy to work with and, while they had a clear idea of what they wanted, they were receptive to input from us. They were also understanding when we did have slight problems with the equipment, which is not always the case with producers in this industry. They also stringently adhered to the Covid guidelines which helped allay concerns I had about working with a group of other people just before lockdown started. I learnt to work with some of the new equipment the film school have acquired which will serve me well moving forward. I look forward to working with Be the Fox again in the future. Thanks for organising these industry opportunities!

Noel Myatt: Third year student

On this shoot I was a shooting director, I am in my third year and I had quite a lot of fun considering COVID times, this was the first opportunity in a good couple of months where I could film in a professional environment and it felt quite daunting as well as refreshing. This was one of the rare opportunities for myself and my shooting partner to prove ourselves to industry professionals since COVID had taken that away from us during the summer. Shooting in the lanes was also a challenge in the sense that there were quite a few people walking around looking at us filming.

Nevertheless, I learned quite a lot about using a cinema camera in a “run and gun” type of shoot and could not have done it without the help of the film school and the wonderful producers who put this all together for us.  Hope the people at BeTheFox are happy with the footage!

Amy Collins: Third year Student

I was an interviewee on the shoot which was a great opportunity as I have wanted to share my words of wisdom about the university for a while. It was such a professional environment and I felt very safe with regards to COVID. I am currently in my third year and I was so grateful that I got to share my thoughts and give out some useful tips to potential new students.

 


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