Bradford College students premiere films on big screen

Film students from Bradford College saw their work shown on the big screen – and thousands of cinema-goers will too.

A Level students have helped create two public service announcements that will play out before films at Bradford’s Picturehouse Cinema at the Science and Media Museum urging the audience to switch off their phones.

The films were premiered on Monday during a private screening for college students and from next month will appear ahead of every feature film.

Picturehouse approached the college last September offering students the opportunity to create a new ‘turn your phones off’ ident.

Several students submitted a treatment outlining their idea before the cinema and museum picked their favourites and gave the creators the go-ahead.

The chosen two were written by Saul Padgett and Eleanor Hodson, who, with the help of first-year A Level Film students Nicole Rollett and Adam Graham and Performing Arts students, brought the scripts to life.

Saul’s film sees an audience member disrupting the cinema experience by taking a phone call at a crucial moment in the film’s narrative while Eleanor took inspiration from the notification sounds of popular apps.

Iain Hendry, audience developer at the National Science and Media Museum, added:

“We want Bradford to be front and centre of this wonderful museum. This project gave students the space to hone their craft, express their talents and showcase our community’s creativity.

“Working with our friends at Bradford College and Picturehouse Cinemas has been a pleasure and we are excited to be showing the results on screen.”

Jason Beaumont, course leader in A Level Film and Media Studies at Bradford College, said:

“Working with, and for, the Science and Media Museum was a unique and exciting opportunity for the students. They were able to fully experience film creation for the first time in a professional manner using professional equipment and working alongside others to reach the same end goal, which was to produce two amazing short films.”

Roxy Van Der Post, marketing manager for Picturehouse Bradford, said:

“The aim of the project was to give local students the chance to apply their learning in a real-life project, experience what it is like to work for a client, and build a portfolio – and it’s been a big success.

“We were very impressed with both Saul and Eleanor’s ambitious proposals and they worked hard to bring their vision to the screen. We think our audiences will enjoy seeing these local student films, as they are fun, relatable and definitely get the message across.”