The Media & Film School: Staff and Projects
Current Projects @ the Media & Film School
International Student Film Co-production.
Students from the School of Film and Media have been working with students from two other international film schools in Russia and France to produce a co-production. Direction, editing, camera work, research and production was all undertakn by an international mix of Russian, French and Winchester School of Media and Film students. Professor John Pett, who leads the project for the School, reports that the final cut produced by each international team will be delivered at the end of November 2007. The experience was extremely valuable for all those involved, he says. Students had to overcome the challenge of working with a variety of different equipment, not to mention different languages but all those involved gained valuable insights into the structure of film making.
The Drugs and Popular Culture Project
An ambitious research project developed within the School of Media and Film has involved exploring the implications for popular culture and society of the apparent increase in the use of illicit drugs. Work around this theme began in 2005 and has so far produced two initiatives. Firstly, eight University of Winchester staff (including seven from within the School of Media and Film) collaborated with eight researchers from other universities, including the LSE, the universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Liverpool, Lincoln and Oxford Brookes, to produce the interdisciplinary publication of ‘Drugs and Popular Culture: drugs, media and identity in contemporary society’ (edited by Manning for Willan, 2007).
http://www.willanpublishing.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=184392210X
Research Informed Teaching
In 2006/07 two staff involved in the ‘Drugs and Popular Culture’ project began to explore ways in which the learning experiences for Level One students taking an introductory research methods module, ‘Researching Media Studies’ could be enhanced through the involvement of these students in the development of a ‘real’ research brief. The brief was to ask these students to devise a research design to assess the impact of two real public health and substance misuse awareness campaigns, ‘Ask Frank’ and ‘Getting Unhooked’. This learning strategy worked extremely well culminating in a half-day conference at which these students delivered presentations and posters summarising their findings.
Three staff within the School (Dr Paul Manning, Dr Oluyinka Esan and Dr Shaun Kimber) are now building on these developments with a HEFC funded Research Informed Teaching project. This RIT will aim to further enhance the learning experiences of level one students through providing them with the opportunity to experience ‘real’ research processes, and simultaneously provide potentially relevant qualitative data for the next phase in the ‘Drugs and Popular Culture’ project. In this phase, the focus will be upon the ways in which ideas and images of illicit substances are circulated through everyday life and elements of popular culture.
Bergman Week with Laura Hubner
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Above: Book publication. Laura Hubner with other guest speakers Kenneth Branagh and Bibi Andersson.
After the publication of her book, The Films of Ingmar Bergman: Illusions of Light and Darkness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Laura Hubner, a Senior Lecturer within the School of Media and Film, was invited to give a guest talk for ‘Bergman Week’ hosted at Bergman’s home island of Fårö (Sweden) at the end of June 2007. The organisers of the festival asked her to talk about the book and about the women in Bergman’s films. ‘It was a real honour to be amongst those who had worked and collaborated with Bergman, to talk to people who knew him well from all fields of life - academics, filmmakers, photographers and friends. In retrospect it has become an iconic moment as the last festival of its kind while Bergman was still alive’. To honour the occasion and to keep a lasting record of the talks and events, the festival organisers are producing a documentary and a journal that will also be available in English.