Studying at Royal Holloway, University of London from September

Last week I attended an interview at the National Film and Television School for a place on a Masters studying Producing. It had always been the plan to apply for two fantastic courses and if both were offered, to make a decision based on career prospects, student experience and financial implications.

It was also likely a possibility that one or niether of the courses would offer me a place. A couple of months go, Royal Holloway offered me a place and last week I received a letter from NFTS inviting me to an interview.

The interview was with a panel, made up of 3 people, including the Head of the course, an experienced producer and the current Head of Film London. I felt it went OK, a little nervouse to start perhaps but it soon relaxed and a good conversation was had. In all honesty, when you walk into an interview situation, it seems to go well during but little can be remembered specifically from the time spent in the room.


Yesterday I received my answer and it is a no. Well, more accurately, it is a no to a place in the final 16, but a yes to be a reserve incase one of those people drops out.

Of course, being told no for anything is disappointing, but in a large way, I am also happy. It has made removed the difficult decision about where to go extremely easy, it has meant that I can plan to start September (NFTS runs academic years Jan to Dec) and it also means I can budget for costs incurred by attending Royal Holloway.

When I visited the campus back in November last year, I was impressed with its location to Soho, its syllabus for teaching and the Head of Course who took the time to speak to me.

So the plans can begin, starting with a move to East London on the 24th July.

UPDATE: NFTS

On Friday I was sent a letter in an enevelope marked with the stamp of the National Film and Television School. I instantly thought it was a letter informing me that my application had been unsuccessful.

To my surprise, the letter was offering me an interview for a place on the Producing Masters.

The demand is so great for the courses run at NFTS, that this first interview is conducted with a panel of people from the school. After this, 16 successful candidates will be invited to come to the school for a week, to work on a series of challenges. From this week, the final eight will be selected. It all sounds like something from a reality show like The Apprentice, but the process is genuinely exciting.

On the 3rd July 11am, I will enter a room and walk into the unknown. I don't know who the panel is or what I will be asked, but this seems to add to the excitment. I just need to be prepared to answer any questions on television and film with relation to the career and achievements I want.

UPDATE: NFTS Application and funding a Masters

So, the application which has been whizzing around my mind for nearly a year now has finally gone! The National Film and Television School (NFTS) contacted me today to acknowledge the application, and now, the waiting begins.

As I already have a place secured at Royal Holloway, University of London, the time has come to start giving serious consideration to how it is going to be funded. After much research, it seems that there is limited support for anyone who wants to study a media or humanities based masters degree.

A mixture of savings and selling my car will ensure that I can pay my fees in full at the beginning of the academic year (which brings a £300 saving).

That just leaves the small matter of living and eating! The last few days have been spent researching and applying for part time work that I could fit around the degree. So far, HMV, WH Smith and Blockbuster have been applied to (well I did say I wanted to work with film!). As well as this, various feelance catering and event stewarding posts have been applied for. Hopefully this will yield some results.

Of course, there is always the long shot of a funding application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which will award one person on my course the cost of their fees and a further £10,000 towards their living costs. Well, I can but hope!

NFTS Open Day

Have been reading back my posts since returning from Sins of London, and realised that in all of the excitment that I had forgotten to post anything about the open day I attended at the National Film and Television School.

It is difficult to describe this place, but the best way is part university, part mini film studio. It is like a shruken Pinewood, complete with sound stages, post production facilities and even recording studios for capturing scores.

The Producing course is 2 years in duration, with the first year about learning the ropes and the second about collaborting with other Masters students to create a working crew. One of the last tasks is to go on a networking exercise to the Cannes Film Festival.

One of the main things I noticed about the whole school is the quality of the students and the work produced. Nothing less would be expected from a place that takes only 8 Masters students from well over a hundred applicants every year.

Even though I am delighted with the place already granted to me at Royal Holloway, University of London, I am still preparing my entry documents for consideration in May. Even though the chances of a place are slim, the motto that you have to be in it to win it ring true. All I can do is work my very hardest on the application tasks and then equally hard in any subsequent interview should I be lucky enough to get one.

Experience vs Education

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When trying to get ahead in any industry, there is nearly always the debate about whether education is worth more than hands on experience, or vice versa.

After looking at all of the possible routes to become the best producer I can, a compromise answer has been reached. I will apply for every piece of experience I can find, while also applying for a position on a Masters.

In the UK, there are only 3 producing Masters courses that are Skillet and UK Film Council accredited, Bournemouth, Royal Holloway and the National Film and Television School (NFTS). NFTS has a two year Masters, where as the other two courses are a more traditional one year set up. This is not the only major difference, with NFTS running on calender years (Jan to Dec) rather than academic years (Sept to Aug)

Royal Holloway has its producing building based on the corner on Bedford Square, behind Tottenham Court Road in the centre of London. This gives it fantastic access to Soho, the centre of UK film and TV producing. There were no open days sceduled for the Producing for Film and Television course, so I e-mailed to see if I could visit the building. A week later I found myself sat opposite Gillian Gordon, the head of the course, discussing the course structure and film making in general.

Another week after that, I managed to get myself on an official open day at Bournemouth. Despite its great reputation and knowledgable staff, I have been discouraged by how far it seems from London and the fact that the head of the course admitted that the structure concentrates more on television and digital production.

NFTS has yet to publish an open day date for its producing course, although a massive discouragement has been the £7500 a year fees!

At present, a formal application has now been made to Royal Holloway for September 2009 entry, and an application to NFTS will be prepared and submitted in March/ April for a January 2010 start.

On the experience side of things, various website, such as Mandy.com have provided places to network and try to offer services as a runner or assistant on music videos, short films and even low budget features. We will have to see what this yields for someone such as myself with limited experience.

Networking through sites such as Facebook has also introduced me to friends of friends with aspirations of working in film. From this I have been working on the idea of creating a crew all willing to work for free for mutual experience and their name on the credits.

At present, a short play has caught my eye that was written by someone I know, so I will be asking whether they would grant me the rights to create a screenplay based on their work.