By Claire Fennelow, Executive Director
Last week I had the pleasure of delivering a presentation to Bournemouth University’s 2nd year Media Production students as part of their Client and Audience module. Bournemouth University (BU) have been long standing members of EVCOM and are keen to develop further relationships with the sector.
The tutor, Richard Wallis, (HEA Senior Fellow and Principal Academic), Faculty of Media & Communications, was keen to introduce the students to both EVCOM and the world of corporate film.
I began the presentation with an explanation of EVCOM’s origins, what the purpose of an association is and, in particular, what EVCOM offers it’s members. Given that the students knew very little about corporate film either as a sector or a career option, I described the size and breadth of the sector (with the aid of Steve Garvey’s wonderful Brand Film Report) and expanded on the how and why corporate film was different to advertising and made-for-broadcast content.
I think the most rewarding section for them though, was seeing award winning work from both the Clarion Awards and London Live and Film Awards 2020. I was able to share a wide cross-section of work in terms of style, length and tone, including animation, documentary, live action, funny, emotional, gentle and hard-hitting. I also used the opportunity to show them a short clip of the Focus Award winning film, Magpie by Hamza Pool.
Board members Dean Beswick, Tim Langford and Andrew Smith kindly supplied sample briefs, templates, treatments, films and commentary which will provide essential tools for the students to understand how creative ideas and solutions evolve from the brief and are presented back the client.
A hugely satisfying experience and one that I hope will have broadened the horizons of some of the 60+ students listening in. We might see some of them in a year or twos time!
“It was really great to have Claire’s recent input to our Media Production programme,” said Dr. Richard Wallis, Principal Lecturer in Media Production at Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Media & Communication. “It’s so important that our students get to understand the breadth of the corporate and brand film sector, and seeing the range and quality of work has been a real eye-opener for them. The module to which Claire contributed, has students working in teams on live briefs from a range of external organisations. Learning to work in response to the demands of a third-party brief and learning to manage the client relationship is a formative moment for many of our students, and often directly impacts on their longer-term career aspirations and choices.”
Photo by javier trueba on Unsplash