Salford students up for RTS TV Awards
Still from Summer Secrets of the Itchen Navigation
Three films made by students on the University of Salford’s MA courses in Television and Wildlife Documentary have been nominated for Royal Television Society North West awards, which will be presented this Saturday at a special ceremony at Manchester’s Hilton Hotel.
Two of the films form part of the University’s Wildtrack series of wildlife documentaries shown on Channel M. Summer Secrets of the Itchen Navigation, produced and directed by Matt Hamilton, has been shortlisted in the Best Factual Series category, and reveals the hidden lives of the diverse wildlife found on an English chalk stream, while Where the Wild Things Were, nominated for the Best Low Budget Programme award, focuses on the flora and fauna found in Scotland’s forests and hills, and was directed and produced by Amber Eames.
Up for the Best Production (Craft) title, and facing stiff competition from ITV’s Coronation Street ‘tram crash’ episode, is Now That You’re Gone, a personal and introspective film exploring perceptions of death in an Irish Catholic family, produced by Johan Jakobson and directed by Alan Dukes. Part of the University’s Hitting Home series, the documentary was also shown on Channel M.
The MAs in Wildlife Documentary and Television Documentary are two of 39 programmes now taught at the University’s new MediaCityUK building. Over 1,500 students can now use cutting-edge audio, video and production facilities at the facility which opened last month.
Professor Erik Knudsen, Head of the School of Media, Music & Performance and Director of the International Media Centre, said: “The University has a strong tradition of competing alongside major media organisations at the RTS awards and has won numerous prizes in the past. The films produced by these students are of a very high standard and they fully deserve their nominations.
“To be nominated for an RTS award makes it even more likely that they’ll be recognised by industry when they graduate.”
