Hosted by ITV Meridian鈥檚 Fred Dinenage and BBC South鈥檚 Laura Trant, The Royal Television Society (RTS) South鈥檚 flagship event of the year saw more than 200 industry professionals from main production hubs across the region come together to award the work of those working in the television industry and emerging talent from universities in the South.
聽Among the winners was Tom Perry, a BU BA Television Production alumni who won the short form documentary category for 鈥楾he Shovelers鈥� which chronicles the enduring friendship of two men working at Tattersalls Horse Auctioneers. Judges praised the piece for its charm, with Tom being awarded by Jason Horton, Head of News at BBC South.
Tom said: 鈥淲hat an experience Bournemouth has been, from the first day feeling, incredibly out of my depth and now an RTS winner. Progression is the thing that shocked me most as now I am a fully qualified camera operator, director, editor, sound operator, you name it.鈥�
He added: 鈥淏ournemouth has been the best thing that has ever happened to me and I look forward to the bright future that Bournemouth has paved for me.鈥�
Also nominated were graduates from BU鈥檚 Faculty of Media and Communication and National Centre for Computer Animation. (NCCA). BA TV Production alumni Henry Cramer-Todd was nominated for his film 鈥楢n Extra Step鈥�, with BA Media Production鈥檚 Callum Blitz also nominated for 鈥楾he Love Producer鈥�. NCCA students Aaron Demolder, Hannah Kenton and Louie Gordon were also nominated for their animation work, 鈥楽omnia鈥�, tutored by Oleg Fryazinov.
Produced by BU academic and VFX Hub Director Peter Truckel and animated by graduates Lucy Wright and Fran Towey, 鈥楥ut Your Strings鈥�, an animated series of films that support a Dorset Police initiative to combat controlling and coercive behaviour was nominated in the Graphics/Animation category.
BU partner college Wiltshire College and University Centre also took the award in the Student Category for comedy film, 鈥楾he Second Coming鈥�. 聽聽聽
RTS South Chair and Executive Producer for BU-based RedBalloon Productions, Stephanie Farmer, said: 鈥淚 am very proud to be the Chair of the RTS Southern region who put together this fantastic event, and I can tell you that it really means something to professionals and students across the region to receive an聽RTS award because they are judged by fellow聽professionals from across our area. I am also very proud of the students, who once again show us how talented they are, producing work which is virtually professional standard, in every category.鈥�
She added: 鈥淚 would also like to thank the faculty once again for being one of the Key Supporters for the event.鈥�
The success comes as BU students and alumni have also been successful at Commercial Radio鈥檚 IRN Awards, with MA Multimedia Journalism student Dave Wheeler being named IRN Student Journalist of the year 2019, and BU BA Multimedia Journalism alumni Sam Thomson collecting the Newsreader of the Year award.
To read more about how you could study a programme at BU鈥檚 award-winning Faculty of Media and Communication, click here.
