It’s no secret that filmmaking is a huge team effort. If you’ve watched until the end of any TV show, film or music video, you’ll usually notice by the length of the credits just how many hardworking individuals it takes to bring an idea from script to screen. There is a huge creative community behind every piece of content on every production scale, including student films.
Collaboration is a very big part of studying at Screen and Film School and whilst a lot of this teamwork happens between us as filmmakers, being a part of BIMM University means that we’re surrounded by other talented creatives, with skills that differ from ours, that are vital to enhancing our projects.
Here are some examples of how being part of the creative network at BIMM University is helpful for making stand-out films:
Access to actors
Imagine this: You’re on set, it has been dressed to perfection, the boom operator is recording sound and the camera is rolling. You’re about to shout action when you realise… there are no actors there to bring your characters to life. Panic ensues!
Okay, so that might be an exaggerated scenario, but you get the point: actors are an incredibly vital part of bringing a film to life, and one of the last things you want is to be panicking during pre-production because you don’t know any actors who can personify your characters.
This is why Screen and Film School’s connection with ICTheatre (the Performing Arts and Dance branch of BIMM University) is a huge advantage to us filmmakers. Having access to talented, enthusiastic actors at ICTheatre, who can really bring our projects to the next level, makes the casting part of planning a film just that much easier. With actors onboard, the show can go on!
Tailor-made soundtracks
Does an emotive conversation between two characters really get those tears flowing without a score to lift it? What’s an action sequence without an adrenaline-inducing soundtrack to heighten your enjoyment of what’s unfolding visually? Music and score are often neglected by student filmmakers, but they are very essential parts of bringing a film to life and curating an unforgettable experience for a viewer.
Being a part of BIMM University means that, as filmmakers, we are easily able to get in contact with students at BIMM Music Institute who might be interested in creating compositions for our films (that we can ensure are tailored to best fit the length of the scene and mood). Similarly, we can also connect with musicians or artists who are willing to let us use their songs in our projects, which will benefit us in the long term.
Whether it’s through tailored composition or the memorable singles on the soundtrack, collaborating with the music students at BIMM University is a great way to ensure we can create an unforgettable viewing experience for the audience of our films.
Music video production and live gig opportunities
Every time your favourite artist releases a new song, the chances are that a music video of some form won’t be too far behind. As a filmmaker, I’ve found that making music videos is a really great way to build up your portfolio when starting out. For the most part, there’s less of a focus on maintaining perfect continuity (allowing for more creative freedom) and you don’t need to worry as much about selecting locations that will give you guaranteed silence for the best sound recording conditions – a hugely important consideration with short films.
Whilst studying at BIMM University, we are connected to the bands and artists also studying here, which means that we can easily reach out to emerging talent and work with them to create to create music videos or film live performances, and studying at Screen and Film School gives us access to the equipment, studio spaces and awesome student crew to make our shared visions for their visual content a reality.
How do we find these collaborators?
To make working together across the schools easier, we receive weekly newsletters from BIMM University, containing information about events and opportunities happening throughout the school – some arranged by the University itself, some by students and even some external opportunities that we won’t want to miss.
Similarly, all students have access to BIMM Connect – an internal platform which students at all of the BIMM University schools have access to, where we can post and respond to adverts looking for collaborators, which is a great way for us to network and to help us find people who are the best fit for our projects.
