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Barking & Dagenham pupils enjoy UEL media master-classes

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Pupils from five Barking & Dagenham schools got behind the camera when a three-day media master-class course took place at the University of East London (UEL) Docklands campus from 4-6 February.

Twenty-one A-level students from Robert Clack, All Saints, Sydney Russell, Warren, and East Brook schools participated in the workshops, learning film-making skills under the guidance of Awad Bhenick, a UEL Media and Advertising graduate who now runs his own successful media production company Blue Sky Media.

Awad said: “The media master-classes were a great opportunity for local pupils to get an inside view of working in media production. The students were excellent fun to work with, and the films they produced are a strong testament to promising local talent."

In teams of five or six, the students came up with their own company names and divided themselves into directors, editors, scriptwriters and camera crew.

Two of the groups visited Canary Wharf to create films on the area’s buildings and green spaces. The other two teams went to the Lea Valley Sports Centre, where one group focused on the world-class facilities and the other interviewed top athletes and Olympic hopefuls, including 400m star Christine Ohuruogu and triple jumper Phillips Idowu.

The three-day course culminated in a film screening and awards ceremony held at UEL’s Knowledge Dock Centre at the Docklands campus.

Gary Jarrett, Enterprise Advisor for Barking & Dagenham, said: “Our key objective was to give students a taste of film-making and the media world in a way they would never experience in the classroom, and the master-classes have totally fulfilled that.

“We were all taken aback by the speed at which the students picked up the techniques. The quality of their films was absolutely excellent, and their team-working skills were extremely impressive. This experience has definitely encouraged many of the students to think more seriously about developing their studies in media.”

The students' four films will now be entered into the Barking and Dagenham and Canary Wharf film festivals and will also soon be available to view on the BBC London website.

UEL’s School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies is 5-rated for research in media, communications, and cultural studies, placing UEL in the top seven universities in the UK. For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk/ssmcs.

For details and pictures contact Daniel Cherry: 020 8223 2194

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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