Lights, camera, action!
Wiltshire teenager Simon Olney is celebrating his offer on the Film Production course at the prestigious Arts Institute at Bournemouth.
Thousands of hopefuls from all over the world apply for this course and this year Simon is one of just a handful who has made it through.
Simon, age 19 from Cricklade, caught the movie bug by attending a Create Studios’ Mobile Media course when he was just 11 years old. Simon explained that when Mobile Media ran a workshop at his schools he was “plucked out of a crowd, in what could have been a twist of fate that changed the rest of my life.”
Killer lamps
He added, “I thoroughly enjoyed the after-school course, and when they told us about Create Studio's Media Circus, I jumped at the opportunity to try it out, so me and a handful of friends spent many happy afternoons making films about killer lamps, Austin Powers spin-offs, and whatever else we could imagine. It helped me develop an interest in film.”
Simon has spent his gap year working as for the youth arts project Flux, as well as being involved in YourFilm, and the award-winning Child and Me. He has recently finished work on the film Rite of Passage, made with YourFilm, where he multi-tasked as Producer, Scriptwriter, Lighting Technician, Editor and lead actor, working with a budget of £4,000. He has recently started work as director on a film made for the TOR project, funded by South West Screen, working with a £3,000 budget to create a film based on the classic Brother’s Grimm story Hansel and Gretel - set in a post WW3 environment - with Gurch Singh and Sherylee Houssein.
Working in a variety of roles alongside professionals such as Gurch and Phil Ball has taught him a wealth of skills and opened many doors for him, and he is looking forward to studying for his film degree in September.
Simon concluded, “I'm very flattered to have been offered a place at Bournemouth, and I'm gonna make the very best out of this opportunity. I've got the foundations and ambition needed to do the very best I can, I just need to pull it all together, and have a great time as well!”
What's Simon's background, and what does Simon Say to wannabe film students?
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