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BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE: Film graduate makes the cut with national awards win

17/08/2022
BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE: Film graduate makes the cut with national awards win

A University of Wolverhampton graduate has made the cut with film success after winning a national award for his creative work recently. 

Craig Hartwell, 43 from Willenhall, who studied for an Undergraduate degree in Film and Television Production and graduated in 2022, entered a short film into the nationally acclaimed Creative Conscience Awards. 

The Creative Conscience Awards scheme searches for exciting projects that focus on social or environmental impact themes.  The not-for-profit organisation is a creative community which advocates that creative thinking and innovation can make positive change. 

His film, "17", is a short drama film exploring the stigma of male depression and suicide. 

Craig said: “I wanted to make a film to prevent not only the stigma but also to help people struggling to voice their anxieties. Through dramatic reconstruction and representation, I hoped the film would achieve this.  

“I entered the Creative Conscience Awards competition on recommendation from my tutor, Tracy McCoy, after showing her the first cut of my film which fits the drive to support creative talent for positive social impact.  

“I owe everything to my partner, Amy, for supporting me throughout the course, without her I wouldn't have been able to get as far as I did. The film is dedicated to my friend Shay O’Toole whom it was originally meant to star and to Simon Rogers. Sadly, Shay passed away. 

“Ewan Weatherburn, who plays Shay in the film, asked me to donate his fee to a charity instead. Ewan lost his brother to suicide, so it was very personal to him, with the money we bought several trees in the National Trust and dedicated them to the memories of the ones we have lost.   

“The course pushed me to visualise what I wanted to achieve. It gave me the tools to create and the confidence to pull it off. What I will take away is when I thought I had what I wanted, my tutors and peers encouraged me to take the film further, to craft it, to mould it and make it better.  

“The course also taught me how to work as part of a team, collaborating with others to use their knowledge, influence, and above all their talent collectively.” 

Tracy McCoy, Associate Dean Recruitment & International and Craig’s Personal Tutor, said: “I was absolutely delighted to hear of Craig's success with "17" which is a short, social action, self-penned screenplay developed in the Pre-production module and produced and directed by Craig for his final Major Project module.  

“Craig joined the course directly at level 6 bringing with him some existing skills in music, audio visual production and in working with children and vulnerable young adults. Craig's desire to use film to make a difference and facilitate a change of view, introspection or meaning was an ever-present theme in our tutorial conversations throughout his studies.  It is wonderful to see this ambition begin to be realised by this Creative Conscience Award win." 

Craig is returning to the University of Wolverhampton to study for a Master’s degree and has written a film and pilot which he hopes to pitch to Netflix in the future. 

The awards will officially be announced and celebrated in an online ceremony on 20th September.   

Graduates are encouraged to keep in touch with the Alumni team and take advantage of a range of benefits and support on offer to them including a discount for Postgraduate study and opportunities to benefit from mentoring, volunteering and career advice. 

The University officially opened its new Screen School in March, an extensive refurbishment project at its City Campus in Wolverhampton that has seen £5 million invested in new facilities for students studying for digital arts and media production courses.  

The new Wolverhampton Screen School has been transformed with investment in industry-standard, state-of-the-art equipment with the aim of boosting skills in the digital arts and media industries.   

Students are benefiting from a new production space, an equipment media store, a video studio with movable partitions and a large multipurpose studio. There are also new Mac labs, edit suites, staff offices and a production base room.   

The facilities also include a green-screen, three-camera TV studio with an adjoining production gallery alongside a new radio studio which reflects the layout of BBC local stations. News readers have access to a second bulletin studio and the technical kit and software will enable the replication of the workflows of national news journalists and the running orders of professional news programmes.   

The core courses taught at the Wolverhampton Screen School are animation, computer games design, film and television production, multimedia journalism, computer science, cyber psychology alongside proposals for a new course in visual effects. 

  • For anyone who already has the results of their qualifications, applications can be made through Clearing from Tuesday 5 July 2022. The University’s Clearing webpage provides further information on all the courses available in Clearing. Applications can be made either by calling the Clearing Team on 01902 51 8585 or through the University’s social media channels on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.   
  • For anyone who is awaiting the results of their qualifications, they can register their interest and book a phone call with a Clearing Adviser on results day, Thursday, 18 August 2022.  
  • For more information our next Open Day is on Saturday 20 August 2022. 

ENDS 

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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