Promax UK Sky Creative 2007 Student Awards Judging
Shortlist
The following students have been short listed to present their work to Sky Creative Department. The winner will receive:
- A year’s internship in Sky Creative.
- £2000.
- A Promax UK Muse.
- Entrance to the Promax UK 2007 Conference and Awards (including one free night’s accommodation at The Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane for the Awards ceremony).
The successful nominees short listed are (in alphabetical order):
Sam Bott Ravensbourne College
Chloe Brooks Ravensbourne College
Chloe Haywood/Caleb Lee Ravensbourne College (joint entry)
Hiroki Mashima Ravensbourne College
Georgina McLaughlin West Herts College
Luke Pointon Ravensbourne College
Catherine Woodhouse Ravensbourne College
The runner-up will receive:
- 1 month’s work experience at Sky.
- £1000.
- A Promax Gold muse.
- Entrance to the Promax UK 2007 Conference and Awards (including one night at the Grosvenor House Hotel for the Awards ceremony).
The Promax UK Broadcast 2007 College Award for Excellence was won by Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication.
The Moving Image Department receives:
- £1000.
- A Promax Gold Muse.
- 1 place at the Promax UK 2007 Conference and Awards Ceremony.
- A seat on the Promax UK 2007/08 Student Awards judging panel.
The Promax UK 2007 Judges’ Award was won by West Herts College, Watford.
West Herts College’s entries exemplified the aims of the Promax UK Student Awards. The judges felt that although West Herts College ran primarily a documentary film course dealing with longer form material, a strong effort had been made to understand the marketing and promotion side of the industry and that this could only benefit both the students and the promotion industry as a whole. The judges said that the college had done exceptionally well both in terms of the work entered and also the ratio of students entering the competition with regard to the course size (80%).
The college receives:
- A Promax Gold Muse.
- 1 place at the Promax UK 2007 Conference and Awards Ceremony.
- A seat on the Promax UK 2007/08 Student Awards judging panel.
Judges’ comments
"The brief should have been more focused and more explicit."
"The students’ work was fascinating ~ really good… "
"It felt as though students were often going for the first idea, the need to generate more ideas and show that they have… "
"Simplicity ~ too many ideas are a mish-mash without focus… "
"Not enough regard for the audience ~ would the audience really want to watch the idea you have produced?"
"The challenge is to focus on one idea and make it work across all platforms… "
"The students who submitted mood boards and communicated clearly had the right idea… "
"Students don’t seem to brainstorm enough… "
"Sometimes the design seems to get in the way of the idea. The Graphic execution is thought about before the concept is fully thought through. Ideas need to be more conceptual. Don’t choose your media too early… "
"Scripts were asked for, but some students seem to get locked into the graphics before working out the story they wanted to tell."
"Too many students choose a technique first… the idea grows out of a technique they want to explore or is based on a piece of software they want to learn not necessarily what is right for the brief… "
"Learning skills seems to be more important to some students than exploring ideas… "
"The best ideas have a narrative flow ~ the ideas that work are going somewhere ~ they have a storyline."
"Students need to test if their ideas have legs ~ does it work in a number of applications, not just the one they have chosen?"
"Look for the bigger concept… "
"Story line is essential… "
"Some students had worked intuitively and thought abstractedly about what Sky Arts might want… they showed potential but they hadn’t pulled the ideas together enough… "
"Editing and design could be better."
"Start simple… "
"Exploring the breadth of the channel is not easy but some people managed to tell the story… "
"I would like to have been shocked more, everything was so safe."
"When it’s a real brief it seems as though the students feel they have to play safe… "
"It is annoying to see sketchbooks and storyboards that have been created after the films have been completed, it is obvious that they are not part of thinking process… "
"Some students look as though they have just gone their own way without talking this through with anyone… "
General notes on the Promax UK Sky Creative 2007 Student Awards
Generally the standard this year was very high with student’s following and understanding the brief in both content and technical requirements.
Students had been asked to supply all work in QuickTime format. This was put onto a hard drive and tested this before judging, however, the variations in compression ratios, file formats and work recorded on DVD and on CD caused a few playback problems. Most students had understood and followed the rules but there were a few who had not and this was a minor frustration on the day. If moving image is to be judged in future, more rigorous authoring/recording instructions will be part of the brief.
As can be seen from the judges’ comments, the general feeling from the judges was that students should:
- Generate more ideas and show proof of this in their sketchbooks and ideas sheets.
- Be braver and more daring in their ideas.
- Focus more on what they are trying to say and not rely on technique or skills to carry the idea through. A brilliant or clever animation, however well executed, is no good if the basic idea is weak or not thought through thoroughly or does not work in other media.
- Understand that a simple idea and a strong narrative and are the keys to holding an audience. Clever visual effects are no substitute for a good idea or a good story.
- Talk to their tutors and not develop ideas on their own without support.
The judges were:
| John Cassy | Head of Sky Sports |
| Paul Butler | Creative Director, Sky |
| Julian Dyer | Creative Director, Sky Arts and Sky Travel |
| Ethan Ames | Senior Lecturer: Moving Image Ravensbourne |
| Rob Newton | Senior Lecturer: Moving Image. Nottingham Trent University. Winner of the Promax UK 2006 Judges' Award |
| Martin Delamere | Promax UK 2007 Conference Chair |
Apologies:
Ann Marie Colvin Broadcast Magazine.
Chair of the Judges
Terry Yetton Promax UK Sky Student Awards Chair.
Also present
Nick Roberts (Commercial Director, Promax UK)
