Students’ movies slay the ‘dragons’

GET Carty . . . from left, actor Todd Carty with the Oldham silver medal-winning team of Jenny Smith, Andrew Turner, David Barker and Frances White

MEDIA and film students from Oldham Sixth Form College entered the “dragons’ den” — and triumphed.

Three teams from the college were selected to pitch their ideas for a community TV programme to a “Dragons’ Den”-style panel of experts that included “EastEnders” star Todd Carty, who played Mark Fowler.

One team — featuring Jennifer Smith, Andrew Turner, Frances White and David Barker — won the silver award at the national final of the Wordskills UK Moving Image Competition in Coventry for their programme idea “Q4”.

And another team — Rebecca Warrior, Mary Smith, Sean Meakin-Bolderston and Deanna Smith — took bronze for their programme idea “Did you Know?”.

The final team of Georgina Shaw, Emma O’Neill, Sarah Hoyle and Oliver Wellington just missed out with their programme idea “Road Show”.

Competitors had to produce an idea for a pilot television programme that sought to reflect issues or a subject that would be seen as relevant and entertaining to the local community.
The competition formed part of the work within the college’s Aim Higher programme, which aims to help gifted and talented students extend their knowledge and experience of media and film.

Fiona Douglas-Reeves, the college’s head of media and their Aim Higher tutor, said: “When Todd Carty announced that one of our teams had won bronze medal, I was so thrilled for the students that I wasn’t paying much attention to the announcement of silver.

“I couldn’t think for one moment that we would win another medal, but sure enough — “Silver medal goes to the Q4 team from Oldham Sixth Form” — Amazing!

“To get two teams into the top three in the UK for their moving image work is tantamount to the dedication of the students and further proof that the media department at OSFC is one of the best in the country.”

Pupils from the college have scooped seven medals since they first entered competitions run by the organisation in 2004.