York St John student films win hat trick of awards at Royal Television Society

‘Eden’ by Purple Thunder Productions, which features two people looking for hope in a post-apocalyptic world, won the prestigious Drama award and will now go on to the national RTS Student Awards in April.

In the citation for the award, the judges said ‘Eden’ was “an ambitious film with a real human story and with a technical sophistication that made excellent use of its resources – a confident film with a strong ending.”

Two other awards went to York St John students on the night. James Bentley, Andrew Palfreyman and Jonathan White won a Craft award for sound on ‘Trapped in Terror’, a powerful film about sleep paralysis. Joe Green and Nyle Hunt took a Craft award for camera for their work on ‘We Are Only Human’, a web series exploring how movement can be used for escapism. ‘We Are Only Human’ has already won a 2016 York Culture Award for best film, and director Catherine Mason and producer Chloe Britland also won a special hothouse pitching competition at Universal NBC for the project.

‘Eden’ director Annie Sutton said: “It was such an ambitious project, and to know we pulled it off is one thing, but to win this award is something else. To see our work recognised like this really means a lot.”

Jonathan White, who won a craft award for sound on ‘Trapped in Terror’, said: “I’m really happy because we worked really hard on this. We spent 60 hours on sound so it’s great to be recognised for that. We couldn’t have done it without the support of our tutors.”

Joe Green, awarded for camerawork on ‘We Are Only Human’, said he was “super happy. This will be a great start for my camera career.”

Jenny Kean, Subject Director for Media Production which includes film and television, said the whole team was really proud of the students who made the films in their final year last year. “These films were judged by industry professionals, so this is a real tribute to the skills and creativity of our students. It was especially pleasing to pick up two Craft awards, showing technical excellence, and then to get the Drama award at the end of the evening was the icing on the cake.”

Last night’s awards ceremony took place at Sheffield United Football Club in an evening hosted by BBC Look North presenter Amy Garcia. A total of 11 higher education institutions from across Yorkshire submitted entries, and a total of 14 awards were made.

A fourth film by York St John students was also nominated in the Drama category; ‘Amber & I’ by Cascabel Productions, the story of a young boy called Billy who is struggling to understand his own sexuality and becomes a victim of bullies.

More information on the Royal Television Awards.

To view clips of the student films, please see the following links:

Eden - https://vimeo.com/165138075
Human Ep1 - https://vimeo.com/164567320
Trapped in Terror - https://vimeo.com/164567477
Amber & I - https://vimeo.com/164564886

Purple Thunder Productions (Eden) consist of: Annie Sutton, Jessica Sawyer, Andy Smith, Stephanie Hague, Jennifer Jackson, Kenny Pope and Christian Drinkall.

Cascabel Productions (Amber & I) consist of: Alice Haley, Emily Johnson, Kurt Davison, Alice Carter, Matt Stanley, Sophie Hardcastle and Katie Irving.