Study film in London
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London is supporting the next generation of television producers and filmmakers through innovative funding schemes and practical support.
London has inspired television producers and filmmakers for decades. As the third largest film production capital in the world, the city employs over 100,000 professionals in the film industry alone.
Every day there are on average 35 crews filming in London's streets and over the year it hosts no less than 60 film festivals.
The city has produced classic Hollywood directors like Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean and Charlie Chaplin, and its universities have trained many great actors such as Helen Mirren, Michael Caine and the current James Bond, Daniel Craig, a graduate of Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
But the talent developed in London is not only homegrown. It also comes from the myriad of cultures that are attracted to the city, and it is precisely this mix of cultures that gives London its creative edge.
Bright enthusiasts from every corner of the globe study film and TV production in London's world famous institutions. Zigi Tchaya Tchameni came to London from Cameroon to study an MA in Film Making at Kingston University London.
Zigi lived on the streets in Cameroon from the age of 13. “I ended up sleeping in front of the cinema and seeing films inside,” he explains, “That's where my passion came from.” This passion helped to take Zigi off the streets, and through a mixture of talent, luck and commitment, he eventually entered film school in Cameroon and was then sponsored to study in London.
“I came here to learn how to tell stories in a seamless form and how to edit films,” Zigi said. “The teaching team has been very supportive and somehow different from the teaching in Cameroon. They talk to students more and ask us what we need.”
He was both surprised and pleased by the diversity of students he found on the course. “When I came to Kingston I realised I was in the world, not just in England. Diversity is what gives the course its energy and vivaciousness. It made us think of film as universal.”
Zigi's film The Match was shown at the Curzon cinema in London's Soho last year and he is already planning his next project From Brixton to Babessi, which will give ten young people from Brixton and a rural community in Cameroon the chance to interact and learn film-making skills.
When Zigi finishes his MA there will be many chances for his films to be produced and showcased. London is already home to Europe's largest film festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the strategic agency Film London has gone a long way to improve the chances of talented graduates hitting both the big and the small screen.
Their Filmmakers Festival Fund provides travel grants to graduates to go to overseas festivals, and there are lots of production schemes that give money to film and television projects.
Posted: Tuesday 9 February 2010