Bryn Rogers, 24

Script:

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As the director of a freelance filmmaking collective, but also as an aspiring filmmaker myself, I am personally invested in promoting the voice of grassroots talent development across the north. Turning 25 this January, I am at the end of Film Hub North’s 16-25 target age bracket and so I want to contribute the commercial and personal filmmaking experiences I have gained from working a wide variety of projects during this period of my life. This in a way that is conscious of not just the opportunities made available by platforms like film hub north, but also the heightened obstacles that I have seen many young filmmakers face in the current climate of scaled-back arts funding and post covid economic uncertainty. Having myself been the beneficiary of educational bursaries and charitable funding from multiple different arts councils/trusts, I know how important it is for young artists & filmmakers alike to be uplifted through access to facilities, recourses, and an established creative network as they explore their practice.

 

Having started Leaf Street Productions in 2017, my filmmaking practice has spanned all aspects of film production, leading me into my current work as a freelance director & producer. As with my technical knowledge of production, cameras & lighting, my current handling of project development and budgeting is born out of hands-on experience. This in which I have been forced to improve from prior oversights such as mishandled concepts, spiralling budget requirements and missed production deadlines.

 

I want to impart this knowledge so that other young filmmakers know how to respond to obstacles and hopefully have the foresight to avoid them in the first place.

 

In 2022 I stepped back from full-time freelance work to complete a Masters in Filmmaking at the new SODA in Manchester. Along with my undergraduate degree at MSoA, my mix of studies and freelance work has allowed me to spend the past 5 years networking and collaborating directly with both professional and student filmmaking communities across the northwest. With this, I have come to a key understanding as to the distance between these two spaces and so I am keen to contribute this first-hand appreciation for the heightened obstacles many aspiring filmmakers have faced since 2020.

 

  For me there is often a clear disconnect between applied film production and how filmmaking is taught as an academic research practice. Students without a background in Filmmaking external to university often risk graduating unprepared to continue beyond their studies. In response to this, I was recently successful in my ‘Flash Fund’ application to MMU. With this funding, I am in the process of directing a project aimed at bringing hands on external production experience to final-year students and recent graduates of filmmaking/media courses at MMU. Having received keen interest from virtual production specialists MoSys engineering whose industry-standard technology is used across media city, the aim is to expand this project to integrate emerging technologies and include students from Salford and the NWFS.

 

 Beyond my work as a filmmaker, I have a multiplatform background in arts-based social media management and marketing. With aAh Mag!, not only was I able to provide coverage for events like the Manchester International Film Festival, I was integral to the process of using social media to engage the student art community. Responding to post analytics, we tailored our use of Instagram, Facebook & Twitter to maximise our reach as we published articles and distributed open calls for poets, artists, and filmmakers and more.

 

With my role as the website & social media manager for the reclaiming the narrative research project, I was fortunate to work directly with young Muslim students from around Greater Manchester as we documented their creative responses to the project workshops. Providing positive encouragement was key to helping participants find their voice, especially at an age where many lacked the initial confidence to explore a creative vision. These workshops explored creative expressions of Islamic faith and cultural history for young Muslims who are underrepresented in the arts sector. Having grown up between majority white and multicultural spaces across Hyde & Stockport, I have seen this disconnect in creative representation extend to Manchester where colleagues and friends have had their personal and artistic relationships impacted. Ongoing discussions have relayed their uncomfortable experiences, be it on set or attending exhibitions, in which they have felt isolated and at times tokenised by interactions with well-meaning yet tone deaf majority white, middle-class creative spaces. It was rewarding to better appreciate these perspectives by collaborating on a project that, even if at a small scale, can hopefully lead to more informed future conversations and representation.

 

These positive communication skills have also proved key with my work for cotton on creative in which we host art workshops across Manchester for a wide range of different clients. Be it young children or middle-aged professionals I’ve often found that no matter how externally confident someone may appear, if they don’t have access to a supportive and artistically open environment, they can often be consumed by doubt, having little to no faith in their own creative abilities and capacity to experiment. This hesitancy kills growth and stifles ingenuity. A painting doesn’t need to be photorealistic, and a film doesn’t need a £30,000 camera system to be great.