A Successful Year for the AUCB

26th July 2010

The Arts University College at Bournemouth is celebrating after many of its students and graduates won awards, grants and industry placements during the last academic year 2009/10.

 

BA (Hons) Film Production graduate Simon Bysshe visited students on campus to tell them about his role as boom operator on the Oscar and BAFTA-winning film, The Hurt Locker. At the Oscars in March, the film was awarded the highest accolade of the night, Best Picture, as well as Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. This followed a phenomenally successful awards season, with the low-budget film collecting six BAFTA awards in February, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Sound.

 

On location with The Hurt Locker

 

BA (Hons) Animation Production graduates were also prominent in the awards lists this year, with the 2009 graduation film Train of Thought, by Leo Bridle and Ben Thomas, receiving a nomination for the British Animation Awards Public Choice category and special mentions at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Student Television Awards and also at the Anifest and Monstra festivals. The film has recently been selected for the competition program of the Hiroshima Animation Festival 2010. Another of 2009’s graduation films, Lullaby, by Nick White and Emma Neesham, won a RTS Student Television Award.

 

Animation Production graduate James Norman (left) won accolades for Best Game and Gameplay at the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. He is now lead motion capture animator on the development team at Rocksteady Studios and was awarded the prize for his work on Batman: Arkham Asylum.

 

Earlier in the term, BA (Hons) Photography student Claire Huish was named Young Fashion Photographer of the Year and received £2,000 prize money, as well as a one-week placement with a top photographer. Claire impressed the judges with her creative flare, bold use of colour and romantic imagery (one of Claire's images, right).

 

Toby Roberts’ images have also made their mark, as the FdA Commercial Photography student’s work is currently featured in the Spring/Summer 2010 campaign for men’s cult clothing brand and House of Fraser concession, Criminal.

 

Second-year FdA Fashion student Phillipa Toppin was awarded the Maria Grachvogel for Lectra Award 2010 after using Lectra’s dedicated software solutions to design a dress which would appeal to the Grachvogel customer. The dress was chosen as the “most outstanding idea combining art, functionality, creativity, cut and fit”. Phillipa will now take advantage of a one-year internship with Maria herself, at the flagship store on London’s Sloane Street.

 

BA (Hons) Fashion Studies students also had reason to celebrate after exhibiting their collections at London Graduate Fashion Week. Ellie Mountford was named the winner of the Jon Adam Fashion Portfolio Award, while fellow student Jessica Dance was awarded the Per Aquum Creative Marketing Award.

 

BA (Hons) Illustration student Darren Cranmer reached the national final in the Lloyds TSB Art of Nurture competition. Darren was one of three winners of the South West and Wales heats of the competition, which took place at The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. In recognition of his success, Darren received £250 and a matched amount for the University College. Darren’s work was also exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, London.

 

Darren Cranmer's winning image

 

‘Time for Heroes’, an intergenerational project organised by three BA (Hons) Arts and Event Management students, received an £8,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. David Fakray, Naz Taner and Josie Powell were awarded the grant to help deliver the project, in which former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion worked with ex-servicemen and women to produce poetry based on their wartime experiences.

 

In what has been one of its most successful periods to date, 2009/10 was also a landmark year for the AUCB as it awarded its own degrees for the first time since achieving University College status in July 2009.

 

The AUCB is also proud to announce that in the recent Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) report on levels of graduate employment by institution for 2008/9, we were ranked 5.5% higher than the UK average, proving our commitment to and success in graduate employability.