From the
Swindon Advertiser:
The historical connection between the railways and Swindon was the theme of choice for young film-makers this week.
An awards ceremony was held on Tuesday to celebrate a project partnership between Network Rail, First Great Western and Swindon College.
Students involved in the Extended Diploma In Media Production course had the opportunity to work in groups creating short videos on Swindon Railways.
Paul Moss, the film and video editing techniques teacher, said: ^Swindon College is thrilled to have the chance to work with Network Rail and First Great Western.
^It^s been such a great opportunity for the students.^
The groups started off the summer term with a brief to depict rail travel in their local area with two months to complete their three-minute projects.
The partnership aimed to give the students a real-life situation in which to use their creative imaginations to produce their work from start to finish.
Paul praised the project for giving the students the best learning possible on the job.
The college and its students will also benefit from a ^1,000 bursary from Network Rail and First Great Western to help support the film department and kit it out with new equipment.
Swindon College principal Andrew Miller said: ^The ^1,000 bursary is a real bonus for the students and school.^
Network Rail representative Mike Gallop said: ^The project is part of something bigger, the modernisation and redevelopment of local railways worth over ^5bn, the biggest investment since the construction of the lines 175 years ago by Brunel.^
In the afternoon the students^ films were screened.
For many it was the first time the completed projects had been seen and the quality of the videos was almost to professional standards of work, according to Steve Gales, the media diploma teacher at Swindon College.
The students^ hard work was finally celebrated by the presentation of awards to commemorate a successful partnership.
The winners of the video project were Samantha Allen and Serifina Kami for Nice Day Out.
Mel Stevenson, 18, from the second placed team said: ^The best part of the project was the freedom and working together as a group meant a lot of creative ideas all fed together to make our video what it is.^
Fellow student Bradley Pearce said : ^We really enjoyed the project, it was interesting and more fun than school work.^
The finalists in competition for the bursary can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NetworkRailMedia
