Following the Ravensbourne 3: What a past few months!

by Ruth Matos
Issue 79 - July 2013 Here I am, at the end of my course BA Hons Production. For this final term I had to submit several projects including a portfolio showing a wide range of skills that I have developed and learnt.
The most challenging and important one was a music video called Born of Stars, where I took the role of producer and DOP/camera operator. It was written and performed by Mike Simpkins and directed by Amir Rezazadeh.
While looking for a location to film, I came across an abandoned psychiatric hospital where I managed to get permission to use it in the filming and adapt the rooms as needed. The next stage was to do the casting process, and I was very surprised by the amount of people that showed interest. The two days of filming were fantastic; everyone enjoyed the strange ghostly environment. Everyone was very energetic and helpful. Here is the link to Born of Stars: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=g75eaAsCIIk
Other projects that I included in my portfolio are:
A documentary titled Sharon. This documentary promotes the work of contemporary painter Sharon Drew (www.sharondrew.com). For this project I was the camera operator; Fish a short film directed by Sam Burgoyne. Fish follows Louis, his father Roy and younger sister Lisa, on an unusual outing to give Louis beloved goldfish an ancient Egyptian sea burial. I was the producer; Angel a short film directed by Alex Steeves. It is about a jealous man who seeks revenge on his cheating wife. I was the sound assistant. Apart from my university projects I also worked as a camera operator for two other documentaries. One of them is a potential feature length documentary for Newsnight(BBC 2), it explores the relationship between Iran and the West in light of new presidential election in Iran. I filmed an interview with John Baron (MP) and Peter Oborne (journalist).
Another documentary that I am working on portrays the life of Suzie Birchwood, a dancing mentor who developed severe Dystonia while training for a career in ballet leaving her permanently disabled. Shakti Zapata, Rafael Bettega and I have been following her life for the past two years.
I am also working on a pilot with a Brazilian crew for a potential TV/Online comedy series based on the life of Brazilians in London.
While working on the above projects I received surprising news from Raversbourne Unversity, I was nominated for the annual Broadcast Advisory Board Award. This award aims to reward excellent personal skills demonstrated by undergraduates throughout their time at Ravensbourne. The prize for each of the three award winners is a personal high-level industry mentor in their own chosen field for the first six months after graduating. The final selection took place at Wall To Wall production company. The next day after the interview I received a voicemail saying that they need to talk to me about my interview and unfortunately when I called them back no one was there, so I had to wait one more day and had a sleepless night thinking of what would the answer be. It turned out that I had been awarded this fantastic opportunity and I feel very excited.
Three years of hard work studying and enjoying my student discounts has now come to an end. I am now ready and looking forward to start my career in the Film and TV industry.
Lets see what more life has to offer. Fingers crossed.