Jury Duty (RTS Student Awards edition)

I recently had the opportunity to be on an awards jury, for the Royal Television Society's student awards. I had some experience of the awards themselves, having had films from my studies at the NFTS nominated the 2009 awards in the drama, animation, and entertainment categories of the postgraduate section.

This year, additional "craft" awards were added for the first time. Out of all of the nominations in drama, animation, documentary, entertainment, and "free" categories there would be awards for editing, camera, and sound. It was these awards that we would be judging, from amongst the nominations (3 in each category) in the undergraduate section. To get nominated in the national awards, they had already come top of their regional heats in their respective categories.
 

We were sent DVDs for each of the categories, along with the entry forms for each of the submissions- giving brief information about the production, target audience, crew, budget, etc; and asked to view all films before a half-day meeting in person with the other jurors.

This done, we met up at the RTS offices in central London. There were people with professional experience spanning the craft categories we were judging, who had generally worked across at least two of the categories that were submitted. We'd all made our own notes, and were ready to debate until we reached a decision on our top 3 - from which we would then do a blind vote to determine the winner who would be announced on the night of the awards.


Two common complaints from editors about judging editing from editors are that:

- Nobody understands what we do, and 'flashy' editing (with lots of cutting and/or non-linear narrative) is disproportionately rewarded because it seems more difficult. *

- It's very difficult to judge editing at all, since (in most mediums) we are restricted to the dailies that we receive.**

.... and this does prove true a lot of the time. Being given the opportunity to discuss criteria and my thoughts on which films were perhaps more skillful than others was wonderful, and keeping the above points in mind from past discussions I've had and heard on podcasts whilst not letting them turn me against any of the films for those reasons alone was an interesting experience.

The best part for me was how passionately some of the films were argued for. These were student films, and we really got into it in some cases - there were definitely some clear favourites for us all, and debate for and against in almost all cases. The submissions sheets were pulled out when we were debating some queries but mostly it ended up being gut instinct and emotional response. I was surprised by some of the things my fellow jurors liked and didn't like; and I'm sure the same applies to my responses to some films. Different topics were an obvious splitting point - a film which affected one juror deeply for one reason or another may have left another completely unaffected. But also the craft skills that we were awarding: what blew one person away and was a clear winner for them in one of the awards, under debate, may not have even been nominated once everyone had had their say. I was also happy that we were all able to consider the animation, drama, documentary, and other categories on a level playing field - no entry was disqualified because of its category, and I think the nominations reflect that.
 

After the three nominations (out of the 15 films across the categories) were made for each award, we immediately voted so as to keep all of the points of the debate fresh in our heads before moving on to the next category. We then had to narrow down some wording for each nomination to be used to laud the eventual winner.
 

It's definitely a worthwhile experience to be on an awards jury, if only to have reason to watch some short films and to debate their merits with other industry professionals.

I was sadly unable to attend the awards ceremony hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and meet the film-makers, but I was able to find out the winners and view some highlights of the main awards, below:

 

Royal Television Society Student Awards 2014: Undergraduate Craft Skills

Camerawork

Skunky Dog

James Fitzgerald, Paddy Slattery and Team

The National Film School, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire

“The winner’s cinematography lifted what was a normal slice of life into something interesting and intimate. There were clever choices when it came to composition and framing, thus truly supporting the context and storyline. The exterior scenes on the hill were particularly breathtaking and intelligently executed.”

Nominees:

Shoot

Rory Conway, Sammy Khalid, David Slattery and Kieran Noone

Ballyfermot College of Further Education

Sunday Dinner with the Morgans

Alex Forbes, Jack Pollington and Allan Armstrong

University for the Creative Arts, Farnham

Editing

Porters

James Dougan, Max Cutting and Dan Ridgeon

University of South Wales

“Crafting an ambitious, concise and well-structured programme from a number of varied characters within the hospital setting, it really showed the craft of editing as the vital part of storytelling it is.”

Nominees:

Skunky Dog

James Fitzgerald, Paddy Slattery and Team

The National Film School, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire

Sunday Dinner with the Morgans

Alex Forbes, Jack Pollington and Allan Armstrong

University for the Creative Arts, Farnham

Sound

Archie

Sophie Piggott

Staffordshire University

“Displaying film-quality sound design, a real flair for imaginative processing and mixing…it was clear there had been a passionate and collaborative dialogue between the sound team and the director; real quality choices were made throughout the whole process. Above all else, the sound used was a perfect example of the obvious heart and soul that had gone into every aspect of the film. We’ll never look at tin foil in the same way again.”

Nominees:

Skunky Dog

James Fitzgerald, Paddy Slattery and Team

The National Film School, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire

Thick Skin

Despina Christodoulou and Robert Dalton

University of Leeds

RTS Student Awards 2014 Highlight Reel - view the playlist of available submissions here

* I have nothing against either of these - when applied well to enhance the film's story and emotion, and told coherently

** One of my favourite parts of animation - this doesn't apply. Whole scenes can be added at animatic stage with minimal overall disruption.