Student and Alumni News and Feedback
Amy Fletcher
From the Foundation course at Oxford Brookes, my practise has completely shifted from that which it was during a-level, despite remaining under the category of ‘Fine Art’. I have been encouraged to experiment in a broad range of different media and artistic processes and will be going onto degree with an emphasis on film and installation- an area I did not have the opportunity to try until being on this course.
Posted on 02 May 2012 around 3pm
Filed Under Foundation Art and Design
Tom Treasure - Film Studies Alumni
Tom Treasure (here with Production Designer Sandy Burton-Davies) working as Key 2nd AD on the independent project Zora's Quest in New Zealand
Aptly titled “An Unexpected Journey”, “There and Back Again” a Hobbits tale and my middle earth and post Oxford Brookes adventures.
It would be fair to describe 2010, my final year of Oxford Brookes, as one of the busiest but rewarding years to date. While trying to complete my studies and earn myself that piece of paper that says “you’ve done it” I was splitting my time between getting my head down and working on two of that year’s biggest pictures in the form of Spielberg’s UK-based Amblin Entertainment production, War Horse and the Marvel Studios comic book adaptation Captain America: The First Avenger.
Posted on 29 Mar 2012 around 9pm
Filed Under Film Studies
Eliza Walter - Art and Design Foundation
Eliza Walter
I was drawn back to Oxford Brookes to study at Foundation level after completing the portfolio preparation course. The best thing about being at Brookes is the friendly and welcoming staff that seem genuinely interesting, as well as extremely knowledgeable and instructive.
Posted on 14 Mar 2012 around 10am
Filed Under Foundation Art and Design
Frederick Gillingham writes about work on Oxide Radio
ER (Hospital Radio)
ER is our radio film review show which airs live every Tuesday from 10am to 11am catering for audiences at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. The hour long slot serves primarily to inform listeners of the current releases showing in Oxford cinemas, in-particular what’s on at The Ultimate Picture-Palace and The Phoenix Picture-house. The shows aims are to not only recommend patients films to see or not to see but also to transport patients into the passionate world of cinema through our team of dedicated film fanatics. The shows don't stop short of the contemporary stuff, we also cover a wide range of early art-house and classical with a small bit of celebrity gossip as well! There’s something for everyone. We also do give inspiration for films that suit certain occasions, whether it’s a weekend watch, a date movie or if you've got real morbid curiosity during your stay at hospital why not space out to a Cronenberg or a Lynchian piece!
I feel this radio show is a valid experience which gives me an opportunity to express what I’m most passionate about and it’s also beneficial in the sense that it keeps me on the ball with all the latest and oldest films. I’m also happy that I’m working with a group who are all equally passionate in all areas of cinema, people who only watch mainstream junk can do one!
Film Therapy
Film Therapy is our weekly radio show which airs every Wednesday for Oxford University radio. The show is a in-depth analysis of the latest releases being shown in Oxford with particular reference to The Phoenix Picture-house and The Ultimate Picture Palace as these are two locations which especially cater for Oxford students (not like we take sides but the UPP is legitimate independent!) so we do our best to give them promotion. The content of our shows may range each week, one week we may have interviews with prominent people in the film world, others we may dissect the masterful work of Fellini, each show will have a specific theme which will influence our shows thereby making it a diverse and expansive look at cinema. Oxford university as we know has a wide collection of intellectuals from differing ages and places, the show will cater for this audience by covering a range of genres, national cinemas, eras and directors. I feel this show will be more of a test because the audience is more substantial and potentially highly knowledgeable on our topics, the next Ken Loach doesn’t want some monotone Brookes student giving him a lowdown on what he reckons realism is...He wants someone who knows what they’re talking about, clear, passionate, interesting...basically myself and the team, we kick ass!
Posted on 13 Mar 2012 around 2pm
Filed Under Film Studies Work Placements
Benjamin Hulett
Ben in the role of the Novice in Britten’s Billy Budd, Hamburg
Benjamin Hulett is following the pathway ‘Music in Nineteenth-Century Culture’ and pur-suing his academic studies alongside an international career as a professional opera singer and concert soloist. Ben writes: Having previously studied as an undergraduate at the Uni-versity of Oxford and com-pleted three years of voca-tional study on the opera training course at the Guild-hall School of Music and Drama, I felt that I had a large gap in my knowledge of nine-teenth-century music history and musicological debate, having focussed on early mu-sic and performance tech-niques. By taking MA mod-ules in nineteenth-century music and opera studies, I hope to develop a more rounded knowledge with which to colour my performances.
Posted on 20 Jan 2012 around 12pm
Brett Gordon
Brett Gordon is following the pathway in ‘Contemporary Practice in Composition’ and won a Santander Scholarship to fund his studies. Brett writes: Prior to University I had spent more than twenty years as a professional session musician and playing in bands with whom I released records and toured all around the world. I studied for my BA (Music) here at Brookes. I wanted to stay at Brookes for my MA as I had en-joyed my first degree so much, but also because the pathway ‘Contemporary Practice in Com-position’ was exactly the route I wanted to follow and the staff are all experts in their particular fields. With the help and references from two of my lecturers I was lucky enough to win a San-tander Scholarship which allowed me to achieve my goal of studying for the MA.
Posted on 20 Jan 2012 around 12pm
Filed Under Scholarship and Funding • Music • MA Music
Christabel Stirling
Christabel Stirling is following the pathway in ‘Music and Popular Culture’ and won a prestigious AHRC scholarship.
Christabel writes: I came to Brookes straight after finishing my undergraduate de-gree in Music at King’s College London, having spent some time considering my MA options. The MA in Popular Music and Culture at Brookes became my first choice for a number of reasons: I very much wanted to embark upon a rigorous popular music studies programme, in contrast to the more classical musicologi-cal training I received at King’s; in particular, I was attracted to Brookes’ prestigious Sonic Art Research Unit which conducts some extremely forward-thinking research, relating closely to my own interests in contemporary soundscapes, and the intersection between music, space and place. In addition, both the MA Music course, and the staff attached to the faculty at Brookes, seemed to foreground cross-disciplinary practice, striving toward a syn-thesis between creative an
Posted on 20 Jan 2012 around 12pm
Filed Under Scholarship and Funding • Music • MA Music
Sophie Kingston-Smith - Film Studies
The best thing about studying Film Studies at Brookes is the number of options open to you – you can tailor-make your course around your skills and preferences. If you want a hands-on education in film, there are many practical courses that teach you the technicalities of filming and editing, or you could weight your course around the academia and theory behind film, learning about its progression and its development in different cultures. I chose a combined course with Psychology with the intention of keeping my options open.
Posted on 28 Nov 2011 around 11am
Filed Under Film Studies
Lee Mathers - BA Music
Lee is currently working as a development manager for a community charity in west London.
This is what he says about studying music at Brookes:
The whole course was great, good mix of lecturers, nice building and Oxford is really cultural, you can find nearly every style of music there.
Posted on 02 Nov 2010 around 7pm
Filed Under Music
Andrew Oliver - BA Music
Andrew is currently working as Head of Expressive Arts Faculty at Our Lady’s RC High School in Manchester.
This is what he says about studying music at Brookes:
The best thing about studying music at Brookes was being involved with all the live music making opportunities such as CHAOS, Fortune Players, Soul Band etc. and of course making some great friendships.
Posted on 02 Nov 2010 around 7pm
Filed Under Music