Two students from Bournemouth University have had their final projects shortlisted at this year’s Prix Europa awards.
Matthew Cooper and Anna Lozian are students of BA (Hons) Media Production and have each created ambitious pieces of work as part of their final year unit, Graduate Project Production.
In this unit, students create a project which is the culmination of all the things they learned during their time at BU. Following a negotiated learning agreement with their tutors, the students are free to create any type of media project they would like.
These may be traditional formats such as fiction film and radio documentary or alternatively formats that combine many different media, such as interactive audio-visual installations. Students are paired up with supervisors who support them with one-to-one sessions, specifically tailored to their particular choice.
Dr Evi Karathanasopoulou has led the unit for three years and in that time it has seen substantial international and national successes, including student artwork being presented to an audience of 10,000 people in Thessaloniki, Greece.
This year, Dr Karathanasopoulou entered the work of two of her own supervisory students, Cooper’s Refracted Mindscape and Lozian’s inspirare, into the high-profile Prix Europa Competition.
Prix Europa awards the best European television, radio and online productions with the aim of publicising them and supporting their continental distribution and use.
For the first time, the event – attended by around 1,000 media professionals each year – has established a Digital Media Rising Stars category, specifically for students. Both of BU's nominations have been shortlisted for the award this year.
Cooper, Lozian and Dr Karathanasopoulou have been invited to a five-day event in Berlin, Germany, where they will present the work in front of a panel of important media professionals from around Europe, engage with the work of others and attend the awards ceremony.
Dr Karathanasopoulou said: “I am extremely proud of our two students. I am really looking forward to attending the event in Berlin where we get to present the work in front of a jury and meet with major media stakeholders from around Europe, such as BBC, ARTE and RAI. We will also be taking part as Jury for other categories.”
Cooper’s work, Refracted Mindscape, is a binaural audio installation piece, with visual elements, which explores the complicated mind of someone with multiple personalities and how they live with it day to day.
Lozian’s piece, inspirare, is a short experimental film in which audio is the main carrier of narrative, with animation and other visuals being secondary. The main themes in the film are inspiration, friendship and choosing one’s own path in life and in creativity.
For more information on Prix Europa, visit their website.
