Film student Jack Brotherton says applying through Clearing revitalised his career plans after it led him to a place at Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Salisbury campus.
The 23-year-old, from Beckington near Trowbridge, had previously dropped out of a film degree at university because he felt it was not hands-on enough. Unsure what to do next, he discovered the BA (Hons) Film Production and Cinematography course through Clearing.
Within weeks of wondering whether he would have another opportunity to follow his filmmaking ambitions, Jack was learning how to load a celluloid Bolex camera and working on a Christopher Nolan-inspired chase story.
“It was a dream really,” he said. “I’d known that Christopher Nolan had made his first film with a Bolex and I was thinking, ‘It’s my first couple of weeks of a course that I didn’t even know existed a couple of weeks ago, and now I’m doing the same thing,’ so I was very grateful.”
The course covers all aspects of film production, including sound, editing, lighting and cinematography.
“It was such a last-minute thing to start the course but I’ll never regret it,” said Jack. “I feel like I’m learning to be a better filmmaker rather than learning about film as the subject.
“So for people who are interested in getting into the industry, I’d say this course is leaps and bounds above any of the other ones that I’ve read about or initially done.
“Clearing was very helpful and it never felt like I was ‘behind’. I’m very blessed to have taken the risk to go back to higher education because I’ve loved it so far.”
After completing two projects during his first year, Jack says he now feels able to describe himself as a filmmaker rather than simply an aspiring one.
“I can say I’m a filmmaker now, not just an aspiring filmmaker,” he said. “I have made a couple of films in my first year of uni, but it’s not just learning about how to be a filmmaker, the lecturers tell you what companies are looking for in portfolios and that gives you a lot of confidence as well.”
Jack said collaborating with fellow students and learning from lecturers including Kieron Evans and Tim Dodd had also given him valuable insight into the realities of working in the industry.
“I’m surrounded by people who have been on film sets,” he said. “You are around people who have brushed shoulders with legends of the industry, and they’ll tell you what people are looking out for, and more importantly, what they’re not looking out for.
“We’re taught to be upstanding, confident individuals, rather than egotistical maniacs and you quickly learn that if you want to work in the film industry, you want to be someone who people want to grab a beer with at the end of an 11-hour shoot.”
Jack says the course has also taught him more about himself as a creative.
“For all the great ideas you may have, it doesn’t mean anything unless you actually go and put the work in, unless you’re willing to show up and fall on your face and fail because failure is the front of success. It’s not the enemy.”
He is now looking forward to his second year and developing some of the ideas he has been working on over the summer.
“I think you learn more about yourself as a creative when you’re collaborating rather than when you’re just on your own,” he said.
“I think it would have been easy to just sit back and think, ‘Maybe I’ll take a year out,’ instead of going to Clearing but if it’s something you’re interested in, better now rather than a year’s time when stuff might have moved on or life might be a bit more difficult.”
