PRESS RELEASE 8.2.2013
LONDON FILM SCHOOL LAUNCHES INDEPENDENT FILM MASTERS PROGRAMME WITH UNIVERSITY OF EXETER STARTING SEPTEMBER 2013, APPOINTS ANGUS FINNEY AS COURSE LEADER.
Presents second edition of pan-European workshop Making Waves during Berlinale.
The London Film School announced in Berlin that it is open for applications for its new one-year Masters programme in Independent Film Business, a degree awarded by University of Exeter and taught in London and Exeter. Angus Finney former director of Renaissance Films, project manager of the Film London Production Finance Market, and author of The International Film Business: A Market Guide Beyond Hollywood, and a further four books on production, distribution and financing, has been appointed lead tutor on the programme alongside course co-ordinator Will Higbee of the University of Exeter.
The MA degree aims to equip students with a complete grounding in distribution history and structures, the entertainment value chain and international film markets. In addition, business tools for a career in independent film will be delivered by the Exeter Business School, incorporating visits to a major film festival, personal mentors and a final project in production or distribution built around LFS graduation work and independent film companies in London.
The producer Scott Meek will chair an Advisory Panel for Production studies at the London Film School, which will support teaching and mentorship on the MA Independent Film Business.
"This is a new kind of producers degree which also works for distributors, programmers, sales agents and business affairs executives" said LFS Director Ben Gibson, "It starts from the realisation that the producer's job is as much about markets and business as it is about material and shooting."
"The LFS and Exeter are offering a compelling, focussed and highly relevant course for future practitioners dedicated to a career in the independent film business," said Angus Finney. "Our ambition is to consistently populate the sector with some of the brightest and most informed players who grasp both current market demands and capture future value."
"The Masters programme aims to combine teaching expertise from world-class researchers in film and business studies at the University of Exeter, with the LFS's detailed knowledge of, and direct relationship to, the industry,” said Will Higbee. “Our students will benefit from a series of historical, theoretical and practical perspectives that will equip them with the right skills to succeed as the next generation of independent producers. We are proud and excited to be collaborating with the LFS on such a genuinely innovative Masters programme."
The LFS will be presenting the second edition of its pan-European workshop Making Waves during the Berlinale. Participants are from LFS, La Fémis, Paris, dffb Berlin, ESCAC Barcelona, the Theatre and Film Academy, Bucharest, the Wajda School, Warsaw and the Columbia University School of the Arts New York. It is funded by the EU Media Programme. Angus Finney will be presenting on a Making Waves session on current distribution and exhibition of film on the internet on the morning of Tuesday 12th February, together with Tom Dercourt of La Septième Salle and Defacto Films and Lucie Kalmar of Festivalscope and Mômerade.
www.makingwavesworkshop.eu
Finney will be available to talk to potential candidates for the degree and press during the festival.
More information on the programme at www.lfs.org.uk/courses/maifb
Further information; Kate Hughes
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www.lfs.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
The London Film School, founded in 1956, is one of the world's longest established graduate schools of filmmaking. It is constituted as an international conservatoire with 70% of its MA Filmmaking students coming from outside the UK. The School produces 160 films a year including work for the five teaching exercises on the MA Filmmaking. The School also offers MA degrees in Screenwriting and Independent Film Business (in partnership with University of Exeter) and Continuous Professional Development courses as LFS Workshops. LFS graduates (Associates) are established in film and television production in more than eighty countries. Associates include world-renowned filmmakers covering all kinds of cinema - names like Mike Leigh, Michael Mann, Tak Fujimoto, Roger Pratt, Ueli Steiger, Iain Smith, Duncan Jones, Danny Huston, Franc Roddam, Ann Hui, Marius Holst, Oliver Hermanus and Bill Douglas.
LFS is one of three Creative Skillset Film Academies, postgraduate institutions approved by the UK film industry as centres of excellence.
The University of Exeter is a leading UK university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter is ranked 9th in The Sunday Times University Guide, 10th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2012 and 11th in the Guardian University Guide 2012. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University’s research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has over 17,000 students and is developing its campuses in Exeter and Cornwall with almost £350 million worth of new facilities due for completion by 2012.
Angus Finney is a leading international film and creative industry specialist. His work includes risk management for Octopus Media, part of Octopus Investments – a £1.5bn City of London fund manager; MBA-level teaching at The Judge Business School, Cambridge University and Cass Business School, City University, London, and he is the producer of Europe’s only Production Finance Market, hosted by Film London. Finney was managing director of Renaissance Films from 1999-2005 where he oversaw financing and sales.
Finney’s fourth and most recent book is: The International Film Business – A Market Guide Beyond Hollywood (Routledge) was published in May 2010. A second edition will be published in 2013. Finney has personally trained more than 800 film producers, company executives and students since 2005, and delivered master classes and lectures at Judge, Cass, Grenoble and Copenhagen Business Schools over the past five years.
