RTS Wales Centre Student Television Awards 2013

Animation Winner: Jasmin Hedger

Awards Ceremony

Friday, 21 March, 2014

Above: The Animation winner, Jasmin Hedger, with Tim Hartley

Jury Citation: RTS Wales Centre Student Television Awards, 2013

 
Introduction

The following Members of the RTS Wales Centre Jury panel met at S4C on the 6th December 2013:

Tim Hartley, Chairman, RTS Wales Centre
Mike Talbot, Series Editor, Wales This Week, ITV Cymru Wales
Sioned Wyn Roberts, Content Commissioner, Education and Children's Programmes, S4C
Zoe Rushton, Producer, BBC Wales
Greg William Bevan, Lecturer, Aberystwyth University
Tessa Hughes, Producer, Modern Television
Hywel Wiliam, RTS Wales Centre Administrator

In all, 17 entries were received covering the four competition categories, although the Jury decided that the two Entertainment entries had been incorrectly classified and consequently no award was made in this category.  Taking account of the re-allocation of these two productions to other categories, there were five entries each in the Factual and Fiction categories with seven in the Animation category.  The merger of the University of Glamorgan and Newport University to form the University of South Wales meant that almost all the entries this year came from this new institution, with only one other entry received from Bangor University, in the Factual category.  Although they were disappointed that a greater range of universities in Wales did not submit entries, the Jury Members were nevertheless greatly impressed with the very high standard evident in the programmes and short animations submitted which demonstrated a mastery of technical and production techniques. 

The RTS Awards are for student television productions that show outstanding visual and aural creativity, a mastery of craft skill, innovation and initiative.  Productions should also take account of the requirements of broadcast television and the Jury Members based their decisions mainly on these criteria.

This year our Awards were presented on the 21st March, as part of the Zoom International Youth Film Festival.  The festival is Wales’s largest film event for young people, organised for and with children and young people.  It was held in five venues across the South Wales valleys from the 17th - 21st March 2014.

(Pictured left with Tim Hartley are Miranda Ballin, Chair of the Board of Directors of Zoom, and Huw Owen, member of the Board of Trustees at Zoom.)

 

Winners

Factual: Neringa Medutyte, Arnoldas Alubauskas, Liam Dowler

Title: Twogether
Nominees:
Plas Hedd
Sons of Pioneers

There were five entries in this category including one entry, Plas Hedd, submitted by Bangor University with all other entries submitted by the University of Wales, Newport.  Twogether was an accomplished documentary set in post-Soviet Lithuania, which featured the remarkable lives of two brothers with Down's Syndrome, who had developed their own language.  The Jury members were very impressed with the effective editing and camera work evident in the production and its confident observational style.  Sons of Pioneers included some amusing insights into the lives of children living in an alternative community, although the Jury thought it required more work and felt somewhat unfinished, while Plas Hedd offered a moving, if at times rather depressing, account of life in a north Wales old people's home.  However while the production was competently produced the Jury felt that some of the interviews included in the programme might have benefitted from some tighter editing in places.

Trailer for Twogether on YouTube

Twogether was nominated for an RTS UK Award.  It was also shortlisted for a Ffresh Award in February 2015.

Fiction: Gareth Jones, Mitchell Thomas, Jo Hazell, Peter Colleran, Sally Dixon, Ben Kelloway

Title: San Serif on Red
Nominees:
Home Guard
Fat Boy

There were five entries in this category, all submitted by the University of South Wales.  Jury Members were very impressed by the originality of San Serif on Red, which featured a simple well told story about an aspiring graphic designer working during the Second World War and how he came to produce one of the period's most iconic poster slogans.  Home Guard was also set during the second world war and featured some impressive period detail but the Jury felt the story line about an escaped German prisoner was too conventional.  Similarly, Fat Boy included some charming performances but some of its narrative elements were less convincing. 

San Serif on Red on Vimeo

Animation: Jasmin Hedger

Title: Dr Mandala
Nominees:
Showtime
Fishing for the Future

All seven entries in this category came from the University of South Wales.  The Jury thought that Showtime featured some well executed sequences, strong sound design and some successful touches of humour although its narrative was slightly unclear and not fully developed.  Fishing for the Future had a very distinctive and well executed 50s style of animation but the Jury felt that as the piece developed and changed in style it lost some of the clarity and vision displayed in the opening sections.  However, the Jury agreed that Dr Mandala was a very original and inventive animation, making good use of colour and sound with some striking character designs and particularly well executed stop frame sequences. 

Dr Mandala on Vimeo

Congratulations to the three winners.  As you have read in the introduction, we take our Awards seriously, and don't give them lightly.

Entertainment

The Jury decided that neither of the two entries submitted qualified for consideration in this category and these were re-allocated as follows: Operation Spartan to Factual, and Leaving, to Fiction. Therefore no award was made in this category.

All of this year's winning entries were submitted by the University of South Wales.

The winners were announced at the Zoom International Youth Film Festival, which was held from 17th - 21st March 2014.

The first prize winner in each category was submitted for judging at the UK final of the RTS Student Television Awards, which was held in London on the 16th May.